In Tune by Ben Wynne

Author:Ben Wynne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2014-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Man, the water was risin’ at places all around,

boy, they’s all around

It was fifty men and children come to sink and drown

Oh, Lordy, women and grown men drown

Oh, women and children sinkin’ down Lord, have mercy

I couldn’t see nobody’s home and wasn’t no one to be found.

The Patton song that perhaps more than any other showcased both the bluesman’s wit and his ability to weave local experiences and personalities into an appealing whole was “Tom Rushen Blues.” An embellished account of one of Patton’s periodic arrests for drunkenness, the song was set in Merigold in Bolivar County, Mississippi, where the bluesman spent a good deal of time. It was part documentary and part satire that included a cast of real characters including Bolivar County Sheriff Tom Day, who was up for reelection at the time Patton composed the tune, and an African American bootlegger named Holloway. The star of the song was Deputy Ottis Washington “Tom” Rushen Sr., whose last name was actually spelled “Rushing” and who had picked up the nickname “Tom” as a child. It was standard practice in the Delta shortly before elections for the sheriff and his men to lock up local black bootleggers and their patrons in an effort to create the impression that they were being tough on crime, and then release the prisoners once all the ballots had been cast and counted.23 At the beginning of “Tom Rushen Blues” it was Tom Rushen himself who wakes Patton up from a drunken stupor:

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