Much of Out West Somewhere is a recreation in song of the romance and treachery of the Old West. Titles include "Tom Horn," "Lowdown Yankee Liar," and "The Black Rose." "It May Go On Without Me" and "The Drunken Brawl" are comic songs with a more contemporary feel, and "One Rock" is something like a Gary Snyder nature poem set to music. Julianne Macarus contributes inspired vocal, violin and viola accompaniments.
1. Out West Somewhere
2. Tom Horn
3. Old Guy
4. King of the Mugs
5. Christopher
6. The Black Rose
7. Six Years From Home
8. It May Go On Without Me
9. The Boys of Bluehill
10. The Drunken Brawl
11. Lowdown Yankee Liar
12. Red Crow
13. One Rock
14. In the Fog
OLD GUY
by James McCandless
Old Guy was the real McCoy
He had a black saddle down in the basement
He used to be a cowboy
Now it's just a memory that he's chasin'
He had a silver saddle horn
He had a lariat, he had a loop
In the Western morning
In the land of the Sioux
Chorus:
Old Guy was the genuine thing
He had a black saddle with a silver ring
Settin' on a sawhorse down in the cellar
"What do you think of that, young feller?"
Old Guy had a leathery face
In the dim light down in the cellar
From the cowboy days
Now it's just a story that he's tellin'
About a Blackfoot arrowhead
About a battle scar or two
And a buffalo blanket
From the land of the Sioux
(Chorus)
"I think I want to be a cowboy if I ever grow up
Like old Guy on the last roundup"
He left a branding mark, for better or worse
On a young boy's heart, the Cowboy's Curse
(Chorus)
"I think that cowboys go on forever"
"What do you think of that, young feller?"
"I think that cowboys go on forever."
The ring is said to symbolize immortality. "Old Guy" - a real cowboy McCandless met as a young boy in Hanford Montana - is full of circles - the lariat, the loop, the silver ring, the round-up. And the story continues, with the young boy being branded with the cowboy's curse - living proof that "cowboys go on forever." A sawhorse! A masterpiece of songwriting.
|