After about forty years of singing this song I got fascinated by the origins of it and read all about it on the internet. Of course I knew the basic elements - but the actual brutality of the living conditions of the poor woman who gave the world this wonderful song humbled me - so I wrote this preamble before recording the version for my first cd. Some lines seems crass, but I'm glad I attempted to honour that terrible life.

Tribute to Dink


Seems like all my lifetime long

I sang your sad and pretty song
Of days you lived in tent town

on the side of the Brazos River

Nineteen hundred and eight, you were washing the clothes

Of the working men who would come and go

you sang about love, and how you hurt

Of living hard and being treated like dirt

Down by that levee,

The blows were many and your work was heavy

some man would pass by with a bottle of gin

Often as not you would let him in



But tonight I'll hold your

song to my heart

You'll step out one proud lady

If all that remains of us is love, I'm thinkin'

and tonight Dink, it's your love song we're singing



Tonight we can almost touch your hand with our hearts

Down through all the years

With the words of a song that you wrote with your tears