Sixteen Tons is a folk song written by Merle Travis about a coal miner in the mines of Rosewood, Kentucky. Travis recorded it on August 8, 1946 at Radio Recorders Studio B in Hollywood, with Cliffie Stone on bass, and it was released in July 1947 on Capitol Records as part of the album Folk Songs of the Hills. The song tells of life under the truck system and debt bondage, with the famous lines “I owe my soul to the company store” and “another day older and deeper in debt” tied to a letter from Travis’s brother. The title refers to the practice of new miners being kept at sixteen tons on their first day. Merle Travis is credited as the sole writer.
