Levon Helm joins Steve Earle on Copperhead Road

Acclaimed drummer and vocalist for The Band Levon Helm has a new album out, Electric Dirt. One cut, “Growing Trade,” is about a struggling farmer who is barely getting by and might lose the farm. He decides to do a different kind of growing.

I got to do what I can to survive
I know the law won’t be forgiving
But that’ll be the choice I made
I used to farm for a living
But now I’m in the growing trade.

“Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle is about a guy whose grandfather and father were bootleggers. But he’s moving with the times, and has a new idea.

I volunteered for the Army on my birthday
They draft the white trash first,’round here anyway
I done two tours of duty in Vietnam
And I came home with a brand new plan
I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico
I plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road
Well the D.E.A.’s got a chopper in the air
I wake up screaming like I’m back over there
I learned a thing or two from ol’ Charlie don’t you know
You better stay away from Copperhead Road

Just some small independent businessmen changing with the times. Hey, the Mexican drug cartels make most their money from marijuana. Small farmers are growing it too. Let’s legalize it.