Joel Hurt: The Wires That Led Us East

Lyrics

[Intro]
Mr. Hurt, did you stand on a hill, looking east from the city?
See past the red clay, the stands of tall pine?
Did you hear a sound that wasn't there yet?

[Verse 1]
Just a map on your desk in the gaslight's soft gleam.
A line drawn in ink, chasing a dream.
From Terminus out, a new way to think, a new way to be.
Eighteen eighty-nine, a self-taught man with a steady hand.
You saw a grid where others just saw land.
A promise to pull a future from the quiet stillness.

[Chorus]
And the wires you strung, they sang a new electric tune.
A copper nerve beneath the Georgia moon.
A spark in the dark, a low, steady hum in the air.
You drew us a home out of nothing but prayer and a share.
The lines that led us east.

[Verse 2]
The gangs laid the steel, spikes driven deep in the grade.
Stretched the copper veins for the bargain you made.
And the first Georgia Railway car lurched with a shudder and groan.
Down the spine of Edgewood Avenue, a new seed had been sown.
The scent of ozone on the breeze, mingling with the fresh-cut trees.
Polished wooden seats waiting for the first families.

[Chorus]
And the wires you strung, they sang a new electric tune.
A copper nerve beneath the Georgia moon.
A spark in the dark, a low, steady hum in the air.
You drew us a home out of nothing but prayer and a share.
The lines that led us east.

[Bridge]
A century turns, and the wires are gone now.
But the path that you cut remains here somehow.
It's in the angle of the streets, in the cadence of the summer rains.
It's in the deep front porches of the bungalows, easing their pains.
We still follow the grid you laid in the dirt.
We still live in the vision of Joel Hurt.

[Outro]
Just a line on a map...
A hum in the air...
That led us east.
That led us home.