"The Coming of the Roads" was written by Billy Edd Wheeler. It relates the changes brought to the southern mountains by strip mining and the introduction of other changes and modernizations. The tune is lovely but is obviously not traditional or based on any traditional model. The lyrics are real poetry. Billy Edward "Edd" Wheeler (born December 9, 1932, Boone County, West Virginia) is an American songwriter, performer, writer, and visual artist. His songs include "Jackson", "The Reverend Mr. Black", "Desert Pete", "Ann", "High Flyin' Bird", "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back", "Coal Tattoo", "Winter Sky", and "Coward of the County". He graduated from Warren Wilson College in 1953, and Berea College in 1955. "The Coming of the Roads" was recorded by Billy Edd Wheeler on Country Essentials, Judy Collins, Peter Paul & Mary, Maureen McGovern, Kathy Mattea, and Johnny Darrell & Anita Carter. I learned this from Judy Collins' recording.