This is a Roscoe Holcomb song, though I've been pretty swayed by versions from James Leva as well as Jim Miller, Jeb Puryear, Tara Nevins, and Richie Stearns.
I forgot the lyrics mid-song at one point and had to craft some of my own and they stuck.
lyrics
Boat's up the river
and I won't come down.
Well I believe to my soul
that I'm waterbound.
Well I went down to that river
and I laid right down.
If the blues overtakes me
I'll jump in that river and drown.
I went down to that river,
laid my rocking chair.
If the blues overtakes me
I'll rock away from there.
Boat's up the river
and I won't come down.
Well I believe to my soul
that I'm waterbound.
I went down to that railway
and I lay on the track.
Let the passing freight train
roll and take me back.
Boat's up the river
and I won't come down.
Well I believe to my soul
that I'm waterbound.
If the river was whiskey
and I was a duck.
Well I'd sink to the bottom
and I'd never come up.
But that river ain't whiskey
and I ain't no duck.
Well I'll play on fiddle
and I'll keep testing my luck.
Boat's up the river
and I won't come down.
Well I believe to my soul
that I'm waterbound.
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