Songfacts®:

• This piano-accented ode to the river is a track from American folk-rock artist Lissie's debut album, Catching a Tiger. The song was co-written with English singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt, who she met through a mutual friend.
• Lissie explained the inspiration for this song to The Sun June 19, 2010; "I grew up alongside the Mississippi. Music travels in the water of that river. It's how people have always got around, how ideas spread. But there's a darkness to it as well - it casts a shadow because of all the lives it has taken. I'd been away from that area for a long time and, as I began to embrace my roots, I felt inspired to write this song. Ed Harcourt was playing the piano and the lyrics just flowed."