From the recording Sarah Barker & Gypsy Twang
The first time I heard Monica sing and play this song was in a cabin at Greenleaf State Park. I was struck by its haunting simplicity, and have wanted to record it for some time.
She wrote it after visiting the Blue Ridge Mountains with her mother and spending time along the Ocoee, Nantahala and Hiawassee rivers.
‘Ocoee Love Song’ paints a stark and emotional picture of life for the women left behind during the Civil War to fend for themselves while their men were in battle.
Since reading Cold Mountain by Charles Frasier and seeing the movie, I always thought this would have made the perfect theme song.
Lyrics
The Bluecoats weren’t kind, like I told you
And it was Sister and me and Buckshot that they found
Cold ain’t the word for winter in the mountains
That we chopped and hunted, laid your ma in the ground
Letters I’d write to console
When you’re so far away, it don’t do no good to be told
Just a girl when you left me
But a woman is now what you see
It was sisters and mamas and sweethearts all a waitin’
For the war to send our men back home to our needs
If there’s anything to bring you back to the mountain
It’s the river, my love and the springtime
So flow my Ocoee, flow down through the Blue Ridge
My Nantahala and my Hiawassee
Just a girl when you left me
But a woman is now what you see
So flow my Ocoee, Nantahala
My Hiawassee