Red and Blue

The sun is sitting high
Over my head
And this ground is as hard
As the girls we’ve wed

I still remember that look
In my mother’s eye
That day we took this old farm
By surprise

If I were born rich in a fancy home
Would I be here tomorrow?
If I needed 7 cars and a summer home
Would I be here tomorrow?
If you wanted diamonds and made over hands
Would we be here tomorrow
If we didn’t love this good green land?

We get our seed from the neighbor
Up the road
We’ve got this machine that gives us numbers
We download

We’ve got three kids
We call Matthew, Mark and Kate
And we might make some money
If it doesn’t t rain too late

It’s what I know
These plants I grow

Big John’s rig has new tracks
And a tank of fuel
He used to use it to build ponds
For his fish and mules

Now old John is working for those men
From out of town
Building lots
And bringing our old farms down

© 2011 Randy Riviere

Vocals: Randy Riviere, Jack Holder
Guitars: Randy Riviere, Reggie Young
Bass: Craig Young
Drums: Chad Cromwell

I’ve seen you
I don’t know you
But I owe you the truth

You’re the new day
Not like the old ways
But don’t you see right through?

All these stone walls
Down these long halls
Through all this glitter for you

Emily
Emily
You’re what the world is coming to
Tell me what you need

Does what Thoreau said
Have more meaning as we move ahead?
Or is there nothing there for you?

There’s a world that I know
But it doesn’t mean that it is so
Or there’s anything here for you

All these mountains and streams have names
The lakes, the towns, the lanes
Is there nothing left for you?

Emily
Emily
You’re what the world is coming to
Tell me what you need

Emily
Emily
You make this world worth waiting for
Tell me what you need

© 2011 Randy Riviere

Vocals: Randy Riviere, Jack Holder
Guitars: Randy Riviere, Jack Holder
Bass: Craig Young
Drums: Chad Cromwell
Violin: James Pennebaker
Strings/B3: Jack Holder

Through great basins we’ll ride
Up over talus and divides
Through the cold mountain grass
Just two friends at last
Big Joe Walker and I

We’ll go where natives only know
Through dark forests and blinding snow
Jump into cold mountain streams
Living our boyhood dreams
Big Joe Walker and I

Hi yo, out we’ll go
Hi yay, and so they’ll say
There goes, Big Joe Walker and I

They’d say our journey can’t be done
We’d get killed by bears, tribes, or sun
Fall from a cliff we would
Drown or get scalped we should
Big Joe Walker and I

All the natives will be friends
But we’d warn them time and time again
Don’t believe a word they say
They won’t stop till they get there way
Big Joe Walker and I

Settler’s would ask which is the way
With conviction I’d sternly say
Go back to where you’re from
You’re going to spoil all the fun
For Big Joe Walker and I

© 2011 Randy Riviere

Vocals: Randy Riviere
Guitars: Randy Riviere, James Pennebaker
Mandolin, Banjo: James Pennebaker
Bass: Dave Roe
Drums: Chad Cromwell

It rained some today
And there’s more on the way
Found a note slid under my door
Says you ain’t coming here no more

And I want to know
Why these tides ebb and flow
Why do they come and go?

Down south there’s a hurricane
Bearing down on Key Biscayne
We took the train up to Prairie View
Counted stars in the morning dew

Up in Missouri there’s a mighty wind
Turning up what will not bend
From the loft of my uncle’s barn
We talked about corn and building a farm

© 2011 Randy Riviere

Vocals: Randy Riviere
Guitars: Randy Riviere
Pedal Steel, Violin: James Pennebaker
Bass: Craig Young
Drums: Chad Cromwell

My daddy owns Pittsburg Steel
He said buck up son we gotta make that deal
But they’re gonna tear down old Cinder Run
Where we all swam in the summer sun

Do I walk this life alone?

He says progress rolls with the money son
It’s just the way it is the way it’s done
But they’re gonna take down old Switchback Hill
Where I lost my childhood to Backbreak Jill

Do I walk this life alone?

My Grandaddy owns Texas Oil
He says it takes a big stack to make the water boil
But they’re gonna have their way with Crooked Plain
Where I finally caught up with Appaloosa Jane

Do I walk this life Alone?

He says livin’ rolls with the money son
That’s the way it is the way it’s done
But they’re gonna house up old Maple Wood
Where the Doc taught me all she understood

Do I walk this life alone?

© 2011 Randy Riviere

Vocals: Randy Riviere, Kevin McKendree, Sean Corbett, Shane Dwight
Guitars: Randy Riviere, James Pennebaker
Bass: Dave Roe
Drums: Chad Cromwell

Down at Benton’s Arm
Up on the family farm
Over by Eagle Run
And out on the prairie sun

This is my people’s home
With beating hearts, flesh, and bone
Those driven down and the lucky ones
Our handsome daughters and shining sons

And up on the boulevard
We got our start with a union card
And built our houses up with our hands
Made the iron and filled metal cans

We took our babies in our arms
Got some horses and built our farms
In mountain rain we grew our hay
Through the floods and drought we stayed

You can’t deny it
You can’t deny we’re one

All these days have gone by
Some moved on some stayed to fight
We threw our nickels in Mason jars
Under blowing dirt, snow and stars

And there’s a keeper that has no face
A mighty glue that holds this place
Running through our bodies and out our hands
Through these forests and out on our land

© 2011 Randy Riviere

Vocals: Randy Riviere, Elayna Jane Holder
Guitars: Randy Riviere, Mark Polack, James Pennebaker
Pedal Steel: James Pennebaker
Bass: Craig Young
Drums: Chad Cromwell

I’ve got ambition that’s what they said
Got another gear to move on ahead
Got a field full of cattle and the big hat too
A new red barn I drive my semi through

And I’ll set the world on fire
I’ll set this world on fire

I’ve got ambition that’s what they said
Gotta rake it all in before I’m dead
But old man Wilson who lives down the road
Gets a better price selling by the load

What old Wilson doesn’t know
I just bought three sections from Uncle Joe
I’m gonna drop the price there’s a limit see
To what old Wilson and his brothers need

© 2011 Randy Riviere

Vocals: Randy Riviere
Guitars: Randy Riviere, Reggie Young
Bass: Dave Roe
Drums: Chad Cromwell

The winter’s on the rails
The plaster and the nails
Back home

My senses all have failed
Still these hands send up these sails
Alone

Now all I really want
Is what we had

Little kids run from town
See them gather all around
On shore

These arms have tossed the lines
Through Hell Station and the mines
What for?

Tell her I’ll be fine
Holding anchor and writing rhymes
Off shore

But for what I have not known
I’d join the bottom with the bones
In war

© 2008 Randy Riviere

Vocals: Randy Riviere, Marty Grebb
Guitars: Randy Riviere
Bass: Bob Glaub
Drums: Jim Christie
Harmonica: Mickey Raphael
Pedal Steel: James Pennebaker