On The Red River

There's a mid-July white-tail and velvet Red as your old Chevrolet And I was sixteen when you wrecked it And we were lucky we both walked away And you could day work and scrape out a living The work for which you had been born You were quick with a laugh and forgiving And tide-hard and fast to the horn We had Kelpies and good quarter horses We had wheat pasture yearlings tied down We learned pain was the price of admission And you're never done paying it down Back on the Red River, not hard to remember When your daddy would never get old When I saw the world from up on your shoulders I remember the view when you live like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part of you On days off, we'd help out our neighbors And we smiled and we sweated for free You'd earn every drink with your labor And I'd sleep on your front seat till three And you'd call it a cure for a snake bite And reach for a fifth of Old Crow Some medicine should get your head right When the symptoms are starting to show Back on the Red River, not hard to remember When your daddy would never get old When I saw the world from up on your shoulders I remember the view when you live like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part of you And their pick-ups lined up down the driveway Have really been gone for two years I'd be on my third on a good day I'd find my last bottle of beer I guess Saturday started without you I knew before I got the call The red July bucks are in velvet I'll tell you about them this fall Back on the Red River, not hard to remember When your daddy would never get old I'd look at from the world from up on your shoulders I remember the view when you live like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part of you Got a look at the world from up on your shoulders I remember the view when you live like we do Death doesn't leave with the best part of you