Ain't No More Cane

"Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos" (/ˈbræzəs/ ^ⓘ BRAZ-əs) is a traditional prison work song of the Southern United States. The title and lyrics allude to prison work gangs cutting sugar cane as hard labor along the banks of the Brazos River in Texas, where many of the state's prison farms were located in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The song has been recorded and covered many times, including by Alan Lomax, The Band, and Bob Dylan. It is sometimes attributed to Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter); while he did make several recordings of a short version of it, titled "Go Down, Ol' Hannah", the song did not originate with him and most versions sung are not derived specifically from his lyrics.^[1] Lomax understood its source to be the Texas prison community.^[2]

The song relates the harsh conditions of prison labor on the Brazos: the narrator contemplates making an escape and describes members of the work gang succumbing to exhaustion, wind chill, and heat stroke, linking the prospect of their rising again to the rising of the sun (called "Old Hannah") and the coming of the Last Judgment: "If you rise any more, bring Judgment Day [with you]."^[3] Some versions of the song contain the line "Wake up, dead man", which is the source of the name of folklorist Bruce Jackson's 1972 work Wake Up Dead Man: Afro-American Worksongs from Texas Prisons (later re-subtitled: Hard Labor and Southern Blues);^[4] it also inspired the title of Rian Johnson's 2025 film Wake Up Dead Man.^[5]

It has been recorded by Alan Lomax on his 1958 recording Texas Folk Songs Sung by Alan Lomax as "Ain't No More Cane on This Brazis", Odetta, Lonnie Donegan, the Limeliters on their album 14 14K Folksongs (1963), Son Volt on the album A Retrospective: 1995-2000, and The Band on the album Across the Great Divide. Bob Dylan also performed the song live in the early 1960s^[6] and his version is on multiple bootleg recordings taken from The Gaslight Cafe. An extensive set of lyrics to the song, as sung by inmates of Central State Farm near Houston, Texas, appears in folklorist John Lomax's book American Ballads and Folk Songs, originally published in 1934. Lomax collected another version of the song in a recording of a performance by Ernest Williams and James (Iron Head) Baker; the recording appears on the Document Records album Field Recordings, Vol. 6: Texas (1933-1958).

In 2006, Band of Heathens with their distinctive arrangement included it on their Live at Momo's album. In 2007 Lyle Lovett released two versions of the tune on his album It's Not Big, It's Large. On February 16, 2008, Lovett and John Hiatt performed the song live at the Ulster Performing Arts Center in Kingston, New York, along with The Band's Garth Hudson. On February 14, 2013, Lovett also performed this song with friend Robert Earl Keen at Rudder Auditorium on the campus of their Alma mater, Texas A&M University.

"Ain't No More Cane" is featured in the film Festival Express, where Rick Danko, Janis Joplin, John "Marmaduke" Dawson, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and various other musicians drunkenly sing it while on the train going to the next concert on the tour.

The song, as "No More Cane on the Brazos", was also covered by the singer Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame for his 1990 solo-album Naked Thunder. The Chad Mitchell Trio recorded the song on their 1963 album Singin' our Mind. Other covers include The Black Crowes. Chris Smither also covered "No More Cane on the Brazos" on his 1998 CD "Happier Blue". Bill Staines recorded the song on his 1975 album Miles.

It was also covered by Lonnie Donnegan in 1958 and by Canadian band Crowbar on Larger than Life (And Live'r than You've Ever Been) (1971, Daffodil 2-SBA-16007) (recorded in concert at Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada). A version of this song is also recorded by The Wood Brothers on their live album Live Vol.2 Nail & Tooth. The song's lyric "Captain don't you do me like you done poor old Shine" was the inspiration for Poor Old Shine, the previous band name for the band Parsonsfield.

The song has also been covered by the band The Magpie Salute, consisting of former Black Crowes members Rich Robinson, Marc Ford, and Sven Pipien. It can be found on their mostly live debut album, "The Magpie Salute".

The lyrics as reported by Alan Lomax in 1966 are as follows:^[7]

The lyrics to The Band's version, which are partly derived from Lead Belly's "Go Down, Ol' Hannah" version, are as follows:^[8]

Ain't no more cane on the Brazos

It's all been ground down to molasses

You shoulda been on the river in 1910

They were driving the women just like they drove the men.

Go down Old Hannah, don'cha rise no more

Don't you rise up til Judgement Day's for sure

Ain't no more cane on the Brazos

It's all been ground down to molasses

Captain don't you do me like you done poor old Shine

Well ya drove that bully til he went stone blind

Wake up on a lifetime, hold up your own head

Well you may get a pardon and then you might drop dead

Ain't no more cane on the Brazos

It's all been ground down to molasses.

A version The Band performed with Bob Dylan on the Basement Tapes includes the following as a second verse:

Shoulda been on the river in nineteen and four

They were finding the dead bodies in every single door.

• Ground Down to Molasses: The Making of an American Folk Song