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about

©Jean Ritchie, Geordie Music

Recorded at a concert in Tokyo, Japan in 1970 and originally released on King (Japan) LP SKK 662.

lyrics

I come from the mountains, Kentucky’s my home
Where the wild deer and the blackbird so lately did roam
By the cool rushing waterfalls the wild flowers dream
And through every green valley there runs a clear stream
Now there’s scenes of destruction on every hand
And there’s only black waters run down through my land.
Sad scenes of destruction on every hand
Black waters, black waters, run down through the land.

Now the quail she’s a pretty bird, she sings a sweet tongue
In the midst of tall timber she nests with her young
But the hillside explodes with the dynamite’s roar
And the voices of the small birds will sound there no more
And the hillside comes sliding so awful and grand
While the poisonous waters rise over the land
Sad scenes of destruction on every hand
Black waters, black waters run down through the land.

In the rising of the springtime we planted our corn
In the ending of the springtime we buried our son
In the summer come a nice man, says everything’s fine
My employer just requires a way to his mine
Then they threw down the mountain and buried my corn
And the grave on the hillside’s a mile further down
And the man stands and talks with his hat in his hand
While the flooding black waters run down through the land
Sad scenes of destruction on every hand
Black waters, black waters run down through the land.

Now I don’t have much money and not much of a home
Now I own my own land but my land’s not my own
But if I had 10 million somewhere thereabouts
I’d buy Perry County and I’d run ‘em all out
And I’d sit on the bank with my bait and my can
And I’d watch the clear waters run down through my land
Now wouldn’t that be like the old promised land
Black waters, black waters no more in my land.

credits

from Bowling Green, released January 1, 2008
Alice-vocal, guitar
Mike-mandolin

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Alice Gerrard image

Alice Gerrard Durham, North Carolina

A singer and songwriter, Alice’s recordings with Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and ’70s influenced a generation of women musicians from Laurie Lewis to the Judds. Nominated for a Grammy in 2015, she was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Assoc. Hall of Fame in 2017. A documentary film about Alice, "You Gave Me a Song" premiered at the Full Frame Independent Film Festival in 2019. ... more

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