How The West Was One

Native America

As I went out in the open
I left for awhile
A tired stranger looking to be found
And so I stood there in silence
For someone to hear me
Someone to make the first sound

Someone to care for, someone to carry me home

I headed west to touch the ground
But the spirits didn't make a sound
As I stared in the face of Native America

And so my pilgrimage progress
Takes me over the land
Just so that I can keep up with the rush
And from the east to the west
I can feel my heart beating
To touch anything left untouched

Someone to care for, someone to carry me home

I headed west to touch the ground
But the spirits didn't make a sound
As I stared in the face of Native America

And so I leave to forget
To rebuild the patriot
Anything that I can find
Am I a visitor always
Always a stranger
Never knowing what I left behind?

Someone to care for, someone to carry me home

I headed west to touch the ground
But the spirits didn't make a sound
As I stared in the face of Native America

Out in the open
Wherever I'm looking
On everything that I see
Is an unwritten page
To an unfinished book
In an ongoing history

And as I stopped to see the earth go round
And as the sun's going up and down
It changes the face of Native America

And a river it runs right through
Red, white, black and blue
Straight down the face of Native America

I headed west to touch the ground
But the spirits didn't make a sound
As I stared in the face of Native America

Crossroads

While at a crossroads
Headed A to B
I fell for a woman
Prone to run
But I couldn't make her follow me
So I offered up my heart
Before I left, final plea
And I would've taken her off
The hands of a man
If it were up to me

Standing at the crossroads
Just when everything meant to be
Faded out and disappeared
As far as the eye could see
We were standing at the crossroads
We were standing at the crossroads

Here we stood to assess the dirt
Where thunderclouds brushed the land
Here we stood, confessed to her
Heads bowed, hand in hand
Standing at the crossroads
Looking at these fields of dream
I stood and watched them come unsewn
Right at the patchwork seams
We were standing at the crossroads
We were standing at the crossroads

Standing at the crossroads
Just when everything meant to be
Faded out and disappeared
As far as the eye could see

Standing at the crossroads
Looking on these fields of dreams
I stood and watched them come unsewn
Right at the patchwork seams
We were standing at the crossroads
We were standing at the crossroads

We were standing at the crossroads

We were standing at the crossroads

If I Were A Cowboy

The ghost of a building that once was a barn
Leans on itself on an old ghost-town farm
Its posts are all crippled
It's tired, it's done
Lays down to rest like a dog in the sun

Dust devils boil as they stretch for the sky
As if thirsty for more than the earth can provide
Sprinklers are quiet, hay's two bucks a bale
Just a piece of the west on the Oregon Trail

And if I were a cowboy I'd dance until dawn
If I were a cowboy I'd sing this song

Now the foothills roll on like a fabric of green
They lay on themselves will no stitch and no seam
Higher to the mountains just fog and fir trees
If we haven't reached heaven we're at least at its knees

Corridors cut through these mountains of snow
Winding our way to the next makeshift home
So many ways out I forget where I am
So many ways out when a map's in your hand

And if I were a cowboy I'd dance until dawn
If I were a cowboy I'd sing this song

Out here the land is untouched and it's wide
There is no great progress, no great divide
The land seems so empty but with each step I know
Someone's been here before me with a story untold

Clouds in the valley
Dark shadows a break
A ghost creepin' and sweepin'
the dirt from his pain

Raindrops and teardrops
Just two bucks a bale
Another day in the west on the Oregon Trail

And if I were a cowboy I'd dance until dawn
If I were a cowboy I'd sing this song

And if I were a cowboy I'd dance until dawn
If I were a cowboy I'd sing this song

Midwestern Girl

She's a midwestern girl
Her heart is paper mache
With a tornado ripping through
'Cause she is ready for change
California was fine
And she can soak up the sun
But she's returning to her roots
Where she will always belong
I-O-W-A, now
I-O-W-A, now

She's a midwestern girl
She's finally back in her state
I'm just a ghost out in the field
Virginia's so far away
She has the mane of a lion
Husky eyes that are framed
And cheekbones sculpted on the winds of I-O-W-A

Tell her when she's not around
Tell her as you're leaving town
Tell her when she's not around
Tell her everything now

But what are you supposed to say
To a midwestern girl as you are driving away
Well if you see your soulmate standing out in a field
Keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel

Down at the Val Air Ballroom
Out in western Des Moines
She's dancing out on the dance floor
And I feel high
Now the mirror ball spinning
It's a hundred degrees
It's always safer when it's crowded
But there are no guarantees

Tell her when she's not around
Tell her everything is fine
Tell her when she's not around
Before her roots take over

But I don't know what you're supposed to say
To a midwestern girl a thousand miles away
Well if you see your soulmate standing out in a field
Keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel

I'm just a ghost in a field
And she's a tundra queen
A midwestern girl beside an old evergreen
If you see your soulmate standing out in a field
Keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel

She's a midwestern girl
I got in late in the game
But I am driving in my mind to I-O-W-A

I-O-W-A, now...

Unknown Bride

Church bells clanged, I followed the sound
Footsteps on an unfamiliar ground
Tombstones led to an old mission church on a hillside
If it were up to me, this is where it should be

I have watched you like watching the rain
cupped in my hands and feeling it drain
through my fingers and splashed out onto stone
Like a well for water i am drawn for you and you alone.

Saturday rain broke from the clouds
Rivers of people are starting to crowd
I am bound to you
you're by my side. nowhere to hide. unknown bride

Church doors swing wide to the sunshine
outcomes the tide. guests form their line
Church bells ring and all is alright
for the angels sing for the unknown bride
dressed in white

Saturday rain broke by the Sun.
The Rivers of people are all having fun
I am bound to you
you're by my side. nowhere to hide. unknown bride

Time's erased, or long overdo
Touch my face, pull me into you
kiss my ear and dance this close to me
hold me by your side until the unknown bride
is the bride to be

Saturday rain broke by the Sun
The rivers of people have all come and gone
I am bound to you
you're by my side. nowhere to hide
Unknown bride remember this place
where the sun came through just to kiss your face
If I should die w/out you by my side
Put my grave high, on this hillside. unknown bride

1 Wolf, 2 Wolf, 3 Wolf, 4

(Instrumental)

For The First Time

If I could see the western sky for the first time
If I could hold that horizon in my hand
If I could hold her close again before the wedding

If I could fall in love for the first time
If I could only let it go and start again
If I could write to my first love for the last time
What harm could it do?

A new age has begun
A new age has begun

If I could see that western sky for the first time
If I could hold that horizon in my hand
If I could sponge back the (pain) between two lovers lost

If I could fall in love again for the first time
If I could only let it go and start again
If I could pull the weeds of regret from a choking heart
What harm could it do?

A new age has begun
A new age has begun
A new age

When I see that western sky for the last time
I will know for that for the first time I am done
(I will hang my head down out on the prairie)
A new age has begun

When I see that western sky for the last time
I will know for that for the first time I am done
I will cleanse my dusty hands out in the twilight
A new age has begun
A new age has begun
A new age has begun

A new age has begun
A new age has begun
A new age had begun