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Giving My Bones to the Western Lands

by Slackeye Slim

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1.
It makes no difference now just where it started out I went off on my own one day and I never turned around Following no trail and howling all the way There’s just things you do when you’re out here That I cannot explain My mother must’ve been a coyote in some other life When I was just a lonely predator out wandering the night There’s nothing you can’t do and all you’ve gotta do is try I’ve been out here a long time now but I am still alive Don’t you bury me Don’t you bury me Leave me in the sunshine For the birds to pick me clean
2.
Don Houston 03:38
I knew a man some time ago with a Colt .45 hidden in his duster coat Two pitbulls and a broken heart Don Houston was the name that they gave him, but he would’ve settled for Rex, or Ahab or Butch if they’d left it up to him He went out with his gun one day, well, he came across a stranger and he shot him in the face, and when the bears and the hawks came around for the food, he fired again. He shot them too. And every time he pulled the trigger, it was the most beautiful thing that you ever saw. His brush was the bullet. His paint was the blood. His canvas was the earth. the rocks, the trees and the dirt I knew a man some time ago. He rode away one day and never came back home, and where he is now, no one really knows But some say they’ve seen him. They say that his ghost creeps through the shadows at night. But I don’t believe ‘em Cause there’s a new bullet hole in the moon every night. And just like every cowboy, he’s always out there singing his sad, old songs. Every cactus has a needle...Every cactus has a needle...Every cactus has a needle... He thought of that line on his own.
3.
Oh Montana 05:20
Oh Montana Look how your stars have fallen On the mountainside Oh Montana Who have you become And tell me who am I We were looking For the same thing, you and I It was never there to find Oh Montana Each dream knows when to die But at least I can say I tried Oh Montana Didn’t need to hear both sides Before you chose your fight Montana Too proud to realize That you’ve been left behind I can’t imagine A mile in your shoes Or how you sleep at night Oh Montana, Go your way, I’ll go mine Fading out of sight
4.
They handed me a hammer And sent me off alone With a name out of the Bible To remind me where I’m from I went without direction I went out of control I had no home I saw the reservations And the guns that shoot all night The town was empty but the ghosts there Kept me up all night And no one came to see me I was there alone I had no home Whiskey was the river And me I was the duck I lived down at the bottom And I could not get up At first I thought I’d found it Somewhere I belonged But I had no home But then things started crumbling And I knew it had to change But once you get so far you Can’t go back the way you came And every day was somehow Worse than the one before I had no home When I ran out of money I had nowhere left to go I was sleeping in a tavern In exchange for sweeping floors And no one came to free me But I made it out alone Now I’m going home They handed me a hammer And sent me off alone With a name out of the Bible To remind me where I’m from So I’m leaving here tomorrow And my feet will never slow I’m going home
5.
A pile of scattered bones and a feather from a crow When the spring called the jimsonweed to bloom From up here on the hill the hours pass until The sun no longer plays tricks on my mind Like a bird in the wind will go the only way he can I’m going where the wind will let me go I will follow no man’s trail as long as in the air There’s something there and it’s pulling me along The world I got to know I could not call my home There’s too much there I wish I didn't know Like a bird in the wind will go the only way he can I’m going where the wind will let me go The pinyon tree I lay beneath tonight is as alive as me and I fall asleep as the coyote sings her song
6.
The wind is picking up tonight Let’s keep the fire low There’s no else but you and I Who’s been this way before Down by the river Where no one ever goes Scattering bones around Where the lonely San Juan flows No one needs to know our names But the coyotes and the crows We’re gonna live forever Where the lonely San Juan flows No one’s gonna find us here Or come to claim our bones We’re gonna live forever Where the lonely San Juan flows
7.
Oh look at the sun Don’t it look good going down tonight You know how far we’ve come You know we both fought for our lives But hey, that’s okay We all go different ways And no one’s gonna come looking for me By the river in the cottonwood trees While I’m burying your bones The last time I saw you There was someone in your shoes But it wasn’t you
8.
Cowboy Song 02:25
Once he had a broken heart He’d go drinking til they closed But now he’s on the open range And he’s drinking all night long The clouds come close behind him And they follow him along But he’s got a feeling that the sun Will keep shining from now on As long as he’s singing his cowboy song The birds all die of broken hearts When he goes passing by But he’ll hold them in his arms tonight And bring them back to life As long as he’s singing his cowboy song A man sleeps in a feather bed And in the morning he wakes up sore But a man alone in the wilderness That’s where his soul is born As long as he’s singing his cowboy song
9.
Leaving it all far behind I saddled my pony and went toward the western sky I don’t mind if I don’t come back alive And no one’s got to understand the reason why But when I finally crossed the plains I lost myself somewhere along the way The wind swept softly through the grain Then it was mountain snow and the smell of desert rain I’m giving my bones to the western lands After I don’t need ‘em no more On wild horse one day they came And my captain gave the order no time for digging a grave And as in a line we rode away For the flag I wore on my shoulder I felt so ashamed But my time as a soldier came to an end And I settled down on this little piece of land But the day I saw them riding in They fired their guns as I waved hello to them And I gave my bones to the western lands I don’t need ‘em no more
10.
As long as the grass shall grow As long as the river runs cold My heart will have no room for mercy for you It’s blood I want Nothing else will do With freedom for all mankind They came marching in with rifles drawn And freedom rang as they fired the first shots And they freely chained us up and marched us off When you see their burning flag fall like a leaf from a tree And the pounding of the drums overpowering their screams When the sky is glowing red from a fire far away It’ll be my spirit on the wind that blows to fan the flames As long as the grass shall grow As long as the river runs cold My heart will have no room for mercy for you It’s blood I want Nothing else will do As long as the grass shall grow As long as the river runs cold You will find me in the words of a song That lay written down in a trail of bones
11.
Juniper Tree 05:04
Everything here is so much farther away than it looks. Sometimes I wander away alone With nowhere in mind to go The people I knew were just passing through me Away they all flew as quick as They came rushing in They were gone again Sit down for a while In the shade of this juniper tree No one’s wondering where you are I’m alone, I’m alone but I’m free In the shade of this juniper tree They take pictures from space So you don’t have to waste Your time in the sun anymore No, not anymore I’m from where I’m from And I’ve done what I’ve done But who I’ve become Is who will be judged If that day ever comes Sit down for a while In the shade of this juniper tree No one’s wondering where you are I’m alone, I’m alone but I am free In the shade of this juniper tree

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***I MAKE DOWNLOADS NAME YOUR PRICE BECAUSE I WANT PEOPLE TO HEAR THIS MUSIC, BUT PLEASE CONSIDER PAYING WHAT YOU THINK IS FAIR FOR IT. SLACKEYE SLIM IS NOT MARKETED, PROMOTED, OR BACKED BY ANYONE. I AM AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST AND ANYTHING YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE GREATLY HELPS COVER THE COSTS OF MAKING THIS MUSIC."

Slackeye Slim's 3rd album, inspired by a move to a 2000 acre ranch near Mesa, Colorado and finding freedom in the profound emptiness of the American West. The songs on this album were recorded in the buildings of the Robbins Homestead, shown on the album cover, which is located on the ranch where Frankland lived.

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released January 20, 2015

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Slackeye Slim Mancos, Colorado

Dark country/western from SW Colorado

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