Tennessee Ernie Ford did Sixteen Tons. Coal mining companies owned a “company store” which is exactly what it sounds like. The mines were typically in isolated rural areas and the company store was a general store which carried everything needed for daily living. Miners were paid in script not money and the script was only valid at the company store. By allowing miners and their families to run a tab at the co. Store they would often incur debt greater than their wages. In effect the mining companies created a form of slave labor. “I owe my soul to the company store”.