[Intro] [Verse 1] Cypress knees come up through the black Little brown knuckles in a crooked track Ain't a one of 'em standin' straight Ain't a one of 'em complained about it Tree don't grow where the ground is good Tree grows where the tree understood That the water's stayin' and it ain't your call So you put a knee down and you don't fall [Chorus] I got knees in the low water I got roots in the mud I was somebody's daughter Long before I was blood You can call it drownin' I call it stayin' put There's a whole grove standin' 'round me And we all put down a foot [Verse 2] Forty minutes down that road from here Is a slab and a chimney and a hundred years Of everybody's people that the Gulf come for Nobody rebuilt and nobody moved My aunt still lives with the shutters closed My cousin bought a boat and my cousin knows There ain't a soul in Lafourche or Terrebonne Who don't know exactly what the water done [Chorus] I got knees in the low water I got roots in the mud I was somebody's daughter Long before I was blood You can call it drownin' I call it stayin' put There's a whole grove standin' 'round me And we all put down a foot [Verse 3] Every town we play I watch her count the room Twelve one night and a thousand the next And she'll sing the same and she'll mean it the same 'Cause she learned real early what a crowd is worth But tonight she counted and she stopped at the door 'Cause she knew the third row from thirty years before And her aunt's in the balcony and her cousin's at the bar And she ain't got a word — so we play [Verse 4] I said I'd never come back down this way Said it with my whole chest, said it every day Said the parish took my daddy and it took the roof And I'd sooner sing to strangers than tell 'em the truth But strangers don't know what a cypress is Strangers hear the water and they think it's his Y'all hear the water and you know it's ours And that's why I come back [Chorus] I got knees in the low water! I got roots in the mud! I was somebody's daughter Long before I was blood! You can call it drownin' I call it stayin' put! There's a whole grove standin' 'round me And we all put down a foot! And we all put down a foot! And we all put down a foot! [Outro]
