Old Crow Medicine Show - Half Mile Down Lyrics






They come down from Washington City
To our Blue Ridge Mountain home
And across that crooked river
To the valley down below

I was swimmin' in that water
When they came up to the shore
Sayin' sorry son this won't be
Dry land here anymore

[Chorus:]
Yes and my home town
Is a half mile down
It's a half mile o' water
All around, all around
My home town is a half mile down

First they started their surveyin'
And makin' up their plans
To flood that peaceful valley
Just to build Watauga dam
Oh they brought in their bulldozers
And pushed our homes away
And they handed me a shovel
And sixty cents a day

[Chorus:]
Singin' my home town
Is a half mile down
It's a half mile o' water
All around, all around
My home town is a half mile down

So they stripped out all the timber
And they leveled all the land
And they drilled and dynamited
'til they blew the mountains in
I tore down my old homeplace
And I dug up Daddy's grave
And I relocated Momma to 14 miles away

Now I look down on the water
That rose up on that day
By the banks of the old Watauga
Where I once used to play

Yes I look out on that water
Where they made their big mistake
And covered up our hometown
'neath the godforsaken lake

[Chorus:]
Singin' my home town
Is a half mile down
It's a half mile of water
All around, all around
My home town
Is a half mile down
It's a half mile of water
All around, all around
My home town is a half mile down





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Old Crow Medicine Show Half Mile Down Comments
  1. W.... ....

    Lake Lanier up north of Atlanta was a valley and this happened, hell there’s a whole half mile race track under that water, I still say that place is cursed, the amount of people die in that water every year.

  2. C.... B....

    I MISS WILLIE WITH THESE GUYS! :'(

  3. F.... ....

    I lost my cat at that dumb lake. And cut my foot wide open at the boat ramp. Bad memories vrother

  4. J.... Y....

    I seen y'all 3 times y'all are great God bless y'all

  5. t.... ....

    My "Mamma" lived there right before the events in the song took place. My friends and I kayak on a section around there and it's a beautiful place

  6. T.... O....

    Proper old timey music. Great stuff

  7. D.... P....

    Old butler

  8. C.... S....

    Table rock lake has an interesting story. A lot of people lost everything as they built the damn and it flooded the valley way faster than anyone predicted. The procrastinators payed a heavy price

  9. M.... F....

    Does this remind anybody else of The Monkey Wrench Gang?

  10. M.... L....

    I'm an AT Thruer & I'll be heading by this dam in a few days. Guess what I'll be humming? :D

  11. L.... B....

    Damn Hillary ads, can't skip them.

    L.... B....

    adblock helps

  12. T.... N....

    Isn't it a bit hyperbolic to say the water was a half-mile deep? :-P

    T.... N....

    Tucker Nelson the dam was built 2100 ft high by the TVA

  13. K.... H....

    this was one of my sons favorite OCMS songs befor he took his own life six months ago we charished your music and I will alway will we are having a pocker run on the snake 421 corner market in Johnson County to honor his name Aaron Hartman and to raise money for suicide prevention I know its asking alot but it would be nice if you could make an appearance on july 30 to help raise money to help stop this madness

  14. L.... o....

    This reminds me of summersville lake. There use to be a town in a valley by were the dam is now.

    L.... o....

    Many stories just like this, The TVA has built many dams and flooded many towns.

    L.... o....

    @Braden B its really sad because most of these towns have alot of heritage

  15. B.... R....

    My great grandma's home is under that damn Watauga lake

  16. R.... P....

    Come to West Milford, New Jersey!

  17. s.... ....

    lol i go to my uncles house on lake watauga all the time, now i feel like a fucking dick

    s.... ....

    HAHAHA!! This cracked me up.

    s.... ....

    samsposato13 used to love it up there wish the folks didn't get rid of it

  18. C.... H....

    Lake Lanier in North Georgia anyone?
    Same story.

    C.... H....

    +Chad Hunter and Wawayonda Lake in the appalachian mountains on the Nj Ny border. There are still remnants of homes on some of the islands and at the bottom of the lake.

    C.... H....

    There’s a whole racetrack under Lanier, that place is cursed or something, so many people die there every year

  19. j.... ....

    I like this song because I grew up on Coronado Island, southern California. If the Polar ice raises the sea level,
    my hometown is going to be underwater, also !!!

    j.... ....

    Pretty much the entire state of Florida as well. lol

  20. S.... ....

    Boy did the Ft. Loudon Dam flood out a lot of my folks in Vonore and Greenback  TN  ...

