[Intro]
🎶
Way down where the blackwater roll,
I learned young how to carry a soul.
Now I’m far from the bayou line,
But Louisiana still walk beside me.
🎶
⸻
[Verse 1]
🎶
Sun beat down on this cursed red land,
Steel on my hip and blood on my hands.
No cypress trees and no riverbend,
Just hard men prayin’ for the bitter end.
The buzzards circled, the wind blew dry,
The weak laid down and the weak ones died.
But I come from storms that could swallow towns,
So I planted my feet and I held my ground.
🎶
⸻
[Hook]
🎶
I’m a blackwater exile, born from the flood and the fight,
Raised where the cypress stand tall through the darkest nights.
Blackwater exile, ain’t no grave got my name,
The swamp made me stubborn and the fire did the same.
Blackwater exile, still standin’ after the fall,
If the world wanna break me, it’ll have to give its all.
🎶
⸻
[Verse 2]
🎶
I remember moonlight on the Atchafalaya,
Frogs singin’ low while the river rolled by.
Grand-père told me, “Cher, life ain’t fair,
But a strong heart can survive anywhere.”
Now the campfires burn in a foreign place,
Still hear them old words through the smoke and haze.
Every scar got a lesson, every road got a cost,
But a man ain’t defeated just because he got lost.
🎶
⸻
[Bridge]
🎶
The river taught patience,
The storm taught grit.
The swamp taught survival,
And I ain’t forgot it.
The river taught patience,
The storm taught grit.
The swamp taught survival,
And I still live it.
🎶
⸻
[Final Hook]
🎶
I’m a blackwater exile, born from the flood and the fight,
Raised where the cypress stand tall through the darkest nights.
Blackwater exile, ain’t no grave got my name,
The swamp made me stubborn and the fire did the same.
Blackwater exile, still standin’ after the fall,
If the world wanna break me, it’ll have to give its all.
‘Cause a bayou-born soul don’t know how to quit,
And a Cajun heart don’t know how to submit.
🎶
⸻
[Outro]
🎶
Way down where the blackwater roll,
The swamp still callin’ me home.
🎶
[Fiddle carries the melody into a final war-drum cadence]
