“Mississippi Missive, A Ballad about the Free State of Jones” is now available from Amazon, iTunes and many other digital download sites. Here’s the lyrics and liner note text:
Mississippi Missive, A Ballad About the Free State of Jones County
lyrics by Edward Voci, copyright 1996
Jones County voted ‘gainst a rich man’s war
Kind that ‘git fought by the mostly poor
Names not heard at the rebel roll call
Ballentine, Bynum and Sumerall
We carved a declaration on a big pine tree
The Free State of Jones was bound to be
[Refrain:]
We picked our cotton and cotton’d no slaves
Rachel rocked her cradle \
While we dug our own graves
The Free State of Jones was born that day
Every soul knew there’d be a toll to pay
ol’ Newt Knight rallied our kin
Even Japser Collins quit drinkin’ gin
Took command of ten score men
The Free State of Jones fought against a sin
[Refrain…]
Runaways came like a levee flood
We all ate grits from the same tin tub
Lowery raided and we powdered our guns
He took no prisoners and our heroes swung
Cold and martyred from that pine tree’s limb
The Free State of Jones fought against a sin
[Refrain…]
After the war and jubilee
Blue faded to gray and so did we
We fell and milled that big pine tree
For a school where young’ns could write ‘n read
The sweet pine scent of fresh sawn wood
Our saplings root where our missive once stood
[Refrain…]
LINER NOTE TEXT:
Mississippi Missive 4:32 Professor Louie & The Crowmatix
Before there were books or a movie about the Free State of Jones County Mississippi, there was “Mississippi Missive.”
“These lyrics are ‘zactly how Bob Dylan taught us to write songs. Paint a picture ’n tell a story. Perfect for The Band. You musta got it through osmosis or somethin’, ” said Levon Helm late one night in the winter of 1996 in his phone call from Woodstock, New York to Ed and Gina Voci in River Forest, Illinois. Voci had sent his lyrics to Helm on a whim after a research and book writing project on Jones County had stalled. Helm’s health halted his involvement with the lyrics. In 1999 the lyrics touched Rick Danko in the wee hours after his show at Cubby Bear North in Deerfield, Illinois, but Danko passed away five days later. In 2005 the lyrics headed south to Texas where Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell of The Gourds first tuned them. Finally in 2016 the song came back full circle to Woodstock, Aaron “Prof. Louie” Hurwitz and Woodstock Records. Louie produced three of The Band’s CDs (“Jericho”, “High On The Hog” and “Jubilation”), a Levon Helm CD (“Levon Helm and the Crowmatix”), a Garth Hudson CD (“A Sea to the North”) and several of Danko’s solo CDs. Louie’s working “Mississippi Missive” into a country soul rocking anthem for an amazing episode in the South during the Civil War carries on a musical tradition that began you know where. The musical journey of “Mississippi Missive” is a story within the larger story of the Free State of Jones County which took a heroic stand against “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight” and for equality, an extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy.
Lyrics: Edward Voci
Music: Kevin Russell, Aaron L. Hurwitz
Produced by: Aaron j. Hurwitz
LRS Recording Studios, Hurley NY
Pub: Claire Songs, ASCAP
Krakatowa McDinglefury World BMI
Matix, BMI
Photos: Edward A. Voci and Francesca E. Voci, Copyright 2010
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www.woodstockrecords.com
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