[Intro]
[Low open-tuned guitar drone]
[Tambourine hit]
CHAK!
[Voice, low]
There’s a river
behind the hill
that nobody crosses
after dark.
[High vocal wail]
Aaaah-yeeeah!
[Guitar answers with the same bend]
[Full band enters]
[Verse 1]
Old man Carter
used to say
the water knew
every name in town.
Said if you stood
too close at midnight,
you’d hear your own
coming back around.
I laughed.
Of course I did.
I was seventeen
and immortal.
That’s what seventeen
is for.
Then one summer night
I walked down there
with a bottle,
bad shoes,
and more courage
than sense.
The moon hit the water.
Everything went quiet.
Not peaceful.
Quiet.
Different thing.
[Tambourine]
CHAK!
[Pre-Chorus]
Then I heard it.
Not a voice.
Not exactly.
More like
a note
coming up
through the ground.
[High wail]
Aaaah-aaaah!
[Guitar bends upward]
[Chorus]
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
AND IT KNOWS MY NAME!
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
BUT I WON’T ANSWER THE SAME!
I CAME DOWN
WITH FIRE IN MY CHEST!
I WALK BACK
WITH MUD ON MY BOOTS!
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
AND EVERY MAN
HEARS SOMETHING
DIFFERENT IN THE TRUTH!
[Verse 2]
I saw an old rope
tied to a tree
with no boat
on the other end.
A silver ring
caught in the bark.
Three feathers
in the mud.
Could mean nothing.
Probably did.
But darkness
is very talented
at turning ordinary things
into warnings.
I stepped closer.
Water touched
the edge of my shoe.
Cold enough
to make me sober.
Then somewhere
across the river
something moved.
I froze.
Waited.
A deer walked out.
Just a deer.
I laughed so hard
I nearly fell in.
Maybe that’s
the whole trick.
Half the monsters
we meet
are waiting
for us to name them.
[Tambourine Break]
CHAK!
CHAK-CHAK!
[Drums + bass only]
[Voice]
Don’t name it.
[Guitar crashes back]
[Chorus]
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
AND IT KNOWS MY NAME!
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
BUT I WON’T ANSWER THE SAME!
I CAME DOWN
WITH FIRE IN MY CHEST!
I WALK BACK
WITH MUD ON MY BOOTS!
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
AND EVERY MAN
HEARS SOMETHING
DIFFERENT IN THE TRUTH!
[Bridge]
[Bowed guitar drone]
[Tambourine softly]
My grandfather
believed in spirits.
My father
believed in weather.
I believed in neither.
Now?
[Small pause]
I believe
some places
remember you
better
than people do.
[High vocal scream]
AAAAAH-YEAH!
[Guitar answers]
[Final Chorus]
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
LET IT CALL!
LET IT RISE!
LET IT ROLL
THROUGH THE TREES TONIGHT!
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
I DON’T NEED TO KNOW WHY!
SOME THINGS
ARE BETTER LEFT
HALF TRUE,
HALF WILD!
THE BLACK RIVER CALLS!
AND I STILL HEAR THAT SOUND!
NOT FROM THE WATER.
NOT FROM THE HILL.
FROM SOMEWHERE
DEEPER DOWN.
[Outro]
[Open guitar drone]
[Tambourine]
CHAK.
[Voice, almost whispered]
I never went back.
...
That’s not true.
[Guitar harmonic]
I went back
last week.
