Hiatt, John - Crossing Muddy Waters Lyrics
My baby's gone and I don't know why
She let out this morning
Like a rusty shot in a hollow sky
Left me without warning
Sooner than the dogs could bark
Down to the banks in an old mule car
She took a flatboat across the shallow
[Chorus:]
Left me in my tears to drown
She left a baby daughter
Now the water's wide and deep and brown
She's crossing muddy waters
Tobacco standing in the fields
And a bitter heart will not reveal
A spring that love remembers
When that sweet brown girl of mine
Her black eyes are ravens
We broke the bread and drank the wine
From a jug that she'd been saving
[Chorus]
Baby's crying and the daylight's gone
That big oak tree is groaning
In rush of wind and river of song
I can hear my sweetheart moaning
Crying for her baby child
Or crying for her husband
Crying for that river's wild
To take her from her loved ones
[Chorus 2x]
Other Lyrics by Artist
- Hiatt, John - Love You Again
- Hiatt, John - Window On The World
- Hiatt, John - Circle Back
- Hiatt, John - Almost Fed Up With The Blues
- Hiatt, John - My Dog And Me
- Hiatt, John - My Baby Blue
- Hiatt, John - The Nagging Dark
- Hiatt, John - How Bad's The Coffee
- Hiatt, John - Uncommon Connection
- Hiatt, John - Farther Stars
- Hiatt, John - Come Home To You
- Hiatt, John - The Tiki Bar Is Open
- Hiatt, John - I'll Never Get Over You
- Hiatt, John - Rock Of Your Love
- Hiatt, John - Something Broken
- Hiatt, John - Missing Pieces
- Hiatt, John - Fly Back Home
- Hiatt, John - Old Days
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Hiatt, John Crossing Muddy Waters Comments
"A bitter heart cannot reveal a Spring that love remembers" : wow, what a line!
How can anyone listen to this song and not have their heart broken
out into the meadow
low mist around her ankles
she walked on dew, surpassed the lord;
I had no prophesy that she would go
I know which way she went,
though she left while I was sleeping
through pine woods and blackberry briers
that caught her skirt
down pastures to the river
she took a wooden raft across
no footsteps remained in the fallen leaves
but emptiness knows
Her sandals lay by the door
they just smell like leather
search the cabin for her scent
but the rain has begun
on colored leaves and green shingles
baby girl sleeps on the quilt in the corner
I'll pour out my loss and love for her.
How to separate the sweet milk from the bitter?
I'll have to pick from the porridge
the stone that sent her mother
baby has her own new scent
too late, too late for the black doe
gone the evening's argument
lost the possession and the sin
small heart, small heart not big enough to hold
Rain leeks in the window
I think of her cooing to her child
I curl over in the cabin
clamp down on dark wind,
cheek pressed hard into the wooden floor
This will happen
years and years,
less and less, as death forgets.
-wrote that years ago, based on this song and some of my own experience.
Brilliant ! Magic guitar/ mandolin WOW
Love love this song!
John Hyatt was named songwriter/artist of the year at the Nashville Music Awards. In 2001, Crossing Muddy Waters was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. One of my favorites by him. Sharp crisp guitar work here.
Driving my momma back to Florida one year I played this CD . Momma was getting into it and asked " did she ever save her baby?"
Actually no she didn't. Hiatt wrote this about the suicide of his estranged wife. The mother of his child.
wow, I didn't realize....sad
@Jeff Romanovitch I don't think this is correct. See: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-07-ca-48101-story.html. "Songwriters are kind of like Walter Mitty: We live this fantasy life through our songs.”
@Carolina Nadel Hiatt's first wife did take her own life when Lilly was one.
GREAT TUNE,GREAT PLAYING
Love this song,so simple ,yet deep and with a "classic feel..thanks for sharing!
YES, very much so. Thought provoking Folk Music