Karaoké Swamp Witch Jim Stafford

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp where the strange green reptiles crawl

Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees like sausage on a smokehouse wall

Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes and all of them watchin' you

Stay off the track to Hattie's shack in the back of the Black Bayou

Way up the road from Hattie's shack lies a sleepy little

Okeechobee town

Talk of swamp witch

Hattie lock you in when the sun go down

Rumors of what she'd done

Rumors of what she'd do

Kept folks off the track of Hattie's shack in the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on and the swamp water overflowed

'Skeeters and the fever grabbed the town like a fist

Doc Jackson was the first to go

Some say the plague was brought by Hattie

There was talk of a hangin' too

But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles from the bowels of the Black Bayou

Early one morn' 'tween dark and dawn when shadows fill the sky

There came an unseen caller on a town where hope had run dry

In the square there was found a big black round vat full of gurglin' brew

Whisperin' sounds as the folk gathered 'round

It came from the Black Bayou

There ain't much pride when you're trapped inside a slowly sinkin' ship

They scooped up the liquid deep and green and the whole town took a sip

Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue

Let's thank old Hattie for savin' our town

We'll fetch her from the Black Bayou

Party of ten of the town's best men headed for Hattie's shack

Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good and they're gonna bring

Hattie back

Never found Hattie and they never found the shack

Never made the trip back in

There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump

Said Don't come lookin' again