Lyrics Medley 2

Ride this train ride this train with me to the Mississippi river Delta land
A wide stretch of rich black earth
That spreads out along the banks of the Mississippi river
Startin' somewhere up around southern Illinois
And running right on down to the Gulf of Mexico
This is the land of king cotton this black rich land
And of the people who live here cotton is their bread and butter
And though the land is rich to many life is pretty hard
You see that old shack over there that's the home of a sharecropper
His work is back breaking he could spend thirty years of his life into that kind of land
And wind up with that kind of place
Only to just up and leave with just the clothes on his back a prayer in his heart
And a pick up truck half full of used furniture

Down in Dyess Arkansas and that part of the delta land where I grew up
I did my earliest singing and I learned my first songs
While picking or chopping cotton out in a cotton patch
Seems somebody was always singing while they worked
To help make the day go a little bit faster
I can remember my sister Louisie out in the cottonfields
She would keep us all cheered up by singing gospel songs and the hits of the days
And being a few years older than I was she'd teach me songs she'd say
I'm going to sing you this song three times
And then see if you're listening you sing it back to me
Sometimes she'd be way down the row picking ahead of me
And while she was waiting for me to catch up I could hear her singing

(Oh the land of a cloudless day) and she'd sing and Lord she'd sing
(Oh the land of an uncloudy sky)
And wouldn't she sing oh I can almost hear her singin' now
(Oh they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise)
And I'd pick a little bit harder catch up with her
She'd sing to me some more and she'd sing
(Oh they tell me of an uncloudy day)

(And just about every afternoon as the sun was sinking real low
When we were leaving the cottonfields
All of us would usually leave the fields singing this song)