- Old Sammie: You know something? Maybe once a week, I wake up paralyzed reliving that night. But before the sun went down, I think that was the best day of my life. Was it like that for you?
- Stack: No doubt about it. Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours, we was free.
- Sammie Moore: I don't think you should be here. See, I'm with the twins.
- Mary: With the twins? Boy, if you don't get the fuck outta my face.
- Delta Slim: See, white folks, they like the blues just fine. They just don't like the people who make it.
- Remmick: I am your way out. This world already left you for dead. Won't let you build. Won't let you fellowship. We will do just that. Together. Forever.
- Mary: You know, I waited for you.
- Stack: Shit, I don't know how the hell you gon' do that.
- Mary: Because you told me you loved me.
- Stack: Well, I told you to stay the fuck away from me too, but I guess you didn't hear that part, huh?
- Mary: I heard you. I heard you loud and clear, but then you stuck your tongue in my cooze and fucked me so hard I figured you changed your mind.
- Smoke: Come tomorrow, I find out about you playing in one of these, boy, I'll kill you myself.
- Sammie Moore: Look, I'm leaving that plantation just like y'all did. And if that's a problem for you, kill me now.
- Smoke: [Smoke aims gun at Sammie and cocks the hammer back] What's the matter? I'm a soldier, boy, and you just gave me a command.
- Remmick: [as Cornbread urinates] Is that Cornbread? Hey. Fellowship and love. Hey, Cornbread... peekaboo!
- Cornbread: I ain't got time for one of your schemes Stack. I'm behind on my quota.
- Stack: Man, fuck your quota.
- Cornbread: Stack, this is my wife!
- Stack: Yeah, well fuck your wife too.
- Cornbread: [in a threatening tone] What'd you say?
- Stack: When she hears how much money I'm gonna pay you, she'll give you that good fucking. None of that slow and loving shit. She might even let you put your pecker in her mouth.
- Cornbread: You should have stayed gone, cause now I'm gonna beat the black off you!
- [his wife holds out an arm to stop him]
- Therise: How much?
- [Cornbread looks at her stunned]
- Stack: Now that is a good woman!
- Pearline: I'm married, by the way.
- Sammie Moore: Happily?
- Pearline: Careful, boy. You gon' bite more than you can chew.
- Sammie Moore: Maybe I'll see you tonight
- Annie: [voice over--spoken twice during the movie] There are legends of people... born with the gift of making music so true, it can pierce the veil between life and death. Conjuring spirits from the past... and the future. In Ancient Ireland, they were called Fili. In Choctaw land, they call them Firekeepers. And in West Africa, they're called griots. This gift can bring healing to their communities but it also attracts evil.
- Remmick: Long ago... the men who stole my father's land forced these words upon us. I hated those men, but the words still bring me comfort. Those men lied to themselves and lied to us. They told stories of a God above and a Devil below. And lies of a dominion of man over beast and Earth. We are earth and beast, and god. We are woman and man. We are connected, you and I - to everything.
- [...]
- Remmick: You will taste the sweet pain of death. We will make beautiful music together.
- Extra: Y'all some fancy niggas ain't ya?
- Stack: All right, listen. Every cooze got a button on it, towards the top. If you wanna keep a woman, you find it lick that. Not too hard. Not too soft, either. You ever had a scoop of that ice cream from downtown?
- Sammie Moore: Uh-huh.
- Stack: 'Bout the same pressure you put on that. Like it taste good, but you don't want it gone too quickly, you understand?
- Sammie Moore: Hey, how fast this thing drive?
- Stack: Too damn fast. Why? You wanna drive
- Sammie Moore: Come on, you know I wanna drive.
- Stack: Later. On the way back.
- Sammie Moore: All right, all right. You always said you would tell me what happened to your daddy when I got older. Well, I guess I'm older. Y'all really kill him?
- Stack: Nah, we ain't kill him. Smoke did. Our daddy knocked me unconscious. By the time I came to. Smoke was halfway done buryin' him
- Sammie Moore: He used to beat y'all?
- Stack: Me, mostly. But he ain't mean it. See you been takin' good care of that thing.
- Sammie Moore: Hey, I can't thank you all enough for this. Plays so right. Where'd I get this from anyway?
- Stack: Yeah, that's, uh, Charley Pattons guitar. Me and my brother want it off him in a card game.
- Sammie Moore: Hold on, Stack. You mean to tell me I had Charley Pattons guitar this whole time?
- Stack: Swear 'fore God in your hands.
- Sammie Moore: Nah.