  21. N.... 0....

    Same here, my wife's family was displaced in Tioga Co., PA when a dam  flooded the valley.  The were fortunate enough to be able to move their house and barn to higher ground but most were leveled in 'the name of progress'.  Now the farmhouse sits on a hill overlooking it's flooded past, a constant reminder of how fast, and far, things change.

  22. s.... ....

    Reminds me of John Prine's brilliant enviro-lament, "Paradise."
    Truly beautiful; thank you so much for promoting it here.
    I'd almost completely forgotten about Old Crow; it's great to be able to rediscover their work.
    The message is especially important right now, too, as the corp's want us to sell our birthright -- our only planet -- for the mess of pottage that is fracking.
    The Appalachian locals who hated Prine for an "anti-jobs treehugger" now know he was right, now that all the jobs are gone with the last of the coal, and nothing's left but devastation...

    s.... ....

    Luckily we got trump now!

  23. S.... S....

    Punani Cannibal?? hahahahahaha... great name. excellent song too :}

  24. G.... ....

    My great grandmother, on my mothers side, used to live in the valley that is now percy priest lake, in the town of Old Jefferson, before they cleared it out to make the dam.

  25. W.... D....

    Ronaldinhollew-Don't let "THEM" forget it---------EVER!

  26. J.... H....

    Damned English lets throw em back into the sea.

  27. S.... ....

    I am not just a take fan, I am a Tech9ican thru and thru. I bleed STRANGEMUSIC! Where the bullshit ain't nuthin' ^S^

  28. S.... ....

    I live a few minutes from this lake and camp and fish on it all the time

  29. r.... ....

    This song reminds me of the controversy with Treweryn in the 60s when the English drowned a Welsh valley, destroying an entire community, to provide water for Liverpool which the city never needed.

    It was criminal, and we Welsh still haven't forgotten it.

  30. R.... M....

    Great song. Something like this happened to some of my relatives in Iowa. In the late '60s when Iowa dammed up a part of the Des Moines River, flooding out the town of Red Rock to create a lake. A great uncle hired a lawyer and fought the state for years to stop it. He didn't win, of course. Eminent domain is a bitch.

  31. D.... M....

    I live about ten minutes from there... My family was born and raised in old butler... I love hearing them telling stories

  32. A.... ....

    strange music

  33. M.... L....

    I was born in that area and my Daddy worked for TVA. This brings back so many many memories. Am now homesick!!!!!

  34. A.... n....

    awesome!! great band! thank you! :)

  35. M.... S....

    I go camping on my family's land almost every summer right on the lake!

  36. D.... S....

    Theres a spot where you can see the top of a church under the water, we use to dare each other to swim and touch it

  37. m.... m....

    I can hear my grandmother singing this song.....god bless her. Old Crow has been my favorite band for years now.

  38. J.... R....

    Perfect song, considering my parent's farm (barn, tractor, house, outhouse, henhouse, rabbithouse, etc.) is under the new lake after the 'cane.

  39. D.... S....

    I lived in Butler in the middle 70's. In 1983 they drained Watauga Lake for repairs to the dam. If I remember correctly the repairs did not take place. The divers that were supposed to do the work reported hundreds of catfish big enough to swallow a man whole and refused to do the work. During that time you could see the foundations of homes and business'es and what was left of the roads and bridges of the old town of Butler.

    D.... S....

    Wow, I never knew this! My great-grandmother and her children lived about a little under an hour away from Old Butler and she would walk the streets almost regularly; mostly to go to the store. My grandmother and all my great-aunts have been talking about Old Butler and the lake's drawback in 1983 for the whole 17 years I've been alive, but I never heard about the catfish! I can't blame the divers, though.

  40. c.... p....

    great song, progress takes everthing we love away, time to change it, Jack and Cheryl, Ontario, Canada
























  41. K.... ....

    I love this song! When I look out off my porch... I cain't stop from signin' this song : )

  42. 1.... ....

    I was born and raised near butler. Love this song!!

  43. M.... B....

    I live in butler and this song is great! :D

  44. N.... ....

    I love that OCMS always stays true to their soul and keeps on playing the good music when they could have so easily sold out!

  45. c.... ....

    This is my favorite OCMS album yet

  46. S.... T....

    old butler

  47. K.... S....

    I hear you man, Tech is amazing. So are Old Crow. Good to know there's other crazy eclectic people out there, haha

  48. P.... ....

    oh yeah i love some vintage tech hahahahaha music is life :)

  49. K.... S....

    PunaniCannibal, are you a Tech N9ne fan too? Hahaha

  50. c.... ....

    Good song

  51. C.... V....

    thanks for the song, i cant wait for her to hear it.

  52. P.... ....

    thats awesome man

  53. C.... V....

    my grandmother was born in that valley before they flooded it. cant wait to get back.