"Crow Creek" released june 9th, 2017
Here's the backstory from Joe, himself...
"Back in April of 2013, we got a rain that just wouldn't quit here in central Illinois. I was on my way home and Crow Creek had swelled up, closing roads and making it difficult to find a route back to my house. The forecast called for the rain to keep pouring and I knew I wouldn't have anything to do or anywhere to go that night. So I picked up a bottle of whiskey and planned to write a song. I ended up writing 'Crow Creek.' I've never seen Crow Creek, or the Illinois River it feeds into, rise so high and cause so much destruction, before or since writing this song. Ironically, the closest it has come was in the same week we sent this track off to be mastered, just a month or so before its release. Once again, it covered bridges and closed roads. "Crow Creek' is a storyline...its about alcohol abuse, love, memories, nostalgia & crossroads. Its about choices & faint glimmers of hope. My hope is that this song is able to capture the power of that creek in flood stage and the destruction that 'brown water', in its several forms, can cause in our lives." - Joe Stamm, May 2017
LYRICS
I grew up swimming in Crow Creek
It ran calm and cool and clean
But when the rain would fall in the early Spring
My mama would tell my brother and me
Stay outta that brown water
It’ll pull you in, it’ll drag you under
That current is stronger than you think
Brown water will carry your life away
I been making my money on a river barge
Three weeks on and three weeks off
On a lonely night in a tough third week
I called my baby and she told me
Stay outta that brown water
It’ll pull you in, it’ll drag you under
That current is stronger than you think
Brown water will carry your life away
Woke up today to a goodbye note
Between a bottle of whiskey and a pack of smokes
It said, ya know, I’ll always love you Joe
But I’d think by now that you’d know
Stay outta that brown water
It’ll pull you in, it’ll drag you under
That current is stronger than you think
Brown water will carry your life away
Now I’m sitting on the bank of Crow Creek
It’s pouring down rain and it’s early spring
Brown water in my belly and around my feet
Trying to remember what my mama told me
Stay outta that brown water
It’ll pull you in, it’ll drag you under
That current is stronger than you think
Brown water will carry your life away
