This is how I used to sing it... I's by Jim Crockett---who I've never met. I learned it from a fine generally cowboy singer and friend named Steve Cormier. (Steve played a bartender in the Kevin Costner film , WYATT EARP.)

MANISTEE RIVER
(Jim Crockett)

My daddy was a blind man---although he could see,
He raised up my brothers and my sisters and me,
He married my mother though it didn't last long,
She went to Chicago---and she never came home.

Chorus)
And the Manistee River----it runs near my home,
And I sit by her banks when I'm feelin' alone,
She plays with my spirit---she eases my bones,
She's the finest old lady this boy's ever known.

So, if you see my mother----you can tell her for me,
I'm with a good woman----got a tiny baby,
I got cows in the stable---got a nice piece of land,
And I go to the river whenever I can.^^

Art