Songwriter Talks Sugar Creek

by Evan Watson

I’ve tried to write a song about Sugar Creek. Many times. It always starts out the same: “Take me down to Sugar Creek (yada yada yada) where the water’s sweet…It’s where I want to be.” I never knew why I couldn’t finish it until now. The song doesn’t work because of the line “where the water’s sweet.” I could never truthfully describe the Sugar Creek as sweet. Sour, warm, clay-colored, stagnant, murky, rocky, but sweet? Probably not. Sugar Creek is hardy and resilient; it’s full of crawdads and crinoids, Northern water snakes and Smallmouth Bass. Let’s face it; “Sugar Creek” sounds like it could be adjacent to Gum Drop Mountain on the “Candyland” board. I couldn’t sleep at night knowing that I wrote a song that facilitated that kind of imagery. It deserves a more appropriate lyric.

But maybe it’s inappropriate to speak of Sugar Creek in static terms. Its momentum is always forward, its course is ever-changing. I can’t imagine that any free-moving waterway should be frozen by the Polaroid of nostalgia. This is illustrated by the uniform disappointment that comes with the beginning of every fishing season.

Without fail, I slosh downstream about 100 yards from the Yountsville Bridge armed with a Fly rod, expecting to fish the deep pocket or fast channel of the past year only to find the landscape has completely changed. Aesthetically, it seems the same, but under a fishermen’s microscope it’s couldn’t be more different. That’s what brings me back to that creek. Its movement, its heart beat (and the smallmouth bass that fight like Mako Sharks).

I have grown alongside the creek; From a Hose Elementary student collecting fossils on its banks, to a fisherman fighting the strength of its stubborn inhabitants, to a Clements Canoes employee facilitating its passage for many others, and finally a singer/songwriter returning to pay my respects. It’s in my blood. Sugar creek gave me the gifts of patience, grace, and serenity. I hope I can give a little something back.

Evan Watson is a New York-based recording artist.