Backwater Blues

With Max, Roach, Paul West, and Wanton Kelly I'd like to do one of Bessie's most soulful tunes It's called "The back water blues" When it rains five days And the skies turn black as night Well, when it rains five days And the skies turn black as night You know there's trouble in the lowlands And everything ain't right Well, I woke up this mornin' Couldn't even get out of my door Yeah, yeah, yeah, I woke up this mornin' Couldn't even get out of my door There was enough trouble to make a poor girl Wonder where she oughta go Then they rowed a little boat About five miles 'cross the pond Yes, they rowed a little boat About five miles 'cross the pond I packed all my clothes and throwed them in Then they rowed me right along Well, when it thunders and lightnings And the wind begins to blow Can't you here the thunder, see the lightning And feel the wind begining to blow? Lord, it makes you think about all those people That ain't got no place to go Then I went and stood On a high old lonesome hill Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I went and stood Stood on a high old lonesome hill I looked down with tears in my eyes On the house where I used to live Oh, that's why the blues done called me Call me to pack my clothes and go Yeah, yeah, the blues done called me Called me to pack my clothes and go 'Cause my house done fell down And I can't live there no more Somebody, somebody please tell me Where's it for a poor girl like me to go? Can't you see I'm tired and I don't feel like moving no more? But if I ever get my nerves settled down, I'll be a mean so-and-so Dinah?