An old physician rolls into town with medicine that promises to cure any illness forever. But there’s a warning: “Many will hate this cure with jealousy.”
Why?
This 14-minute spiritual blues odyssey answers that question through the marriage of Buddhist philosophy and American roots music. It’s about three healers whose identities are threatened by ultimate truth. About stones that become doves. About love that doesn’t quit even when the world wants it to.
Recorded with the raw authenticity of field recordings—weathered vocals, fingerpicked steel guitar, wailing harmonica, churning Hammond organ, and a gospel choir testifying in the spaces between breaths.
Part folk tale, part sermon, part meditation on why the medicine we most need is the hardest to swallow.
This is music for the crossroads. For the vigil. For anyone who’s ever loved what others couldn’t yet endure.
[Verse 1 – Slow, Deep]
Well the old physician rolled into town
Said, “I got medicine, gonna pass it around.”
“Ain’t no quick fix, no sugar-sweet lie,
One drop of this truth and you’ll never die.”
“But I’ll warn you, child—it cuts both ways.
This cure burns bright and it don’t obey.”
[Chorus – Call and Response]
Why they gonna hate you for the cure? (Tell me, tell me)
Why they gonna hate you for the cure? (Lord, have mercy)
‘Cause truth don’t fit the story they adore—
That old story, Lord, they’re clingin’ for sure.
[Verse 2 – Building]
[Building narrative, harmonica answers vocal, tambourine offbeats, slight tempo push, steel guitar crying, organ returns on hope line]
There were three healers in that town,
One cooled fever, one calmed it down.
Built their names on what they knew—
Then came the stranger sayin’, “That ain’t true.”
“Y’all been teachin’ folks to cope,” said he,
“But hope’s the only remedy.”
“The sickness ain’t what you believe—
It’s the fear you won’t release.”
[Chorus]
Why they gonna hate you for the cure? (Tell me, tell me)
Why they gonna hate you for the cure? (Lord, have mercy)
‘Cause truth don’t fit the story they adore—
That old story, Lord, they’re clingin’ for sure.
[Bridge – Speaking Blues Style]
Now listen here…
The headache woman, she turned pale,
Thirty years of learning felt like fail.
“If pain ain’t my mountain, what’s left of me?”
She cried to the man by the healing tree.
He said, “Sister, I ain’t here to win—
I’m just showin’ you where health begins.”
“That fear you feel’s the final wound,
My medicine works there too—real soon.”
[Verse 3 – Intensity Rising]
He called the young ones, said, “Gather ‘round,
This truth’ll cost you—dear and profound.”
“When you carry this medicine through the town,
Those old healers’ll try to strike you down.”
“They’ll call you fool, they’ll call you liar,
But love’s the flame that lights the fire.
When the stones start flyin’—don’t you hide,
That’s the moment faith’s been tried.”
[Big Chorus – Full Voice]
Why they gonna hate you for the cure? (Tell me, tell me)
Why they gonna hate you for the cure? (Lord, have mercy)
‘Cause truth don’t fit the story they adore—
That old story, Lord, they’re clingin’ for sure.
[Verse 4 – Softer, Mystical]
“You won’t be walkin’ all alone,
Every healer’s ghost will see you home.
Guardians fierce, soft as lullabies,
Keep watch beneath the mercy skies.”
“They’ll keep your heart soft when the world gets hard
They’ll stand watch while you’re standing guard”
“And that attacker throwing stones at your head?
That’s your teacher in disguise,” the old man said
[Verse 5 – The Teaching]
“See, every curse word is a chance to be kind
Every rejection is a way to refine”
“That headache healer with the angry face
She carrying the medicine too, just ain’t found the place”
“Deep down inside where she’s afraid to look
That’s where the healing is, that’s the holy book”
“And when she finally gets a pain won’t quit
She might remember you offered something different”
[Final Chorus – Resolution, Hope]
Let ‘em hate you for the cure—love ‘em anyway,
Let ‘em hate you for the cure—sing while you pray.
Love what they can’t endure till daybreak’s pure,
Love till love’s the only sure.
Mr. Altig’s Overview of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra 
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