Down in Blackwater Hollow

[Verse] Down in Blackwater Hollow Where the cypress shadows lean, The fog hangs thick as sorrow And hides what can't be seen. The old folks shut their windows When the evening bells are gone, And no one walks the marshland After dark comes creeping on. [Chorus] Oh, don't go down to Blackwater, Don't wander where the willows sway, For something waits beneath the reeds To drag the lost away. And if you hear it calling In a voice you think you know, Turn your back and keep on walking— Never follow where it goes. [Verse] There was a fisherman named Caleb Who laughed at every tale, Said monsters lived in storybooks And whiskey made men pale. He pushed his boat through moonlit reeds And vanished in the mist, The river gave his boat back But not the man who'd left with it. [Chorus] Oh, don't go down to Blackwater, Don't wander where the willows sway, For something waits beneath the reeds To drag the lost away. And if you hear it calling In a voice you think you know, Turn your back and keep on walking— Never follow where it goes. [Verse] Some say it's old as time itself, Before the church and road, A thing that learned to wear the shape Of every soul it stole. Some say its eyes are lanterns Floating just above the mud, And where it walks the cattails bend And bloom a deeper red. [Bridge] One cold October evening My brother heard our mother's cry, Though she'd been laid beneath the earth The previous July. He followed through the marsh grass Toward the sound of her refrain, And all we found at sunrise Was his hat beside the rain. [Verse] Now children learn the warning Before they're taught to read: The swamp remembers every name It hears among the reeds. And when the fog comes crawling Like fingers through the trees, The wisest souls say nothing To whatever answers back. [Final Chorus] Oh, don't go down to Blackwater, Don't wander where the willows sway, For something waits beneath the reeds To drag the lost away. And if you hear a loved one Calling softly through the gloom, Keep your eyes upon the pathway— Or the swamp will make its room. [Outro] Down in Blackwater Hollow Where the cypress shadows lean, The fog hangs thick as sorrow... And hides what can't be seen.