- Stack: Now let's see if you can play like him.
- Sammie Moore: Right here?
- Stack: Yeah, right now. Come on.
- Sammie Moore: All right. Come on. Watch this.
- [He starts playing blues riff]
- Sammie Moore: Traveling. I don't know where in the world I'm goin' tpTraveling, I don't know where in the world I'm goin'.
- Stack: Hoo hoo, boy!
- Sammie Moore: Cause the woman that I'm lovin' she sure don't feel like that
- Stack: We gon' make some money. We gon' make some money.
- Delta Slim: [explaining to Sammie] Blues wasn't forced on us like that religion. Nah, son, we brought that with us from home. It's magic what we do. It's sacred... and big.
- Sammie Moore: Delta Slim.
- Delta Slim: Yeah, I thank you for your generosity. I guess that Chicago wind blew your black asses back down here, huh? Who the boy?
- Stack: This my little cousin. Preacherboy Sammie. Happens to be the finest blues player in all the Delta.
- Delta Slim: I got socks older than this here boy. What the hell he know about the blues?
- Sammie Moore: [holding up his guitar] I can show you better than I can tell you.
- Delta Slim: Hold up, now. Put down that motherfucker...
- Stack: Put that away.
- Delta Slim: Now, this here my patch right here. Now, you wasn't his cousin and a young pup to boot. I'd cut your ass too thin to fry.
- Stack: And you threaten him again I'mma make your drunk ass swallow that harmonica. You still nice with them keys?
- Delta Slim: Depend on who you ask.
- Stack: I'll give you $20 to come play at our juke tonight.
- Delta Slim: Yeah, I wish I could. I'mma be at Messengers tonight same as I am every Saturday night.
- Stack: What they pay you?
- Delta Slim: For a gangster, you sure ask a lot of questions.
- Stack: They ain't paying you $20 a night, I know that.
- Delta Slim: You ain't paying no $20 a night. You payin' $20, maybe, tonight. I ain't never heard of your juke. Maybe it's here tonight, is it here tomorrow night? The week after that? Nah. I've been at Messengers every Saturday night for the last ten years. Messenger's gon' be there another ten years after that, at least. Shit. That's probably more time than I got left on this earth, Stack. I play, and I get as much corn liquor as I can drink. A sinner like me, I can't ask for more than that.
- Stack: Know what, Slim? I'll drink to that.
- [He takes out and opens up a bottle of liquor]
- Delta Slim: Ooh. What you got there, boy?
- Stack: Oh, this? It's a Irish beer. Straight from the north side of Chicago.
- Delta Slim: You sayin' that's beer?
- Stack: Wind didn't bring us down here empty-handed.
- [He hands Slim the bottle]
- Delta Slim: [chuckles] Give me that.
- [He takes a drink from the bottle]
- Delta Slim: my goodness.
- Delta Slim: I got 500 more bottles just like that. Ice cold. Say we pay you $40 a night, and all the beer that you can drink. After that, no strings. You act now, I'll even let you finish that bottle in your hand.
- [Slim and Sammie are performing]
- Delta Slim: These two gon' be playin' down at the old sawmill. It's the grand openin' of our new joint. Club Juke. We gon' have us a battle of the blues. It's gon' be a real-ring-a-ding-ding. Just for us. Y'all ready to eat? Y'all ready to drink? Y'all ready to sweat till y'all stank. All right. We gon' to get funky like a Mississippi donkey y'all. Get a drink on the Twins when you get there.
- Sammie Moore: So tell me about Chicago. I heard they ain't got Jim Crow up there. Black man can go where he wants.
- Smoke: Listen boy, you can't be believin' everything that you hear. Town'll fill your head with this make believe, but me and your cousin, we gon' give it to you straight. Chicago ain't nuthin' but Mississippi with tall buildings instead of plantations.
- Stack: That's why we came back home. Figured we might as well deal with the devil we know.
- Smoke: You Hogwood?
- Hogwood: You boys twins?
- Stack: [sarcastically] Nah, we cousins.
- Hogwood: Well. Here she is. He moved a ton of timber a month back in his heyday. Workers lived upstairs. Say, what are you fellas planning on doing with the place?
- Stack: Y'all wash these floors?
- Hogwood: Yeah.
- Smoke: What was on 'em?
- Hogwood: I thought y'all was dead set on buying the place. More time I spend with y'all, the less sure I am you boys are serious about it.
- Smoke: Ain't no "boys" here.
- Stack: Just grown men. With grown-men money.
