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Praise Boll Weevil (2:38): In the 1920s, cotton was the main source of work for almost two million black and white sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the South. The boll weevil, a beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers, destroyed that industry and changed their lives forever, sometimes for the better.

lyrics

You can hardly see
The end of the row
Got to be least a mile long
I was chopping that cotton
Half mile to go
Old sun beating down so strong
When suddenly a miracle
Swept me away
Just like a dust-filled wind
I saw boll weevil
End of the row
Staring me down with his grin
And I say…

CHORUS
Praise boll weevil
Praise his ornery soul
Got me out of cotton
‘Fore I got too old
Praise boll weevil
Praise him on high
Got me out of cotton
‘Fore my time to die

I thought I would spend
My life in this field
Planting the seeds every May
Chopping in the summer
Picking in the fall
Cotton, cotton every day
But thanks boll weevil
No more days
Digging away in that mess
The only cotton
Gets near me now
Is the cotton in my Sunday dress
And I say…

CHORUS (2x)

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Saro Lynch-Thomason North Carolina

Saro Lynch-Thomason is a ballad singer, song writer, folklorist, documentarian, and illustrator from Asheville, North Carolina. Her passion for traditional music, people’s struggles and Appalachian traditions calls her to perform, teach and produce media that tell the stories and songs of America’s social history. ... more

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