Dig Where You Stand

Lyrics — written by hand

Low light, cheap chair, one pencil
Line it up, line it up

I came up on a block where the gravel had stories
Concrete kept the record and it never once said sorry
Momma on the late shift, me up on a notebook
Traded a Walkman for a dictionary, took the whole book
Every word a shovel, every bar a little bucket
Pull a little up daily, never mind them if they doubted
They was chasing the glitter, I was learning the mineral
Know the difference: flashing ain't the same as visible
Ain't no crown in the mailbox, ain't no wire from a cousin
Just a hand and a hollow and a will to keep coming
So I set my table down where the ore was already
Right beneath my own two shoes, heavy but steady
It ain't glamorous labor, it's a knuckle and a struggle
But the earth answer honest when you come to it humble

Dig where you stand, let the ground do the talking
Lead in the pencil is the gold I've been hauling
No map in my hand, just a low road walking
Dig where you stand, hear the deep water calling

They keep asking me how long till a record go golden
I say check on the clock, then go check on the omen
Everybody want the harvest, nobody want the winter
Nobody want the cold hands, nobody want the splinter
I spent years on a mattress with a bulb and a notebook
Turning coal-dark evenings into something a soul took
Now the young ones is asking for the shortcut version
Brother, ain't no elevator running down to the certain
What you dig for is yours, what they hand you is rented
Fool's gold in the window, real gold in the sediment
So I teach what I learned in the dark of that basement
Everything with weight to it got a slow arrangement
Put your name in the ground before you put it on a billboard
That's the only kind of shine that the wind ain't killed for

Dig where you stand, let the ground do the talking
Lead in the pencil is the gold I've been hauling
No map in my hand, just a low road walking
Dig where you stand, hear the deep water calling

Lead don't argue, lead just waits
Sits in the dark till a hand rotates
Every heavy thing was a light thing first
Every song I got started as a thirst

Dig where you stand, let the ground do the talking
Lead in the pencil is the gold I've been hauling
No map in my hand, just a low road walking
Dig where you stand, hear the deep water calling

Dig where you stand
Ground gonna answer, take your time