Key: E major
Verse 1
When Nehemiah Curtis was a child
Mama worked in cooking for the world
to see Papa making whiskey on the side
to preach the blues
Preach it, Oh, bop it, dude.
Well, he grew to see hard
labor on the levee
Logging and sharecropping
on the woodbine
He did some bootlegging
down in Bentonnia
And he ran away to Texas for a time
Bm
D
Back when the music was born
Nehemiah, is me, God, calling you
preach the blues
Hallelujah
Oh, Nehemiah, then say
Mr. Stuckey and Simms
were making music,
singing with the boys down at the fish fry,
and that was his biggest inspiration,
give me that guitar
and let me have a try,
and my heart has begun calling
to preach the blues
Preach it, Oh, Papa did
That's right
Now he met H .C. down in Jackson
Sayin' come to Grafton and
I'll make you a star
Twenty -six cents for the Paramount label
Just a lonely man and his guitar
Nehemiah, this is God calling you
Said I'm calling you to
preach the blues
Whoo, preach it, son
Papa did
All right
No, he used to sing the blues,
but then he got religion
Papa said, son,
you need to serve the Lord
Every Sunday mornin' the man
is preachin' the blues
Cuz the gospel and blues
is foldin' hands
works of the devil,
Got to sing in the full gospel band
Sing it now, sing it, sing it, son
Well, by now you know the whole story
They found old Skipper 64
And he went down to Newport
with Mississippi John
And band director signed him to a deal
And when Eric sang,
I'm so glad Nehemiah finally
got something
That's when people started talking,
and they called the man
by the name of Skip James.
I said, maybe you don't like it,
and maybe you don't understand,
since the Holy Spirit gave
a voice to the man.
And the last time we saw him,
he was pining,
And it was cancer that got him in the end
He had a faraway look in his eyes
And he said, Jesus is my only friend
God Almighty
Nehemiah
Curtis James
How did you like the song?
TunerE A D G B E
ChordsD Bm
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