So I wrote this Bluegrass song Saturday, March 22. I plan to make a video of me singing it for you in the very near future, but I wanted to share the lyrics with you today.
I managed to work some local geography into this one. “Tunnel Hill” is just east of Rosine, less than a mile I’d say.
It gets its name from the fact that the train used to travel through a tunnel under one of the highest hills in the area before heading on to Elizabethtown or Louisville. If you go online to wckyhistory-genealogy.org, you’ll find where author Jerry Long compiled a history of Rosine.
Two sources he included, among others, were The Kentucky Encyclopedia, edited by John E. Kleber and Fogle’s Papers: a History of Ohio County, Ky by McDowell A. Fogle.
Construction of the railroad began in 1871. One of the leaders of that project was Colonel Henry D. McHenry. His wife Jenny published a book of poems titled Forget Me Not. Guess what her pen name was…that’s right, ROSINE!
The town, which in 1872 had been called Pigeon Roost, was officially named Rosine in 1873.
Anyway, Col. McHenry, who among other things was a coal man and a U.S. Congressman, was influential in getting the railroad built through Rosine.
As I said earlier, when the railroad was built it went through a tunnel just east of Rosine. That area to this day is called Tunnel Hill.
Folks may remember when some local gentlemen, Jeff Morris and Elmer Daugherty included, named their Bluegrass band Tunnel Hill. I apologize for not remembering all the members. It’s been many years since they disbanded.
Sometime between 1871 and now, the tunnel was blasted away so the tracks could run through a cut in Tunnel Hill.
I remember as a kid, me and Jeff’s brother Roger Morris climbing the cliffs on either side of the tracks ‘til perched on a ledge up under the Hwy 505 bridge and tossing small rocks into the rail cars filled with black Kentucky coal as they passed. We were such outlaws! Lol!
Roger and I were best men at each others’ weddings. He died from cancer in January of 2018. He was still young at 50. I still think about him quite often and miss him dearly.
The song…since I put a railroad and train in this new composition, I was able to incorporate Tunnel Hill. So here it is, “Color Me Black.”
Now, blue, it’s my favorite color
But I’m ponderin’ on switchin’ to black
For ever since you left me, Darlin’
I’m slummin’ by the railroad tracks
Those big locomotives black as the coal
They burn up like you burned me down
To hear ‘em come rumblin’ up old Tunnel Hill
Sure paints some sad on my brow
Color me black, black as the night
You walked out and brought on this pain
Color me black, black as these clouds
Pourin’ your memory in rain
Whatever happened to blue skies
When we were together in spring
Along came the doldrums of winter
When, Darlin’, you changed everything
If ever I find another Darlin’
I might go from black back to blue
But that blue won’t ever be pretty
As it was when my Darlin’ was you
Oh, color me black, black as the night
You walked out and brought on this pain
Color me black, black as these clouds
Pourin’ your memory in rain
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