He stood there on the platform with his suitcase
anxiously he waited for the train
a 14 year old boy was bound for Dixie
to leave behind the cold Chicago rain

600 miles on The City of New Orleans
On The Illinois Central Railroad line
When he stepped into the sticky heat of August
He left his mama's voice a world behind

The workers in the fields tending the cotton
looked like speckles on a mighty sea of white
And he could see it written clear upon their faces
You have to know your place and accept it to survive

Along the mighty Tallahatchie
the water seemed to beckon to a claim
as it rolled on to wherever it was headed
He thought he heard that river call his name

Look away, old days are not forgotten 
Look away, from eyes that fail to see
Listen to the ghosts of Mississippi
That hang like Spanish moss beneath the trees

It was evening when the car rolled into Money
The delta sun was low across the sky
Old crow looked down from a magnolia
And sang a long and mournful warning cry

Unschooled to their ways, he never faltered 
but what he said for sure we'll never know
It's a high price when you bend the laws of Dixie
When you're a colored boy and she is white as snow


Look away, old days are not forgotten 
Look away, from eyes that fail to see
Listen to the ghosts of Mississippi
That hang like Spanish moss beneath the trees

And the debt collectors came without a warning
the smell of hate and whisky filled the room
they'd come to take the boy who did the talking
and drove away beneath a liar's moon

Out along the Tallahatchie 
the rolling water echoing his name
as it rolled on to wherever it was headed
the mighty river settled on a claim

Look away, old days are not forgotten 
Look away, from eyes that fail to see
Listen to the ghosts of Mississippi
That hang like Spanish moss beneath the trees

copyright 2018 Joe Middleton (Mr Saturday Music BMI)

Ghosts of Mississippi (For Emmett)

Singer-songwriter Joe Middleton released his first CD, Highway Tremolo, on November 3, 2019 to a packed house at The Evening Muse in Charlotte. Its nine songs were recorded and produced by Eric Lovell at Charlotte’s Blu Bubble Studio. 

 Although rock music was his mainstay for years, he has always identified as a folk singer—a teller of tales through song. Whether you call his music Americana, folk-rock, alt-country, or something else, for Middleton, these are stories that need to be told.

 Middleton continues to hone his ability to tell a better story through words and music. He draws from influences ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Steve Earle to create what he considers to be short-form musical plays. His songs are heavily inspired by the current social climate and a need to remember the bad as well as the good.

Ghosts of Mississippi (For Emmett)

Joe Middleton Music