> Folk Music > Songs > No More Cane on the Brazos

No More Cane on the Brazos

Chris Smither sang No More Cane on the Brazos on his 1993 CD Happier Blue and on his 2014 retrospective album Still on the Levee.

Steve Turner sang Cane on the Brazos in 2023 on his Tradition Bearers album Curious Times. He noted:

The Brazos is a river in central Texas, and the prisoners in the local jail were subject to ruthless treatment by the guards while picking sugar cane, and punished by death for any wrong doing. I first heard this powerful protest song sung by the great blues singer Mary Asquith in my home city of Manchester in the late 60s. Lonnie Donegan can be heard singing this less well-known tune to the song on YouTube, and I wonder if he might have written it?

Lyrics

Chris Smither sings No More Cane on the Brazos

Chorus (after each verse):
You know there’s no more cane on the Brazos,
You know it’s all been ground to molasses.

You know you should have been here in 1910,
Buddy Russell drove the women like he drove the men.

Man you should have been here in 1904,
You found a dead man lying on every row.

Steve Turner sings Cane on the Brazos

Ain’t no more cane on the Brazos
Oh, oh, oh
They ground it all up for molasses
Oh, oh, oh

You’d have been on the Brazos in 1904
Oh, oh, oh
You’d have seen many dead men on every row
Oh, oh, oh

You’d have been on the Brazos in 1910
Oh, oh, oh
They drive the women just like they drove the men
Oh, oh, oh

Go down old Hannah, don’t you rise no more
Oh, oh, oh
Don’t you rise again till the judgement days for sure
Oh, oh, oh

Captain don’t you do me like you’ve done old Shine
Oh, oh, oh
You drive that poor boy till he’s gone stone-blind
Oh, oh, oh

Ain’t no more cane on the Brazos
Oh, oh, oh
They ground it all up for molasses
Oh, oh, oh

Come on, rise up you people and lift up your head
Oh, oh, oh
You will find your freedom but you’ll still end up dead
Oh, oh, oh

Ain’t no more cane on the Brazos
Oh, oh, oh
They ground it all up for molasses
Oh, oh, oh