Synopsis
A young boy wakes up "before the rooster crows" and searches for soda bottles to cash in. He gives the money to a man named Curtis Loew, who buys wine and plays his Dobro guitar for the boy all day. Curtis is described as a "black man with white curly hair" and the boy idolizes him, returning despite whuppings by his mama to hear the old man play, clapping his hands and trying to stay in time. "People said you was useless," the boy recalls. "Those people all were fools." Instead Curtis is "the finest picker to ever play the blues", the boy professes.
Curtis eventually dies and the boy notes that nobody "came to pray". The song ends with a lament to Curtis: "I wish you was here so everyone would know."
Read more about this topic: The Ballad Of Curtis Loew