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One To The Heart, One To The Head

by Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell

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1.
North Platte 00:56
2.
I ride a big blue roan I carry all I own In the pouches of my saddlebag With my bedroll tied behind There’s a prairie in the sky I’ll find it by and by Hills of brown and yellow To make a soul unwind Let the music take me home To where a heart may roam I’ll fly across the meadows Touch the tall grass as I go Let the gentle western wind Stay with me til the end Beside me til the day is done And the sun is setting low Leave the ponies to run free Far as the eye can see I’d ride the range forever To see them once again Let the wild flying things Soar above me on their wings And the stars fill up the night sky And the moon light up the plains
3.
Billy 4 05:36
There's guns across the river about to pound you There's lawmen on your trail like to surround you Bounty hunters are dancing all around you Billy, they don't like you to be so free Camping out all night on the veranda Walking in the streets down by the hacienda Up to Boot Hill they’d like to send you Billy, don't you turn your back on me Playing around with some sweet senorita Into her dark chamber she will greet you In the shadows of the mesas she will lead you Billy, and you're going all alone They say that Pat Garrett's got your number So sleep with one eye open, when you slumber Every little sound just might be thunder Thunder from the barrel of his gun There's always another stranger sneaking glances Some trigger-happy fool willing to take chances Some old whore from San Pedro will make advances Advances on your spirit and your soul So hang on to your woman, if you got one Remember in El Paso once you shot one Yeah and up in Santa Fe one time you bought one Billy, you've been running for so long Gypsy queens will play your grand finale Way down in some Tularosa alley Maybe in La Rio Pecos valley Billy, you're so far away from home
4.
I found a postcard from long ago in a drawer yesterday come back to Tucson, I miss you so it was warm here today northern Rockies all deep in snow clear down to the Sangre de Cristo Blue Mountains of Mexico will be always alone, still out there on our own Time like money just disappears no one knows where it goes you spend it so recklessly when you’ve got nothing but time warm sun on adobe walls we kissed in the desert dawn Blue Mountains of Mexico will we be always alone, still out there on our own If we meet down the road somewhere would we know what to say or has the river flowed too many miles now we're too far away to get lightening back in a bottle like old lovers trying to stop the hands of time Blue Mountains of Mexico will we be always alone, still out there on our own
5.
He’s a cowboy, he was raised in Ohio He got married and moved further west Showed up on time for a few awful years And one night he got drunk and he left Drove a truck for awhile up in Fargo But he never got used to the smoke He once tried to settle and get some ahead But he’s still just as wild, just as broke The range has been settled for years now The old wranglers passed on with their kind But every now and again you run into these men These cowboys born out of their time For some change he’ll remember your birthplace Cause there’s hardly a town he ain’t been And you can get up and leave any time that you please For that’s one thing that he understands He lives out his days now in Denver His best friend is a bottle of wine And you don’t need to ask anything of his past It’s asleep in the back of his mind And as the sun rises over the Rockies It’s so strange that he don’t even care When it burns out and sets down in Kansas He takes the fences round Larimer Square
6.
Guadalupe 05:39
There are ghosts out in the rain tonight High up in those ancient trees And I have given up without a fight Another blind fool on his knees And all the gods that I’ve abandoned Begin to speak in simple tongue And suddenly I’ve come to know That there are no roads left to run Now it’s the hour of dogs a’barking That’s what the old ones used to say It’s first light or it’s sundown Before the children cease their play When the mountains glow like mission wine Or turn grey like a Spanish roan A thousand eyes will stop to worship Then turn away and head for home She is reaching out her arms tonight And, yes, my poverty is real I pray roses shall rain down again From Guadalupe on her hill And who am I to doubt these mysteries? Cured in centuries of blood and candle smoke? I am the least of all your pilgrims here But I am most in need of hope She appeared to Juan Diego She left her image on his cape Five hundred years of sorrow Cannot destroy his deepest faith So here I am, your ragged disbeliever Old doubting Thomas drowns in tears As I watch your church sink through the earth Like a heart worn down through fear.
7.
Your sweet and shiny eyes Are like the stars above Laredo Like meat and potatoes to me In my sweet dreams we are In a bar and it's my birthday Drinking salty margaritas with Fernando Young and wild, we drove 900 miles of Texas highway To the Mexican border as the day was comin' on We crossed the Rio Grande river And we swore we'd have things our way When we happened to walk in to Nuevo Leon Your sweet and shiny eyes Are like the stars above Laredo Like meat and potatoes to me In my sweet dreams we are In a bar and it's my birthday And we're having our picture taken With Fernando
8.
Wolves 04:15
