By the riverside
In a field of fertile ground
Sweet clover as a cover crop
That I’m gonna plow down
When the summer comes
And the wind is hot and dry
I’ll be watching the clouds
Building up in the summer sky
It’s a good rain in a dry spell
Like a cool drink from a spring fed well
In the plowed ground, I’m gonna plant my seed
You know a good rain is just what I need
Big city in a heat wave
Waiting by the railroad track
Been away so long
Now it feels like I’m never going back
There’s a train at the station
It’s a’leaving this dusty town
You’re gonna feel the breeze blowing
Now that you’re homeward bound
CH
In the southern sky
I can see a double rainbow
I’m standing by the fenceline
And I’m watching the grain field grow
On the gravel road
You can smell the summer rain
Walk along the riverside
It’s good to be home again
CH
Henry Grinder played the fiddle
Almost every night and day
He said ‘go and get your guitar son
And a fiddle tune we’ll play’
We could do down yonder
And brother that’s not all
There’s a dance at the Sugarcane hall
The place was dark and dusty
When they unlocked the doors
Swept all the dirt off of
This worn out dance floor
Put a couple benches
Up against the wall
There’s a dance at the Sugarcane hall
They like to have a good time on the Sugarcane reserve
Down the highway south of deadmans curve
And when you hear the fiddle round about nightfall
There’s a dance at the Sugarcane hall
Big Chuck is on the dance floor
He stands six foot three
Quite a scary sight
For a city boy like me
He looks a little angry
I hope there’s not a brawl
There’s a dance at the Sugarcane hall
CH
We played every fiddle tune
I’d learned at Sugarcane
And when we played the last one
We played them all again
Big Chuck he’s smiling
He’s really not mean at all
There’s a dance at the Sugarcane hall
CH
And when the dancing’s over
Everybody’s gone
Blisters on my fingers
I couldn’t another song
Henry Grinder sat and played
One more old time waltz
He said ‘pick up that guitar
Come on and play a few more bars’
CH
The evening sun touches the tops of the trees
You can smell the hay drying in the warm summer breeze
When the long day is over and the horses are fed
They’ll be a Chilcotin moon shining over my head
This meadow is like an ocean the swamp grass like waves
The overshot stacker is like a ship in the haze
We’re making hay in the morning tonight the dew falls
And the Chilcotin moon watches over it all
Chilcotin moon you cast a long shadow
Down the big river to the sea
Chilcotin moon you shine on the grasslands
Where the horses are gonna always run free
Chilcotin moon looking down on this meadow
Listen to the cry of the loons
You light up the way and it’s bright as the day
Under the Chilcotin moon
There’s spirits in the twilight up on the haystack
There’s voices in the walls of this old sod roofed shack
There’s acres of hay laying on the meadow
With the Chilcotin moon shining down the windrows
CH
It’s late in the evening I lay in my bed
The sound of a mower echoes in my head
And then I’m out on the hayfield hitching up the team
And the Chilcotin moon even lights up my dreams
CH
Winter in the canyon
Got snowed in in Boston Bar
Tried to plow the highway
But they didn’t get too far
Had to park their semi trucks
And wait for the road to clear
Three days and nights they stayed there
Till the bar ran out of beer
He drove truck up the Nechako
When they built the Kenny Dam
He was eating in the mess hall
There were stacks of steaks and ham
He had a trailer load of soda pop
That he’d drop along the way
He knew every little truck stop
On that Yellowhead highway
Frank he drove that semi truck
It must have been twenty-five years
That’s miles and miles of pavement
And a whole lot of changing gears
Frank he knew that highway
Just like an old old friend
And you know that there’s one of Frank’s stories
Around most every bend
Driving tandem from Vancouver
Through the night they’re Prince George bound
Switching trailers in the morning
And they make their turn around
Stop for coffee down in Red Rock
Where the mighty Fraser flows
On down the Cariboo Highway
When it was still a gravel road
CH
Ten years since Franks retired now
His trucking days are done
He’s seen a lot of changes
Since his driving days begun
I like to take a ride with him
When he’s out for a summer drive
Cause when Frank starts telling you stories
This old highway comes alive
CH
I’m so weak
And you’re so strong
When I don’t want to go
You say come on
You pick me up
When I’ve fallen down
And when I lose my way
You’re my lost and found
You’re almost always right
I’m often wrong
I start a fight
You make us get along
I’m a little lazy
You like to get things done
When I’m going crazy
You’re the steady one
Steady and strong on an island
On a sea of trouble and pain
Steady and strong when you’re standing
In the eye of a hurricane
Steady and strong
I wake up angry
With the world I see
You help me find out
Just what’s a’bothering me
I know that I’m stubborn
I don’t have to tell you
Come to think about it
You’re kind of stubborn too
CH
We can sail upon the ocean
And ride the rolling sea
And maybe stay out on the island
Where it’s only you and me
The wind might blow
You know you’ll always be
CH
Do I come from the ashes of the past generation
Who have walked on this road long ago
Am I just a reflection of the places I’m passing
In the side window
Driving my car in an old neighbourhood
Climb every tree like I said that I would
Looking for you but everything’s gone
On the road that I’m travelling on
That’s the road that I’m travelling on
Do I follow the lines on the highway before me
That lay like an unbroken chain
Can I change my direction at the next intersection
There’s a turning lane
Stopped at the top of the street where you lived
Sat on the bench in the park like we did
There’s lights on the mountain
It’s where I am drawn
On the road that I’m travelling on
Travelling on
Travelling on
Only passing through here
On the road that I’m travelling on
