Wheelbarrow Johnny
From the hills of Pennsylvane
Across the Ohio
As far as the southern bend
Of the muddy old Saint Joe
To build a home
A blacksmith and his family of nine
In the days we’ve come to know as forty-nine
Shoeing horses building wagons for the road
He taught his sons to build a wheelbarrow
Oh that wheelbarrow you're gonna roll
There's one in every crowd
Sown with the wild oats
And Johnny was the one
Who said he had to go
I'm leaving home
Well his pappy pleaded stay with us and work
And his momma cried you don't know what is worth
Sewing sixteen silver dollars in his belt
One for every year his youth could tell
Oh that wheelbarrow you're gonna roll
Chorus
And it's roll Johnny roll
Roll across the plains
And it's ride Johnny ride
Don't hold back on the reins
There's gold Johnny gold
Off in the Hangtown hills
And you'll sail home around Cape Horn
With your pockets lined with gold
He landed in the Promised Land
In what's now called Placerville
Though then it was known as Hangtown
For the dreams that it had killed
I miss my home
These city slickers don't know 'bout the land
They don't know how to work with their hands
Sifting for the gold through the sand
Gambling and stealing all they can
Oh that wheelbarrow you're going to roll
His fingers to the bone
His belly filled with stone
He never found the gold
He sold off all he owned
I'm heading home
You only own what you carry in your soul
And I'm carrying the weight of "told you so"
When this man said by chance you wouldn't know
How to build me a strong wheelbarrow
Oh that wheelbarrow you're going to roll
Before the first was done
Word had gotten 'round
He had to build one now
For every man in town
This ain't my home
But a friend is made fast with good work
Giving more than you promise in worth
The one place he never looked for the gold
He sold fifty thousand dollars worth of wheelbarrows
Oh that wheelbarrow you're going to roll
Now gold is where you find it
Before you know it's spent
And a windfall's like a rainfall
You don't know where it went
I'm working home
But a gambler's got to learn how to work
And a worker's got to gamble all he's worth
Now Johnny rides around with presidents
While you're still worrying how to pay the rent
Oh that wheelbarrow you're going to roll
Oh that wheelbarrow you're made of gold