Homegrown Western Saturday Night

(album: Powder River - 1989)

There's a place out west where the Powder River runs off the Big Horn Mountains
And winds it's way out across the plains
It's a land of red walls blue sky and clean air
Where the eagle glides high above the canyons
And makes his nest in the rocks that overlook the valleys
Where the sagebrush and the cottonwoods grow
This is ranch country has been for more than one hundred years
Well, things have changed some since the early days
But there's still a thread of character and tradition
That runs thru from one generation to the next
You can see it out here the way folks sit a horse
You can hear it in the way they talk
And when the work is all done there's nothing they like better
Than to get together at the one-room schoolhouse under the red wall
For another down homegrown western Saturday night

Well, the calving's all done and the brandins' through
Haying don't start for a week or two
There ain't but one thing left to do, it's time to celebrate
Two three...

Heading west out of town on a blacktop road folks are coming by the pickup load
For a western good time alamode better bring along your appetite
Take a right hand turn through the cattle guard
Park it down in the old school yard
Gonna kick up my boots with my cowboy pards and hold my woman tight

Yippee yi-ay and a hey diddle diddle, Ord's on the guitar, Ross on the fiddle
Pull down your hat keep your mind in the middle, raise a ruckus tonight
From the butterfly to the jitterbug, me and my lady's gonna cut a rug
Wild Bill's cracking out that old square jug
On another down home good time homegrown western Saturday night

Well, the little kids are playing tag out back
Someone's peeking through the outhouse crack
And if his mom could see him she'd have a heart attack
And he'd have a hard time sitting down
Now, the young cowboys are starting to sweat
The teenage girls are playing hard to get
And it's driving them crazy but the night's young yet
Give um time they'll come around

Yippee yi-ay and a hey diddle diddle, Ord's on the guitar, Ross on the fiddle
We come here to party and not spit and whittle while the moon is shining bright
There's a coyote howling from the hills above to the harmony of a morning dove
For the couple in the moonlight falling in love
On another down home good time homegrown western Saturday night

Now the midnight supper really hit the spot, there's beef and pie and coffee in a pot
And if you drank to much I'll tell you what, it'll sure get you back on your feet
Well, the old couple sitting by the schoolhouse door
Grining at the kids dancing around the floor
And they remember the way it was years ago how the memories taste so sweet

Yippee yi-ay and a hey diddle diddle, Ord's on the guitar, turn it up a little
We come here to party and not spit and whittle while the moon is shining bright
Faded Love to the Cattle Call, the music flows out to the old red wall
It'll echo around till clear next fall
Well, have another down home good time homegrown western Saturday night