I was traveling
Through Greenbrier County
Where the strangest
Sign I did see
Black dust men
From the mine filled barroom
Back to the whistle blows
At the limestone quarry
The doves and the crows
They live there together
Each man wears his work on
His shirt and his face
I've heard what folks say
About birds of a feather
But in Greenbrier County
The stone and the coal
They stick just the same

If you're born here in Greenbrier County
That old man at the bar said to me
You can live like a worm in the mountain
Or you can singe and burn
Under the white sun's fury
Half the men here in Greenbrier County
Wear stone chalk over a leathery hide
All the rest are pale as moonlight
When they wash away the dark of the mine
The doves and the crows, they live there together
Each man wears his work on his shirt and his face
I've heard what folks say about birds of a feather
But in Greenbrier County, the stone and the coal
They stick just the same
If you're ever in Greenbrier County
Measure out each man's crooked stride
Dust may seem like a small thing to carry
Until your body caves under the hard mountainside
The doves and the crows, they live there together
Each man wears his work on his shirt and his face
I've heard what folks say about birds of a feather
But in Greenbrier County, the stone and the coal
They stick just the same