The Gourds

Smoke Bend

CHORUS:

Now it's winter on the river

And a cold swift swollen tide

Meets a warm southern breeze

From the gulf of memories

Missouri and clear Ohio

Give their currents to the tide

Now the river's Louisiana's

For the willow tree-lined ride

From cruel Angola down to Venice

Scatterin' horseshoes everywhere

The river's Louisiana's

With no glory or bank to share

If the river had its way

The Atchafalaya'd be its home

Straighten out them horseshoes

Find another bank to roam

There's cane fires up the bank

Of that horseshoe of Smoke Bend

The smoke was double thick

And the fog was rollin' in

Tie your boat to a willow tree

Climb the bank so high

Above the blanket on the river

See every star in the sky

Smoke fog and family

Kept to that west bank town

Smoke and fog would burn and blow away

The folks they'd stay around

There was catfish with the Kingfish

And a culture spice gumbo

There's coonass music playing

On a glowin' radio

Klan and crackers on the side

At the Last Chance Cafe

Crawfish etouffee

Warm red river Beaujolais

CHORUS

They're sandbaggin' the levee

They're shovelin' night and day

It's the year of '27

Gonna wash us all away

The levee gonna bust

On your side or mine

A little dynamite on your side

Help the river make its mind

Folks left that west bank town

Left it all behind

Start life on higher ground

Gonna get out just in time

Now there's mint juleps at Oak Alley

There's poison in the air

There's new dangers on the river

It's so good to be from there

CHORUS