City Limits
From the Songs & Stories album · Western folk-country · Spoken ballad
Demo recording
Produced with AI music tools, not performed by me or a band. The lyrics are mine, and a live version with real musicians is the next step.
Every spring, another rooftop where the fields used to be. An old rancher watches the town swallow his land. He saddles the pinto, rides down to the bar and confronts a newcomer chasing the same little piece of heaven, then rides straight down the middle of town. Y'all be damned.
Lyrics
Verse 1
Spat out a slurry, and set the pin in the latch,
Made his way to the barn near the ledge over town.
Years of watchin' it get nearer and nearer,
Every spring another rooftop where the fields fanned out.
Chorus
Life had been movin' in the way that he'd made it,
Now others movin' in, and seein' fit to change it,
What do ya do?
Now what do ya do?
Verse 2
The stars, the fields, them sugar-bush maples,
Been cut right down, ain't nothin' but nothin'.
Streetlights burn where the fireflies used to,
And every year there's less sky above him.
Verse 3
The pinto took the saddle like she'd been waitin' all day,
He pulled his hat down, turned her toward the valley.
The old trail opened up at the edge of town,
Blacktop lay where the old dirt ran.
He lashed her near the parlour, went in for a drink,
Took a stool beside some feller.
Bridge
He said, what's your name and what do you do?
What in the hell did you come out here to find?
He says, my name's Ichabod,
I come this way for a little land and a quieter life.
Verse 4
Well, my ranch is just over that ledge,
Lived in these parts since before y'all came.
Enjoyed these hills like my own little heaven,
Now every damn mile's got somebody's name.
It's all changed.
What do you do?
What do you do?
Verse 5
Three slugs of whiskey and back on the pinto,
Mosey'n on straight down the middle of town.
Another three slugs and he don't much mind it,
This here trail 'fore they laid this road down.
Verse 6
Past the storefront glass and the cars pulled over,
Past the people starin' like they'd never seen a man.
Caleb sat high with the reins held easy,
Ridin' that pinto like he still owned the land.
Outro
Life had been movin' in the way that he'd made it
Everybody's chasin' the same little piece of heaven.
And when the whole damn world comes crowdin' in
You ride straight through it.
Y'all be damned.
