[Verse 1: Roaring roots-rock male lead, grit and weight] Lightning hit the hayloft on a Tuesday in the fall Amos stood out in his boots and watched it take it all Eighty-one years old with a hip that won't behave Fifty years of raising barns and not a dollar saved Never took a nickel, never sent a single bill Just asked for a plate of supper and a seat on the windowsill Now he's standing in the ashes with his hat against his chest And the county heard about it, and the county did the rest [Chorus: Roaring roots-rock male lead, roaring] Raise it by dark, we owe you the frame Every board in this county got your name Hammers up, boys, the sky's turning to rain Raise it by dark, we owe you the frame [Verse 2: Roaring roots-rock male lead, five a.m. trucks] Five a.m. on Saturday, the headlights up the lane Flatbeds full of lumber, twenty pickups in a chain Millers brought the rafters, he raised theirs in a drought Ochoas brought the siding, he raised theirs when the creek came out Forty families on the ridge, and every one of us Stood in a barn he built when we were broke and full of dust Two hundred people working and the sawdust in the air And Amos in a folding chair, saying, y'all ain't got to be here [Chorus: Roaring roots-rock male lead, roaring] Raise it by dark, we owe you the frame Every board in this county got your name Hammers up, boys, the sky's turning to rain Raise it by dark, we owe you the frame [Bridge: Roaring roots-rock male lead, forty-hammer hit, forty hammers landing together] Lift it Hold it Now Lift it Hold it Now [Verse 3: Roaring roots-rock male lead, at dark, full voice] Last light on the ridge and the walls are standing tall Fresh red paint still wet on the gable and the wall Millers' kid climbs down and puts a nail into his palm Says, Mister Kerr, you finish it, and the whole field goes calm Old man climbs the ladder with two neighbors at his back Drives it home in three swings and the whole crowd cracks Then the rain comes down on two hundred people cheering in the mud And a barn that's made of fifty years of borrowed sweat and blood [Final Chorus: Roaring roots-rock male lead, roaring] Raise it by dark, we owe you the frame Every board in this county got your name Hammers up, boys, the sky's turning to rain Raise it by dark, we owe you the frame [End]
