When The Whistle Blows

My name is Jamie Found
I work underground
About a mile below the streets of my hometown
I had a young man's dreams
But today it seems
Those dreams will all be broken by a lonesome sound

Chorus:

When the whistle blows, when the whistle blows
For the last time in a long time I suppose
Said she'd never close, but everybody knows
It's time to leave the mine when the whistle blows

I got a pretty wife
Love of my life
I ain't never gave her nothin' but strain and strife
She had a young girl's dreams
But today it seems
That whistle's gonna cut those dreams like a long cold knife

(Chorus)

I got an achin' back
And a heart that's cracked
A pair of boots and a miner's helmet in a dirty sack
Got my last payday
And the prayer I pray
Is it's enough to get me outta town on a one-way track

(Chorus)


I don't know anything about going down in a mine, or what it must be like to have your life laid out for you by the time you reach manhood. But I've got a sense of how it feels to have watched all your dreams slip away.

This song is probably the best-known song that no one knows I wrote... Aengus Finnan used to play it a lot. One of my songwriting highlights was watching him play it with Trevor Mills and Davd Rogers at Folk Harbour in Lunenburg.

He played it with a different backing band that included Clayton Yates on Breakfast Television once as well. I have fond memories of getting the royalty cheque for that one.