From the recording Sins and Promises
Lyrics
Salt of the Earth
In the legacy of dirt farmers
Just living off the land
He was latest in the line
Of strong backs and calloused hands
Embracing honest work and racing with the sun
He toiled with the soil
Before the day’d begun
Dirt beneath his nails
His labor never done
Working with his hands and racing with the sun
Ooh ooh
You know what he’s worth
The salt of the earth
Well it’s his time to rest
Lord knows he didn’t when he was here
The furrow of his brow
Now matched the furrows of the fields
No matter how hard he worked the earth
could not improve his yields
Was it the aging of the man
Or a changing of the times?
Ooh ooh
Alone with the farmland
Wife and his kin
That’s where his whole life
Both ends and begins
He’s now beneath the soil
That he once toiled on
Dawn breaks the morning
too broken to face the sun
You know what he’s worth
Now he’s the salt in the earth
Well it’s his time to rest,
Lord knows he didn’t when he was here