Blackwater Bride

“Blackwater Bride”

(Slow. Minor key. One guitar. Space between lines.)

Down by Blackwater bend

Where the sycamores lean low

I met a girl named Caroline

With a voice soft as coal

She didn’t talk much about her past

Didn’t ask me much ’bout mine

Just said, “Some things in this world,

Boy… ain’t meant to shine.”

(bass enters — steady thump)

There was a man called Hollis Reed

Tall, thin, mean as drought

Kept a .45 in his glovebox

And a Bible he liked to shout

Folks said he used to court her

Back when her hair was long

But love turns quick to ownership

When a man’s wired wrong

Oh Caroline… Blackwater bride

You can’t outrun a jealous tide

The river knows, the river hides

What a man won’t leave behind

(long instrumental pause)

Found her scarf by the old rail bridge

Found tire tracks in clay

Found one shell down in the gravel

Where the cattails sway

Hollis said it weren’t his doing

Said I best let sleeping lie

But guilt sits loud in silence

And truth don’t meet your eye

(snare brush enters, soft and slow)

I won’t say what passed between us

Under that river moon

Only one man walked back home

And it weren’t him… too soon

Blackwater keeps its current

Slow, deep, and wide

Some men sink from anger

Some sink from pride

Oh Caroline… Blackwater bride

The river took you in its side

And I laid another body

Where the dark runs thick and wide

Now when the night wind moves

Through pine and cypress line

I hear your voice in low notes

Just beneath the tide

(instrumental fade — single low guitar note rings out)