- Smoke: And grown-men bullets
- Hogwood: I didn't mean nothin' by it. Just the way we talk down here.
- Smoke: We'll take it. The mill, the equipment, and the land that it's standing on.
- Hogwood: [looking at the briefcase full of money] Well, Damn!
- Smoke: Now, understand, it's the last dime you ever gonna to see from us. And if we see you, or any one of your Klan buddies cross our property line, we gonna kill 'em right where they stand.
- Hogwood: Shit. Klan don't exist no more.
- Sammie Moore: [Stack, Delta Slim and Sammie are driving by a chain gang at work] Hey, you know some of them?
- Delta Slim: All of 'em.
- Sammie Moore: What happened?
- Delta Slim: Me and my buddy Rice, we was hustlin' back and forth up the delta, we got busted for vagrancy. Them white sheriffs take us down to the jailhouse... that was empty. I thought for sure they was gonna kill us that night. But they gave us our instruments back, and they tell us to play. Stack, we played. Preacherboy, we played, you hear me? Music was comin' out the windows. People on the street was stoppin' to come in. Next day, one of them sheriffs got the bright idea they gonna take us on the road now. They cover us and throw us in the paddy wagon. They take us to this big house. I mean, it's full of white folks. Pass around their hats and have us to play. See, them white folks we playin' for, they had real money.
- Sammie Moore: Had y'all playing them old ragtime songs?
- Delta Slim: We played a fair amount of blues too. See, white folks, they like the blues just fine. They just don't like the people who make it. Them peckerwoods was noddin' their heads, stompin' their feet. Some of 'em was almost in rhythm, Stack. And then Rice and me, we changed it up, confuse 'em.
- Sammie Moore: What y'all do with the money?
- Delta Slim: Drank it.
- Annie: What you come back for?
- Smoke: We bought that old sawmill. Yeah, we gon' patch it up, make it into a juke joint.
- Annie: A juke joint. This one of Stack's ideas?
- Smoke: Yeah, he figure tonight gonna be a grand opening.
- Annie: I thought y'all was done with the Delta. Last I heard, y'all were northern men.
- Smoke: Nah, we through with Chicago.
- Annie: Chicago through with y'all?
- Smoke: What you asking?
- Annie: Who you and Stack robbed to get enough money for them crackers to sell you a whole mill?
- Sammie Moore: Mornin' Pop.
- Jedidiah: You're up awful early, son.
- Sammie Moore: Like you say, jump on the work don't let the work jump on you.
- Jedidiah: That's right.
- Sammie Moore: Finished my quota for the day.
- [Notices the guitar]
- Jedidiah: Yeah. I brought it in here. I want you to help me give my sermon tomorrow. First Corinthians, 10:13. Read.
- Sammie Moore: No temptation has overtaken you, except what is common to mankind. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you're tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. Now, Pop if you don't mind, I'm gon' be late.
- Jedidiah: Late for what, boy? Where you gotta that's more important then being in the House of God?
- Sammie Moore: I've been workin' all week, Pop. Wanna be free of all this for a day.
- Jedidiah: To play music? For drunkards? Philanderers, who shirk their responsibilities to their families so they can sweat all over each other?
- Sammie Moore: I'll be back in time for service in the morning.
- Jedidiah: Son? You keep dancing with the devil one day, he's gonna follow you home.
- Stack: Hey, lil' cousin. Come on out. Got two dollars out here waiting on a dime.
- [Sammie goes out to be with his cousins]
- Jedidiah: Samuel!
- Stack: Aw, don't you worry now, uncle Jed. We gon' get him back to you in one piece.
- Mary: What's wrong stack?
- Stack: We underwater.
- Mary: How?
- Stack: All the plantations down there payin' with credits.
- Mary: What about them crackers?
- Stack: What about 'em?
- Mary: I can go feel 'em out before they're too far gone.
- Stack: I could feel 'em out myself.
- Mary: They'll tell me more than they'll tell you. And I can find out what they really have.
- Stack: And what happens if they're from Little Rock?
- Mary: They ain't. Let me go get this money for us. I know y'all need it.
- Stack: And what's that supposed to mean?
- Mary: Irish beer? Italian wine? You rob both sides. Let 'em blame each other while you and Smoke come down here and set up shop. You gon' to need every dime you can get when they put two and two together.
- Stack: But they won't.
- Mary: They might. Let me go talk to them, and see about puttin' something real on the till. Come on.
- [He hands her a gun]
- Sammie Moore: They said you wanna talk.
- Smoke: Yeah. Seen your performance down there. Pretty damn good.
