Queen of the Avenue (feat. The McCrary Sisters & Sam Bush)

My daddy worked the Paw Paw tunnel, never was quite the same

Between the black soot dust and the voodoo, plenty scrambling his brain

He moved everybody up to Baltimore city, trying to work in the factory

Until they all shut down and he started running from Pigtown to West 33

I was born on the doorstep of the watch house round Powers Street

With a line a few deep on the sidewalk, hanging round my mama's feet

Everybody knew me as Junior, but the secret rumor nicknames I knew

But when I became the boss I said, how's about you call me the queen of the avenue

Well we're never going back to the cold, cold holler

Ain't no way to make a dollar, no no

Daddy's working days are through, and I'm the queen of the avenue

I was standing by the farm store when the law come up in an unmarked ride

Said hey there miss what's your business", started to frisk me, and I laughed inside

Well daddy had his faults but he surely taught me all the ways to earn my stripes

That's why I hid the real batch in the knapsack in the stroller tucked inside the baby wipes

Never going back to the cold, cold holler

Ain't no way to make a dollar, no no

But I'll be working til the whole day's through

Cuz I'm the queen of the avenue

Penny make a nickel, nickel make a dime, dime make somebody lose his mind

Everybody trying to make it through, come see the queen of the avenue