The scenery changes
It’s always the same
Like you’re waiting at the crossroads
But the answer never came
Am I watching the road disappearing behind me
Looking back on the lights changing red
Is it just an illusion that the path that I’m choosing
Is on the road up ahead
Drove to the valley but the roads are all blocked
Sleep in the back but the doors are all locked
John found the keys it was just before dawn
On the road that I’m travelling on
CH
Winter turns to breakup
It’s hot for the time of year
The ice is flowing early
The river’s almost clear
Snow up in the mountains
Like they’ve never seen before
They’ll be flooding in the valley
For the folks along the shore
The river keeps arising
It is up again today
There is rain on the horizon
It’s gonna wash us all away
You can’t stop the water
No matter how hard you try
You better move to higher ground boys
The rivers on the rise
It rained for most of April
And in May the river rose
They told the people to move away
But one family wouldn’t go
Five generations
Had they heard the river roar
But never had they ever left there
House upon the shore
CH
They said that they were crazy
Can’t you see you’re gonna drown
But they were a stubborn family
With roots deep in the ground
The water broke the riverbank
Washing away the shore
Up to the family’s house
The water was lapping at their door
But like the tides a’changing
The water turned around
Everybody said the family
Stared the river down
CH
If you go west from the Fraser
To the top of six mile hill
There’s a line of antique tractors
Parked beside an old sawmill
You can watch the carriage rolling
You can hear the headsaw whine
This mills be cutting lumber since nineteen forty-nine
There’s a man up on the platform
Polished smooth beneath his feet
He’s a’squaring up a timber
Bud’s lumber can’t be beat
So if you’re driving out to Nazko
And you’ve got some time to kill
You better stop and have a visit when you’re passing Bud’s sawmill
The big saw turning around
Cutting so straight and true
You hear that lonesome sound
When he’s running another log through
And when he starts the engine
Making the time stand still
You see the last of a generation
When you stop at Bud’s sawmill
If you go behind the millsite
It’s really not that far
It’s kinda like you’re back in time
With all the old trucks and cars
There’s every make and model
Since Bud was just a kid
He likes to keep things runnin’ good just like his old man did
CH
There is a light on in the window
Late into the night
He’s got a car out in his workshop
That he is bringing back to life
And on almost every Sunday
He shuts the sawmill down
He gives that car a wax and shine and drives his wife to town
CH
Why do you drink so much
Can’t you see what you’ve done
The years you’ve been drinking
No she didn’t run
Now you hit bottom
And you’re looking for her hand
She got tired of waiting
She finally ran
Running for shelter
Stuck in the driving rain
Always told her the weather would change
Running for shelter
Why didn’t you understand
You couldn’t hold her
She finally ran
I know that it’s not easy
When you’re out of control
The life that you’ve been leading
Has taking its toll
You know she tried to help you
She did every thing she can
Every body’s got a breaking point
She finally ran
CH
How many times did you say that you were sorry
Walking the line you know she’s heard it before
How many times did you tell her that you loved her
You’re gonna find that she won’t listen no more
Now she’s walking out the door
CH
I got a railroad that’s running through my mind
First stop along the line on this railroad in my mind
There’s a place where the sun it always shines
It’s a pretty little town where nobody’s ever down
And you can buy a ticket glory bound
The people that you see become anything they want to be
And they can ride my railroad for free
I got a railroad running through my mind
Sometimes the train don’t come at all
Sometimes it just don’t stop
Sometimes the lonesome freight train
Can’t make it to the top
Of this railroad that’s running through my mind
Second stop along the track the station’s painted black
There’s row on row of lonely run down shacks
It’s where the cold wind blows and all the broken people go
The days are dark and nothing ever grows
It’s a city built on pain and it doesn’t have a name
You always stop there when you ride my downbound train
CH
There’s a place along the way where I wish that I could stay
Somewhere between the first and second stop
Where it never rains all day and you can say what you want to say
This old freight train is gonna make it to the top
CH
Lonely again on the highway tonight
Faces appear in the passing headlight
Maybe they said that it’s all in your head
Maybe it’s them and they blame you instead
They blame you instead
When the door closes behind you
In the room at the end of the hall
The floor and the ceiling confine you
And all that you’ve got is four walls
There’s only four walls
The weather is changing feel the storm grow
Your branches are swinging hear the wind blow
You’re down on the street out all alone
You’re walking the side roads you never get home
You never get home
CH
You’re up in the sky miles from the ground
You can’t find a way to get down
They’re locking the door in the hallway tonight
It seems like a dream but it’s never quite right
It’s never quite right
CH
Things go wrong
It’s a changing world
Life goes on come what may
You can’t go back
The past is past
I wish I could paddle away
Clouds hang low
On the mountain side
November skies are shades of gray
The cold wind blows
The river ice flows
I wish I could paddle away
Paddle away
Leave your troubles behind you
Paddle away
To the distant shore
When the new day breaks on the Bowron Lakes
I wish I could paddle away
This mountain lake
Is as smooth as glass
I’ll take my boat up there someday
In the morning light
I’ll cut through it like a knife
I wish I could paddle away.
CH
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