Blackbird Bridge (Weaver Girl #2)
Song lyrics
There’s a yarn they spin in the Delta
where the muddy water’s wide
How the Herdman Boy and the Weaver Girl
Wooed across that great divide
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He was just an honest farm boy
She was high above his world
Long months went by for him to tie
a knot with the Weaver girl.
Her mama was a social queen
with serious local power
No guy deserved her angel
Her sheltered river flower.
When the county closed the long bridge
those lovers had to use
There were whispers of black magic
or a bribe to the highway crew
Blackbirds, blackbirds, on the bank
Form a bridge for love
Arch across that river surge
Join those turtledoves
Make some magic for that pair,
that river belle and beau
Help them weave their wedding vows,
‘Cross that wide bayou
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The lamp shone in her window
a mile or so away
But that mighty river in between
seemed wide as the Milky Way
Sweethearts yearned to tie the knot
but her Mamma held the leash
It dammed [damned] their love like a river flood
awaiting some release.
Now that boy had an old Ford tractor,
the Delta farmer’s ox
How it rattled when he cranked it;
you would swear that Ford could talk;
It helped him reap the harvest;
could it help him pitch some woo?
One day that noisy farm machine
sparked a way to make it through .
​
Blackbirds, blackbirds, on the bank
Form a bridge for love
Arch across that river surge
Join those turtledoves
Make some magic for that pair,
that river belle and beau
Help them weave their wedding vows,
Across that wide bayou
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Now Sunday in the seventh month
when the river current slows
And the brightest stars hang overhead
He knows just where to go.
Down on the bend where the blackbirds roost
Lies a ford where the water’s low.
He kicks his tractor in low gear and
plows through the water’s flow
This is just some bayou story,
I kind of doubt it’s true
But it offers hope to sweethearts,
to do what they can do
You don’t need a bridge of blackbirds
to cross to Heaven’s shore
Love can make it go, span the muddy flow
Rivers flood, but love can soar.
Romance can weave from magic
For those waiting on opposite shores
In a patient way, love creates its day:
Rivers flood, but love can soar.
​
Romance can weave from magic
For those wai-ting on opposite shores
In a patient way, love creates its day:
Rivers flood, but love can soar.
​
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My song: Blackbird Bridge (Weaver Girl #2) again reinterprets the Weaver Girl folktale. More details from the folktale make a whimsical appearance here, from the controlling mother to the talking ox. I present the story in modern garb as a tall tale from the Louisiana bayou country.
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My music this time is up-tempo and playful, with hints of what passes for Cajun music in commercial country music. Many of those songs talk of lovers trying to get together. I cooked the melody from a bit of Redwing and a dash of Louisiana hot sauce. The musical “bridge” about the magical blackbirds is folk revery.
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Inspirations:
Buck Owens and Don Rich, Cajun Fiddle (instrumental);
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Hank Williams Sr. & Jr., Cajun Baby. I particularly like the Bobby Flores cover of Cajun Baby on his Eleven Roses CD.
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“Way down yonder in the bayou country in dear old Louisianne
That's where live's my Cajun baby the fairest one in the land”
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George Strait, Adalida (songwriters: Michael Clarence Geiger / Michael Penn Huffman / Woodrow Albert Mullis)
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“Adalida, I'd walk through the hurricane
To stand beside ya sweet Adalida I'd swim the Ponchartrain”
Doug Kershaw, Diggy Diggy Lo:
Diggy Liggy Li loved Diggy Liggy Lo
Everyone knew he was her beau
No body else could ever show
So much love for Diggy Liggy Lo
Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man (writers: songwriters: Becki Bluefield / Jim Owen)
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“We get together every time we can
The Mississippi River can't keep us apart
There's too much love in the Mississippi heart
Too much love in this Louisiana heart.”
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Mary Chapin Carpenter, Down at the Twist and Shout (which borrows its tune from an old Cajun number).