Amy Helm: Cotton and the Cane

Written by Amy Helm and Mary Gauthier, performed by Amy Helm
Album: What the Flood Leaves Behind, 2021

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Amy Helm's song about her father Levon and the community who raised her, "Cotton and the Cane," was recorded in Levon Helm Studios (aka "The Barn") and released on her 2021 solo album What the Flood Leaves Behind. There's also a lovely official video with Amy performing this song in Levon's Barn.

In an interview*, Amy described "Cotton and the Cane" as "a reflective look at the wreckage of the disease of addiction. But also the retribution of recovery ... I talked a lot in the song about where my dad came from, and that part of him – his past and my Southern family, my mamaw – and the influence of all of that on him, and then on me, kind of alongside the darker side of rock 'n' roll life."

Lyrics

I come from Arkansas roses
Hard times, broken noses
Backbeats, backseats, lucky charms, false alarms
End up all night, voices in the other room

Memos, prayers, and honeysuckle
White lightning, hurricanes
Cracked hands, thank-you-mans, driving rain, mud on the train
And breakdowns
And the poetry of the poor

My father was a sharecropper's son
Handed hope and hymns to ease the pain
The sacred songs my family sang
They're all that remain
Hmm-mm

I come from Nissan dealers, backstabbers, dirty dealers
Heroin, I'm locked out again, the side of the road
Tears of dust and goodbyes
Said I love you on the phone

Kind hearts and compromises
Slamming doors, cheap disguises
Cigarettes, ashtray fires, chin to the chest, we're doing our best
Hanging breakdowns
Yeah, and always wanting more

Father was a sharecropper's son
Handed hope and hymns to ease the pain
The sacred songs my family sang
They're all that remain, hmm-mm

 
*: 2021 interview with with Bob O'Donnell on the "Morning Dew" program at WFDU (89.1 FM, wfdu.fm)