Trouble in the Fields

Driving home this afternoon I found myself sandwiched between 18 wheelers and cars and trucks in a seemingly endless stream of tail lights stretching into the distance.  It's the drive home.  Concrete.  Asphalt.  Exhaust fumes.  Impatient commuters.  All of us wanting to get home. 

For some reason, I began singing the lyrics to a song I hadn't heard in years - "Trouble in the Fields," by Nanci Griffith.  Nanci Griffith is a folk musician and songwriter from Texas who has a real gift.  Why on earth did that song pop into my head?  I suppose it was the subconscious juxtaposition of the concrete stretching out before me on I-10 with the fertile fields that lie just beyond my windshield.

Indeed, farming has its share of struggles and disappointments.  The anguish of commuters who are inconvenienced by a stalled car or accident that causes all lanes to merge to one, pales in comparison to farmers facing commodity prices in free-fall, or drought, or too much rain, or crop failure that threatens to destroy the only way of life they've ever known and send them into bankruptcy or financial ruin despite back-breaking hard work.  Doesn't seem right.

Nanci Griffith speaks to this in her song "Trouble in the Fields."  She sings of hardships on the farm and dreams evaporating.  Bankers are ready to foreclose, people are throwing in the towel, and memories of the Great Depression and dust-bowl days that your grandparents told you about come flooding back.  The children have left the family farm and moved off to the city in search of the "good life," an easier existence, a steady and dependable paycheck and they no longer even want it to rain as their interest in the weather is related to recreation and not making a living.  Food comes from the store now, right?

But Nanci sings that there is hope.  Even though there's trouble, if the husband and wife stick together and work hard, the rains will come in due season.  With crops fertilized by sweat and tears (and prayers), come harvest time, it'll all work out for there is love in those troubled fields!

I posted the lyrics to the song below.  If you click the arrow below the lyrics, you can hear Nanci Griffith sing this poignant song about being resolute and sticking it out when the going is rough and you have a long row to hoe!  Enjoy:

Baby I know that we've got trouble in the fields

When the bankers swarm like locust out there turning away our yield

The trains roll by our silos, silver in the rain

They leave our pockets full of nothing

But our dreams and the golden grain

Have you seen the folks in line downtown at the station

They're all buying their ticket out and talking the great depression

Our parents had their hard times fifty years ago

When they stood out in these empty fields in dust as deep as snow

And all this trouble in our fields

If this rain can fall, these wounds can heal

They'll never take our native soil

But if we sell that new John Deere

And then we'll work these crops with sweat and tears

You'll be the mule I'll be the plow

Come harvest time we'll work it out

There's still a lotta love, here in these troubled fields

There's a book up on the shelf about the dust bowl days

And there's a little bit of you and a little bit of me

In the photos on every page

Now our children live in the city and they rest upon our shoulders

They never want the rain to fall or the weather to get colder

And all this trouble in our fields

If this rain can fall, these wounds can heal

They'll never take our native soil

But if we sell that new John Deere

And then we'll work these crops with sweat and tears

You'll be the mule I'll be the plow

Come harvest time we'll work it out

There's still a lotta love, here in these troubled fields

You'll be the mule I'll be the plow

Come harvest time we'll work it out

There's still a lotta love, here in these troubled fields