Tunnel Club Video (MV)

There was fifty years between us but that vanished in a flash
As he sat beside the fireplace telling stories from his past
And I could see into his eyes with all the embers glowing red
So I poured another glass and lived on every word he said

And he said when I was young
I went across the South sticking out my thumb
Life along the road can be tough
But running from that train is how I ended up
In the tunnel club

He thumbed his way to Oklahoma where he looked to harvest wheat
But the crews had hired their workers and he was back out on the street
With no prospects for a job he finally had to turn around
He stuck his thumb out pointing East and laid his suitcase on the ground

He fought some drunks along the highway who had given him a ride
They tried to shake him down for money until he pulled his bowie knife
He hitched a ride to West Virginia with a trucker hauling beans
He got out in an apple orchard and took a nap among the trees

And this was when he was young
Very far from home sticking out his thumb
And life along the road can be tough
But running from that train is how he ended up
In the tunnel club

And a salesman picked him up along the way
And gave him a clean shirt and a room where he could stay
And over drinks and dinner stories were told
Of a club you could join if you were so bold

There was a tunnel through the mountain where the railroad passes through
It emerges in Kentucky and here's what you had to do
You ran from one side to the other in the darkness of the night
Turn around and make it back through to the West Virginia side

Well that tunnel was just down the road and he went with the crowd
They were halfway through that mountain when they heard the whistle sound
And with that engine breathing down their necks they made it out alive
Jumping out into the freedom of the West Virginia night

There is a time to run into the light, a time to run away
There is a time to stick your thumb out and a time when you should stay
And back home in Carolina by the embers glowing red
I set my empty glass aside and lived on every word he said

And he said when I was young
I went across the South sticking out my thumb
Life along the road can be tough
But running from that train is how I ended up
In the tunnel club