Cast Your Shadow
Lyrics

^{Copyright 2020 Snakes Alive Publishing (BMI)}

Cast Your Shadow

By Chris Mitguard

Cast your shadow ‘neath the sun

Live the tale your heart has spun

Take your chances, walk your path

There’s no one can hold you back

Chorus:

Go your way, you’ll be fine

Maybe we will meet again - down the line

Could be gold at the end of the rainbow

Till you get there you won’t know

Love is real, love is hard

It’s the greatest mercy

Chorus

Instrumental

Little Maggie don’t you know

All the places you can go?

Take your risks as best you can

You’re the equal of any man

Chorus

Face your devils; they’re everywhere

Know your friends; they too are there

Hear that train going down the track

Cast your shadow and don’t look back

Chorus (x2)

Unmarked Grave
By Chris Mitguard

Well I’m walking past the crosses

Past all the carved out stones

Walking over the grass, over a multitude of bones

A jet is flying in the sky

Freeway cars rollin' by

And there before me is an unmarked grave

I can feel her reachin' out to me

Kisses on her breath

I don’t even know how old she was or how she met her death

I think I better get out of here

I’m feeling queasy and a little queer

Here before this unmarked grave

I wonder who she was

What was her name

Where did she come from, what was her favorite childhood game

Where’s her mommy and her daddy

Where are the friends she knew

And how come she’s in an unmarked grave?

Maybe she was a farm girl

With sandy  brown hair

Or a woman from the city who just had to get out of there

Coulda’ been an old woman with no one left to care

And they laid her in an unmarked grave

I’ve stood here for too long

The moon is up above

There’s people waiting for me - people that I love

I wonder does someone miss her

And wish that she’d come home

But there she lies in an unmarked grave

Silver Dagger
Traditional

Don’t sing me love songs you’ll wake my mother

She’s sleeping here right by my side

And in her right hand’s a silver dagger

She says that I can’t be your bride

All men are false, says my mother

They’ll tell you wicked lovin’ lies

The very next evening they’ll court another

Leave you alone to pine and sigh

Instrumental

My daddy is a handsome devil

He’s got a chain five miles long

On every link a heart does dangle

Of another maid he’s loved and wronged

Go court another tender maiden

And hope that she will be your wife

For I’ve been warned and I’ve decided

To sleep alone all of my life

Brother At The Gate
By Chris Mitguard

There’s your brother at the gate

Gonna let him in, or make him wait?

There’s your brother at the gate

He needs your love — not your hate

Give him water; give him shade

Won’t you tell him not to be afraid?  He’s your brother

There’s your sister in a border town

They’ll round her up and lock her down

There’s your sister in a cage

Where’s your heart; where’s your rage?

Give her water; give her shade

Won’t you tell her not to be afraid?  She’s your sister

They walked through the desert; they trudged through the mud

Just like you, they’re flesh and blood

There they are at the gate

Better help them ‘fore it’s too late

Give them water; give them shade

Won’t you tell them not to be afraid?

He’s your brother; she’s your sister

Won’t you tell them not to be afraid?

He’s your brother; she’s your sister, mister

Won’t you tell them not to be afraid?

Same Moon
By Chris Mitguard 

Somewhere there’s a mother

With hungry children cryin’

Somewhere there’s a soldier

In a jungle dyin’

Somewhere there are two lovers

Walkin’ down the beach hand in hand

And they’re all lookin’ up at the same moon

Same moon that’s so romantic

Somewhere there’s a business man

He just made a hell of a deal

Somewhere there’s a little man

Lookin’ for work or maybe something he might steal

Somewhere there is music

And people dancin’

And they’re all looking up at the same moon

Same moon that’s so romantic

Some people have a vision

That this could be a better place

Other people say it really doesn’t matter

What you do or what you say

Most of us just go on living

Doin’ the best we can

And we’re all looking up at the same moon, in the same sky

Same moon that’s so romantic.

Same moon that’s so romantic.

Wing And A Prayer
By Chris Mitguard

Where’s my guardian angel

Where’d my luck go to hide?

I’ve taken on some damage

It’s gonna be a long hard ride

I’ll need your love to pull me through

Chorus:

On a wing and a prayer

I’ll come back home to you again

On a wing and a prayer — I’m coming’ home

I have my wife who I love dearly

And my children by my side

Sometimes I see it so clearly — what’s important in the life of mine

Like your touch in the darkness

Your whisper in my ear

Chorus

Instrumental

Outside I can hear it rainin’

And that dog barkin’ next door

You know, that used to bother me some;

It don’t bother me much anymore

If I can open my eyes wide enough

To see my way home again

Chorus

Yankee Cowboy
By Shadric Smith

I shoulda' been born in Texas

Maybe New Mexico

With a name like Jesse James

Or Billy Buffalo

I shoulda' learned to rope a cow

And drag him back and forth

I guess I caught the wrong train

Here I am up north

Oh yankee, I’m that Yankee cowboy

Well, nobody can tell me

Bob Wells ain’t the best

When I hear that fiddle

My feet start walkin’ west

Arms and legs and middle

They all follow too

We’re dancin’, dancin’

What else can we do?

