A love song for the place I live and always return to in the Eastern Sierra.
lyrics
THE ROADS I’VE TRAVELED Pete Watercott 2011
As I look back on all the roads that I have traveled,
Smooth asphalt highways, dusty windin’ gravel.
I’ve laid my track all across the map,
But when I need to rest and hang my hat,
It seems like I keep on comin’ back.
A humble little town, north of the Mojave,
Where the streams tumble down from the mountains high above.
She lay in California, beneath the skies of Nevada,
Basin and Range, this land that I love.
Spirits in the wind, Petraglyphs in the canyon,
Where a watercress spring reflects a blue topaz sky.
I hear a laughing grackle, far off in the bramble,
Sunlight through swallowtail wings as they fly.
Sunset on the mountains, long shadows cast,
They look soft as satin beneath a jeweler’s glass.
But I know they are rocky, I know they’re dry and hard,
I’m feeling mellow, waiting for that first star.
Nighttime in the desert, I lay out my bedroll,
In an ocean of stars, a blinking plane crosses slow,
Or I might be in that airplane, headed somewhere,
Gazing down into the darkness wondering who is below.
Toss my ashes on the lone prairie,
May this home on the range be where you’ll always find me.
Where the high sierra crest meets the deepest valley,
Let me ride my old Paint with a cowdog beside me.
credits
from Visions of Freedom,
track released December 3, 2019
Fiddlin' Pete Watercott/Guitar, Fiddle, Irish Tenor Banjo & Vocals, Tammy Kilpatrick/Vocals, Neil Gelvin/Guitar, Dan Connor/Guitar, Ryan Finch/Bass
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