#Quabbin #singersongwriter #Massachusetts

The Last Night of Dana (Eddie Biggins)

Jacob's harmonica sang plaintively low The saddest song he'd ever know While Joshua's fiddle and Annie's guitar played along Each note hung in the air like drizzling rain The mist of memory, hope and pain The neighbors embraced as they swayed to an old favorite song

[chorus] And with most of the populace already gone And the last few stragglers packed up to move on The band kept on playing right up until dawn On the last night of Dana

Silent, the laborers heard all the sobs But times were hard, men needed jobs For most of them there was no choice but to take what they could Although they sympathized with their neighbors' plight All had grown too tired to fight And Jacob, he played for them, nodding like he understood

[chorus]

The state came along and took over their land To build the new reservoir So four little towns were displaced by the waters

Finally everyone said their goodbyes With heartfelt hugs and heavy sighs Before they disbanded, heading their separate ways Jacob, he paused a bit and looked all around And in his heart he heard no sound So he stopped playing for all of the rest of his days

[chorus] (with new last lines:) On the last night of Enfield And the last night of Greenwich And the last night of Prescott And the last night of Dana