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'Til the Cows Come Home

from Unravelled Tales - Volume 1 by Sam Steffen

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lyrics

Yesterday the well dried up and the drought has just begun
We never prayed for more than just a little more than none
Fella from the bank dropped by with a mortgage and a deed
Said I could either sign them or he’d sign them both for me
Said he knew my troubles, knew my work, my pain, my need
Couldn’t tell if he was talking out of duty or just greed
Ma and pa were farmers and they died relatively young
Thank god they didn’t live to see what their children would become
Cassius makes his livin givin hungry folks the heave
Gets the D.A. to arrest the ones he cannot get to leave
Now he carries round his rifle drinking whiskey from a sleeve
And he’s still as poor as they are, and well, as for me
I’m just gonna wait here on this land I used to own
Til the houses fall to ruin and the pastures have regrown
Til the countryside is silenced as the gears of progress moan
Til over my dead body the winds of change have blown
til I’m nothing but a worn out washed up stack of farmer’s bones
I’m just gonna wait here til my cows come home

Guess I’m just too sad to laugh, and still too proud to cry
Too old to learn, too poor to move, too young to die
Ma always said I always was as stubborn as the mule
Just like my paw who had the reputation for the fool
Who always said you won’t find education in a school
Nor kindness in a good deed, nor the just life in the rule
All the weeds have gone to seed, and the barns in disrepair
Nothing left to sell at market and no livestock for the fair
Sold the silo and the greenhouse, the tractor and the plow
Sold the chickens and the henhouse, the horses and the cows
Sold it all believing we would get it back somehow
And the newsreporter wants to know just what will we do now?
Chorus

They say history repeats itself, there’s a time for everything
A time to reap to sew to live to die to mourn to sing
They’ll tell you to be quiet as though your breathin were a waste
They’ll tell you to look here now, as though the music could be faced
They’ll tell you that it’s over, as though your dreams could be erased
Make sure your dreams are big enough you don’t lose them in the chase
Mattie says she’s got a family waiting way out in the west
And not too much to carry she can hitch a ride I guess
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a flour-sack
They been gone three weeks now, and probably won’t come back
Last I saw of john-boy he was headed for the tracks
With nothing but a canteen and the clothes upon his back
Maybe someday I will follow, if I can ever get the knack
Til then

Chorus

credits

from Unravelled Tales - Volume 1, released March 5, 2021

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Sam Steffen Boise, Idaho

Sam Steffen is a Pennsylvania-bred, Boise-based singer-songwriter whose songs are the torch-wood for a new generation of folk music that has learned from the best stuff in the tradition and aims in spite of everything to keep the human spirit alive and kicking. A versatile musician and skilled finger-picker, Sam is at heart a story-teller, and a prolific one. ... more

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