January's always bitter But Lord this one beats all The wind ain't quit for weeks now And the drifts are ten feet tall I been all night drivin' heifers Closer in to lower ground Then I spent the mornin' thinkin' 'Bout the ones the wolves pulled down Charlie Barton and his family Stopped today to say goodbye He said the bank was takin' over The last few years were just too dry And I promised that I'd visit When they found a place in town Then I spent a long time thinkin' 'Bout the ones the wolves pull down Lord please shine a light of hope On those of us who fall behind And when we stumble in the snow Could you help us up while there's still time Well I don't mean to be complainin' Lord You've always seen me through And I know you got your reasons For each and every thing you do But tonight outside my window There's a lonesome mournful sound And I just can't keep from thinkin' 'Bout the ones the wolves pull down Lord keep me from bein' The one the wolves pull down
9.
When the wind don’t blow in Amarillo When the moon along the Gunnison don’t rise Shall I cast my dreams upon your love babe And lie beneath the laughter of your eyes Snowin’ on Raton Come morning I’ll be through them hills and gone Snowin’ on Raton Come morning I’ll be through them hills and gone Mother thinks the road is long and lonely Little brother thinks the road is straight and fine Little darlin’ thinks the road is soft and lovely I’m thankful that old road’s a friend of mine So bid the years goodbye, you cannot steal them You cannot turn the circles of the sun You cannot count the miles until you feel them You cannot hold a lover that is gone Tomorrow the mountains will be sleepin’ Silent ‘neath the blanket green and blue And I shall hear the silence they are keepin’ And I’ll bring all their promises to you
10.
I ride an old paint, I lead an old Dan I'm goin' to Montana to throw a hoolihan They feed in the coolies, they water in the draw Their tails are all matted, their backs are all raw Ride around, ride around real slow the fiery and the snuffy are rarin' to go Old Bill Brown had a daughter and a son One went to Denver and the other went wrong His wife, she died in a poolroom fight and still he keeps singin' from mornin' till night When I die, take my saddle from the wall Put it on my pony and lead him from his stall Tie my bones to his back, turn our faces to the west And we'll ride the prairie that we love the best
11.
What sweet love have I come by On my last go round Soft caresses, tender sighs Have my heart unbound I have stumbled, lost and wild Onto sacred ground But I have loved just like a child On my last go round Riding down rusty rails On my memories All those honky-tonks and whisky rivers are Flowing back to me We drank the rivers and we rode the twisters We tumbled down to the ground But we wake and rise, spend our glory On the last go round When my wandering soul shall rest And my last song gets sung I’ll find the brightest and the best On my way back home And all my long lost friends and lovers Once again they will be found And I’ll kiss all their shining faces On my last go round I have stumbled, lost and wild Unto sacred ground Ah, but I have loved just like a child On my last go round
12.
13.
If I had a gun, you’d be dead One to the heart, one to the head If I had a gun, I’d wipe it clean My fingerprints off on these sheets They’d bury you in the cold hard ground Fistful of dirt would hold you down They’d bury you in the cold hard ground It’d be the first night I’d sleep sound If I had a gun no one would cry No one would mourn the day you died I’d leave you there wearin’ your ring I’d leave your name, I’d leave everything They’d bury you in the cold hard ground Fistful of dirt would hold you down They’d bury you in the cold hard ground It’d be the first night I’d sleep sound If I had a gun, I’d drive away I’d drive away, I’d drive away
14.
The moment we said good bye Silence tore across the sky The riverbed lay wide and dry As far as I could see And someone said My ghost was found Laying her burden down Taking the long way around Underneath the moon Somewhere on the prairie, A little cross is mine A simple wooden marker With a plastic rose entwined And in the stillness of the twilight As the tumbleweeds wind I am crawling like a scorpion across the melancholy time so shred the poems let the wild birds chase them in the breeze let them make their nests from words like please put those dreams to rest throw them at the moon blow the confetti across the golden west I was the fragrance in the wild flower Opening for only you In the delicate hour Before the cold shot through Ten thousand years from now You'll put your hand in mine Remembering a fragrance Full of melancholy time You see those ravens breaking the prairie sky? We used to go where ravens fly Our giddy laughter made the angels cry to fly as free as you and i somewhere on the prairie a cross, a rose, a shrine standing for true love gone before its time there goes your shadow down the highway out that road I could't find while I crawl like a scorpion slowly to the new world across these miles of prairie full of melancholy time

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released February 1, 2009

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Gretchen Peters Nashville, Tennessee

For two decades, Gretchen Peters has been one of Nashville's most beloved and respected artists. A 2014 inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Peters has accumulated accolades as both songwriter and artist. Her latest album, The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury (May 2020), is a loving tribute to another Hall of Fame songwriter. ... more

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