"High Water Everywhere" is a

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

song recorded in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

by noted blues singer

Charley Patton Charley Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), also known as Charlie Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of American mus ...

. The song is about the

Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with inundated in depths of up to over the course of several months in early 1927. The uninflated cost of the damage has been estimat ...

and how it affected residents of the Mississippi Delta, particularly the mistreatment of

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

. Patton recorded it during his second session with

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

, in late 1929; his recordings from this session are frequently considered his best works.

Background and lyrical content

The song's subject is the

, the largest flood in American history, which affected much of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

valley, devastating large parts of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

and the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

, the home of Patton and many other early bluesmen. The flood exposed inequalities in the treatment of African Americans, and its outcome was a contributing factor to the exodus of many blacks to northern cities. Patton's lyrics include: Patton was likely referring to the levee in Greenville, Mississippi, where black people were held in the aftermath of the flood and not allowed to leave. They were bound to the custody of the landowners for whom they served as sharecroppers and could not go where they wanted to. The song features Patton's intense vocals and rapid beating on the guitar body. It is regarded as one of the finest of his recordings and considered by some his

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

paid tribute to the song in his 2001 "

High Water (For Charley Patton) "High Water (For Charley Patton)" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the seventh track on his 31st studio album '' "Love and Theft"'' in 2001 and anthologized on the compilation album ''Dylan' ...

References

{{authority control Songs about floods Songs about rivers Songs about the Mississippi River Songs about the American South Blues songs Charley Patton songs 1927 songs Paramount Records singles