- Sammie Moore: Can't thank you enough for this. I mean, y'all the ones who put that guitar in my hand. Now this.
- Smoke: Well, you got the talent. That's for certain. But all this ain't no life for nobody. I know plenty of musicians I ain't never met a happy one. Yeah, it's cute now. But it get old. That ramblin'.
- Sammie Moore: I mean being with y'all today... Smoke, I feel like I'm flying. Well, today settled it. I'm headin' off on my own.
- Smoke: Where you goin'?
- Sammie Moore: I don't know. Maybe Chicago.
- Smoke: Hmm. One day our daddy beat Stack real bad. So we get in our minds that we need to run away. See, me, I wanna go to the next plantation over. But Stack, he figured we get to Mound Bayou. Small town. Right here in Mississippi. Founded by free slaves. And everything is Black-owned.
- Sammie Moore: That sound like a crock.
- Smoke: Yeah, well, I seen it.
- Sammie Moore: Why y'all ain't stay?
- Smoke: That mayor knew who our daddy was. Knew he was a evil man. Figured it was no way that he ain't passed that evil down to us. See, your daddy a preacher. You can go and do that. You like makin' music? Make church music. You wan' leave go on down Mound Bayou. Live with the proper Black folks. Leave all this here improper shit to us.
- Sammie Moore: Well, I ain't going to Mound Bayou. My daddy a reverend, but I'm y'all cousin, too. And a lot more people know the Smokestack Twins then they know my daddy.
- Smoke: Yeah? Well, you better enjoy the rest of the night, 'cause this your last juke.
- Sammie Moore: You ain't in no position to tell me how to live my life.
- Smoke: Come tomorrow, I find out about you playin' in one of these boy, I'll kill you myself.
- Sammie Moore: Look, I'm leaving that plantation just like y'all did. And if that's a problem for you... kill me now.
- [Smoke pulls out his handgun and points it at Sammie]
- Smoke: What's the matter? I'm a soldier, boy. And you just gave me a command.
- [He puts his handgun back in his holster]
- Cornbread: Slim! Smoke!
- Delta Slim: Where the hell you been at, man? Huh?
- Cornbread: To go see a man about a dog, like I told you, you old drunk. Turns out I need to take a shit, too.
- [Noticing that Smoke is covered in blood]
- Cornbread: God Dog! What happened to you, Smoke?
- Smoke: Stack dead. Nigga, what the fuck happened to you?
- Cornbread: I'm sorry. All right, well, let me in, so I can help.
- Annie: Hold on.
- Cornbread: What y'all doin'? Just step aside and let me on in, now.
- Annie: Why do you need him to do that? You big and strong enough to push past us.
- Cornbread: Well, that wouldn't be too polite now, would it, Miss Annie. I don't know why I'm talking to you anyway. Probably your fish sandwich messed up my guts in the first place. Usin' old, stale grease.
- Annie: [defensively] I ain't never used stale grease, and you know it.
- Cornbread: Shut up, Annie. Smoke...
- Annie: Don't talk to him. You talkin' to me right now. Why can't you just walk your big ass up in here without an invite, huh? Go 'head. Admit to it.
- Cornbread: Admit to what?
- Annie: That you dead. That one of them white folks out there kill you, and you a haint now.
- Cornbread: [laughs] Smoke, you listenin' to this? Woman, this man showed me kindness. Employed me. Grabbed me out of the field. Now, he say his brother been killed. The man needs comfort, not you fillin' up his mind with that old Louisiana bayou bullshit you on. Now, we out here playing games, telling ghost stories in place of doin' what we ought to do.
- Delta Slim: And what is it we s'pose to be doin'?
- Cornbread: [spreading out his arms] Being kind to one another. And bein' polite. Now, we is one people's. And we shouldn't go in, bargin' into other folks' places uninvited. So...
- Smoke: You been in and outta here all day. Ain't never need an invite then. Yeah, somethin' ain't addin' up.
- Cornbread: Shit, Stack was my ride up here. I 'posed to walk back?
- Smoke: That ain't my problem.
- Cornbread: Well, it be, your own peoples. And I thought you was better than this, but you just like the white man. Can I at least get my money?
- Delta Slim: Oh you did such a bang-up job, now you wanna to get paid for what you ain't did.
- Cornbread: Ain't nobody talkin' to you, you old drunk. Shut your mouth.
- Delta Slim: No, you shut the fuck up. Don't give him shit, Smoke. Don't give him nothin'.
- [Smoke is taking money out of his pocket]
- Annie: Careful.