Patrick Davis, South Carolina Poet Laureate

 

I didn't know Patrick Davis, South Carolina's new poet laureate, so I did some hunting.

Born in Tennessee, reared in Camden, educated at the University of South Carolina, lives and works in Nashville now. One of Davis's many songs is titled "Black Jesus," which he wrote with another Nashville performer, Channing Wilson. Black Jesus was recorded by Jason Eady for his self-titled album back in 2017.

The song calls to mind "Rueben James," which was recorded by Kenny Rogers and the Fifth Edition back in the late '60s. That song was written by Alex Harvey and Barry Etris.

Both Black Jesus and Rueben James are about cross-racial friendships -- one between workmates and the other between an abandoned child and the man who became his guardian.

I think both songs try to narrow the distance between the races by focusing on individual cases. I think the world is certainly better for them having been written, but I also think the complex dynamics of the men who are at the center of the stories and the worlds they inhabit are difficult, if not impossible, to accurately reflect in 3 minutes.

Still, the world is richer because the songs exist.

Black Jesus

Well, I was eighteen workin' on a road crew in Georgia

And he was a Vietnam vet from Tennessee

He held the posts while I drove the hammer

Rain or shine, side by side, five days a week

And he taught me the blues

And I'd sing for him old Hank Williams tunes

And he'd say, "Boy, the only difference between us

Is your white and my black Jesus"

Well the pay, it was barely legal

And I wasted mine on cigarettes and booze

His went to his woman and his children

And the rest he'd bet on anything that moves

And he taught me the blues

And I'd sing for him old Hank Williams tunes

And he'd say, "Boy, the only difference between us

Is your white and my black Jesus"

Well, I awoke last night to the sound of thunder

And my mind drifted back to that old man

Oh, and I ain't seen him since I left Georgia

Oh, but something tells me we'll meet again

And he taught me the blues

And I'd sing for him ol' Willie Nelson tunes

And he'd say, "Boy, the only difference between us

Is your white and my black Jesus"

When we meet again they'll be nothing between us

It'll just be him, and me, and Jesus