[Verse 1] Down at Deadwater Bend the frogs gone mute only skeeters working the night shift now Old bluesman bends above his strings like a man still trying to learn how Moon got snagged in the willow wire river black as a preacher’s coat Banjo taps out a warning knock harmonica hangs on a single note [Chorus] At Deadwater Bend where the lost things stay I lay my songs in the muddy seam If the world won’t hold what a poor man felt the swamp will keep it in a fever dream Old bluesman, old blues hands too much night in these weathered bones but if sorrow needs a place to live it can sleep inside these tones [Verse 2] I had a woman like winter fire quiet heat in a cold stone room Never learned how to keep that light now I carry her in the fumes Every road since then got longer every town wore the same tired face Only when I drop that slide guitar do I see a little grace [Verse 3] Mosquito choir round my hat brim singing thin as a sinner’s thread Banjo dry as a courthouse bench guitar dark as the names of the dead No one here but mud and memory and the river that don’t explain Still I play like dawn might hear me and wash a little rust from pain [Bridge] Maybe no one needs to hear it maybe that is why it stays so true Songs get heavier in the silence when there’s no one left to fool So I lean into the darkness till the darkness leans back too and the whole wide swamp goes listening to the grief I never threw [Final Chorus] At Deadwater Bend where the lost things stay I leave my heart in the wet black reeds Old bluesman with a mosquito crown and a mouth full of rain and need No crowd, no bar, no bright marquee just a soul worn thin and a midnight friend If my name blows off with the river fog let it rest at Deadwater Bend
