From the recording Who Will Weep For Me
WE are loosing farm land across the world in an amazing rate, and we are also loosing a way or life associated with any connectivity to the land.
The story of Chief Logan gave me an interesting back drop to play out yet another loss of a culture.
I wrote the song sitting in the lobby of the office of Director of the ODNR while waiting for a job interview.
Lyrics
To him it wasn=t any thing
Just a house with empty fields
an old barn with a rusty truck inside
What he saw was opportunity
and 100 brand new homes
and every one had lots of dollar signs
It had been nearly four months since he had closed the deal
and every thing was going fine you see
The old farmer he had told him
That Chief Logan walked this land
Crying AWho will weep for me?@
He didn=t see the old rope swing still hanging from that limb
and he didn=t hear the sounds the shade trees made
When the leaves danced with the cold west wind coming cross those open fields
On the porch he didn=t see the flint chipped blade
In the days of the black swamp
Chief Logan promised peace in the shadows the great old elm tree made
That promise had been broken when they killed his family
He cried Who will weep for me?
The old man who had lived there had worked hard all his life
Two miles down the road you=ll find his grave
he=s next to his father who=s next to his grandpa,
and all the kin who died along the way
It=s a shame just to sit here and think about their lives
no one in the family left to stay
Last night in the moon light I thought I saw his wife standing on the porch in a cotton dress she made
They say that he just went crazy when the deal was finally done
There was nothing noone could do or say
And when they drained that quarter section and hauled those black oaks off
They might as well have laid him in his grave
I wouldn=t want to live there no matter what the price or
no matter how fine the house might be.
I=m sure that the old farmer has Chief Logan by his side
Crying AWho will weep for me?@