Oh yankee, I’m that Yankee cowboy

Chorus:

And when I’m driving in my car

I holler at the wheel

Giddy up oh giddy up

‘Cause that’s the way I feel

I shoulda' been born in Texas

Maybe New Mexico

With a name like Jesse James

or Billy Buffalo

I shoulda' learned to rope a cow

And drag him back and forth

I guess I caught the wrong train

Here I am up north

Oh yankee, I’m that Yankee cowboy

Instrumental

Chorus

I shoulda' been born in Texas

Maybe New Mexico

With a name like Jesse James

or Billy Buffalo

I shoulda' learned to rope a cow

And drag him back and forth

I guess I caught the wrong train

Here I am up north

Oh yankee, I’m that Yankee cowboy

Bristlecone Pine
By Hugh Prestwood

Way up in the mountains

On the high timber line

Lives a twisted old tree

Called the bristlecone Pine

The wind there Is bitter

It cuts like a knife

And leaves that tree holding

On for dear life

But hold on it does

Standing it’s ground

Standing while empires

Rise and fall down

When Jesus was gathering

Lambs to his fold

The tree was already

A thousand years old

Chorus:

Now the way I have lived

There ain’t no way to tell

When I die if I’m going

To heaven or hell

So when I’m laid to rest

It would suit me just fine

To sleep at the feet

Of the Bristlecone Pine

For as I would slowly

Return to the earth

What little this body

Of mine might be worth

Would soon start to nourish

The roots of that tree

And it would partake

Of the essence of me

And who knows but that

As the centuries turn

A small spark of me

Might continue to burn

As long as the sun does

Continue to shine

Down on the limbs

Of the Bristlecone Pine

Chorus

Instrumental

Now the way I have lived

There ain’t no way to tell

When I die if I’’m going

To heaven or hell

So I’d just as soon serve out

Eternity’s time

Asleep at the feet of the Bristlecone Pine

Asleep at the feet of the Bristlecone Pine

Sometimes A River
By Chris Mitguard

Time is a wastin’, I’ve been wastin’ time

The road’s getting shorter, the hill’s a steeper climb

Chorus:

Listen to the river as she goes rolling by

Sometimes a river, a river runs dry

Ooh - ooh, ooh-ooh

Sometimes a river, a river runs dry

I let go of my crutches, and learned how to forgive

I found myself another path, another way to live

Chorus

Hear that lonesome coyote, howlin’ in the wind

I coulda' been a better man, coulda’ been a better friend

I don’t know where you are these days, but I hope your heart did mend

I’ve traveled just about everywhere, even round the bend

Chorus

Instrumental

Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh

Sometimes a river, a river runs dry

The world just keeps on turnin’, and leaves us all behind

Sometimes when I least expect it, you still cross my mind

Chorus

Prairie Wind
By Chris Mitguard

No one even knew that he was gone

They would think of him from time to time

And wonder where he might be

But it was plain enough to me

He was gone, gone, gone

A warrior who could no longer fight

Or carry a weapon in his hand

Looked up into the night

And the moon wrapped him up in her warm light

And led him home, home, home

Chorus:

An old man who lived his days

Who would not overstay his welcome

Pass through your thoughts - but seldom

A ghost wandering through the prairie wind

Instrumental

His old grey horse met him on the road

They journeyed off together well past all the seeds they sowed

And the stories they never told

Now are gone, gone, gone

Chorus

If You Would Be So Kind
By Chris Mitguard

Tell me darlin’ what do you see?

To me it’s all just a mystery

All the ones I left behind

Oh stay awhile, if you’d be so kind

I’ve heard the way you talk to strangers

And a stranger I’ve always been

Even to the ones I love

Even to my own children

I won’t tell you all the things I did

It’s locked away in my heart — well hid

But it burns like a fire deep in my soul

It’s been so long since I’ve been whole

Oh sweet darlin’ won’t you hum a tune?

It won’t be long; I’ll be leaving soon

Your angel voice gives me peace of mind

Oh stay awhile if you’d be so kind

The Last Song
By Chris Mitguard

Instrumental

Cold Alamosa Day
By Chris and Deb Mitguard

Down here by the river

Clouds go rollin’ by

Snow shines just like diamonds

‘Neath a Colorado sky

So still, the icy water

Red willows curve along the shore

The morning moon is slowly fading

As the sun spreads across the valley floor

Chorus:

There’s wisdom in the cold breeze

Ancient tales left untold

And the world is so wide open

Mysteries might still unfold

Instrumental

Colder days are yet before us

But spring will surely come

When the cranes will circle above us

And the bullfrogs will sing their evening song

Chorus

Through the stillness of the valley

The river makes her way

Beneath the wings of a magpie

On this cold Alamosa day (repeat)