01 The Last Song of Samuel's Line - Samuel Washington

First song by Samuel Washington from the album "Blood and River Songs" that you can find here: https://suno.com/playlist/b24f59a7-6fd7-488b-9d05-257b0b2d80cd Samuel Washington III is the last descendant of an African-American family whose history spans four generations, from his great-grandfather Kwame captured in Africa to the present day. He is a bluesman who has transformed the generational pain of his lineage into music, becoming the keeper and narrator of family stories that range from slavery to emancipation, from cotton plantations to Chicago juke joints. ### Down by the riverside where the willows bend low There's an old man sitting with a guitar and bow His fingers tell stories that his voice can't speak Of four generations and the freedom they seek He was born Samuel Washington, third of his name His great-grandfather stolen from the African plain Old Kwame was fishing by the Gold Coast shore When the ships came sailing from a distant war They took him in chains across the ocean wide Left his village burning and his young bride to cry Sold him in Charleston for a bag of gold To work the tobacco 'til his bones grew old Oh, the blood runs deep in the family tree From the motherland across the sea Every generation paying freedom's cost Trying to find what their fathers lost Kwame's boy Moses swung that railroad hammer Built the iron roads through heat and clamor From Georgia to Texas, spike by spike While the bosses counted every cent and strike When the war was over and the slaves were free Moses took his family to Tennessee Moses had a son named Samuel the First Who picked that cotton 'til his back near burst In the fields of Memphis where the river runs brown He dreamed of heading to some northern town But the sheriff's dogs and the white man's law Kept him picking cotton through the heat and thaw Oh, the blood runs deep in the family tree From the motherland across the sea Every generation paying freedom's cost Trying to find what their fathers lost Samuel's boy Junior tried to break away Caught a freight train heading north one day But they dragged him back to the county line Made him pay his daddy's debt and fine He married young Sarah by the river bend Swore his children's chains would someday end Junior's son Samuel learned his letters well Read every book that he could buy or sell Worked the lumber mills and saved his pay Till he bought his freedom the honest way Moved his family up to Chicago town Where the blues were born and the sun went down Now Samuel Three sits by the riverside With a beat-up guitar and his wounded pride He sings the songs that his great-great told Of African sunsets and rivers of gold His voice carries pain from a hundred years Of broken promises and bitter tears Oh, the blood runs deep in the family tree From the motherland across the sea Four generations have paid the cost But the music remains of what was lost So when you hear that guitar crying in the night Think of old Kwame and his stolen flight From the Gold Coast shore to the Mississippi mud The song survives in Samuel's blood He's the last to remember, the first to be free Singing the story for you and me