song profile

Produced by Will Kimbrough. 
Tells the true story of the struggle to hold onto the Greer, SC farm that has been in Angela's family since 1791.

They’ve got telephone poles where our trees had been 
They ripped up our pasture, put a sidewalk in, 
Yeah, the big voice of Progress said, “You’ve gotta go!” 
“We’re gonna lay us a black-top road, We’re gonna lay us a black-top road” 

Well they tore down the house my great granddaddy built, 
Where my grandpa was born and my Mama took her first steps. 
But nobody cared about the stories it told, 
The spot was just right for a black-top road, 
Was the perfect spot for a black-top road. 

Black-top road, black top road, they’re gonna lay them a black-top road. 
Don’t you try to complain, you just do as you’re told, 
Get out the way of that black-top road. 

Grandma planted these flowers back when she was my age. 
And they still bloom here every year, ‘though she’s gone to her grave. 
But they won’t be here tomorrow and that I know, 
They’re gonna pave ‘em right over with a Black-top Road, 
Cover ‘em over with a black-top road. 

We cried, “This can’t happen in the U.S.A”. 
They said, “You’d better shut up or we’ll take your farm away” 
But then they’d thought they’d be friendly, maybe throw us a bone: 
They slapped our family name on that Black-Top Road. 
Now our family name’s on that Black-Top Road.