1. UP ON THE RIDGE

BY JOE ELY

Up on the ridge, I seen a rider passin' by

Up on the ridge, I seen a rider passin' by

I heard thunder in the distance

I seen the lightning in his eye

Up on the ridge, I gotta tangle with my fate

Up on the ridge, I gotta tangle with my fate

Details must be dealt with

Before the hour gets too late

Up on the ridge there's a highway headin' home

Where the ramblin' men must leave their sin

Up on the ridge

Up on the ridge, there's a fire about to burn

Up on the ridge, there's a fire about to burn

When the sun sets on the lowlands, only one of us will return

Up on the ridge, there's a highway headin' home

Where the ramblin' men must leave their sin

Up on the ridge

Up on the ridge, there's a highway headin' home

Where the ramblin' men must leave their sin

Up on the ridge 

2. SLOW YOU DOWN

BY JOE ELY 

Come here with me here with me

I wanna' slow you down

I wanna' smear the moonlight in your skin

And put Orion in your crown

Let it all go

I know that you're beat

That truckstop's just not good for you

You're always on your feet

I wanna' slow you down

I wanna' slow you down

I wanna' slow you down

Take off your dress

I wanna' slow you down

I wanna' feel the warmness of your skin

As your heart begins to pound

Let it all go

I know what you need

That lonesome coyote sounds forlorn

He's hurtin' he's so free

But lay a while beside me

Forget about your cares

Down in your arroyo

I wanna' climb your silver stairs

3. BECAUSE OF THE WIND

BY JOE ELY

Do you know why the trees bend

At the west Texas border?

Do you know why they bend

Sway and twine?

The trees bend because of the wind

Across that lonesome border

The trees bend because of the wind

Almost all the time

Have you seen my Caroline

Up in Amarillo?

Have you seen my Caroline

The one that I call mine?

Well, if you see my Caroline

With her hair of yellow

If you see my Caroline

Tell her I'm doin' fine

She is to me like the breeze

That blows from Corpus Christi

She is to me like the breeze

That blows up from the sea

Now if she is like the breeze

That blows from Corpus Christi

Then I must be like the trees

'Cause Caroline blows through me

Do you know why the trees bend

At the west Texas border?

Do you know why they bend

Sway and twine?

The trees bend because of the wind

Across that lonesome border

The trees bend because of the wind

Almost all the time

4. ALL JUST TO GET TO YOU

BY JOE ELY AND WILL SEXTON

I have stumbled on the plains

Staggered in the wind

Stood at a crossroad or two

Cried to a river

Swept to the sea

All just to get to you

I have flagged a yellow cab

Hopped a rusty freight

Sang till my lips turned blue

Flown a silver bird

On the tops of the clouds

All just to get to you

I ran too hard

I played too Rough

I gave my Love

Not near Enough

I bled too red

I cried too blue

I beat my fist

Against the moon

All just to get to you

I have run from St. Paul

To Wichita Falls

Call'd you from sunny Baton Rouge

Hocked everything

From my watch to my ring

All just to get to you

I ran too hard

I played too Rough

I gave you Love

Not near Enough

I bled too red

I cried too blue

I beat my fist

Against the moon

All just to get to you

From the California Shore

Where the mighty ocean roars

To the lands of the Hopi and the Sioux

I walked the desert sands

Crossed the Rio Grande

All just to get to you

I have stumbled on the plains

Staggered in the wind

Stood at a crossroad or two

Cried to a river

Swept to the sea

All just to get to you

5. MISS BONNIE AND MR. CLYDE

BY JOE ELY

I was mindin' my own business down on Deep Elum Street

The sun was comin' up and the birds was singin' sweet

When a car come around the corner, long and lean and brown

Pulls up to the curb beside me and rolls their window down

A man throws me a dollar and I asked him what's that for

A pack of Luckies and a Paper over at the corner store

I peer into the window there's a man and a woman inside

Holy Jumpin' Bolts of Lightnin' it's Miss Bonnie and Mr. Clyde

I made a joke about Lucky Strikes that I never should've used

Their patience was proportional to the shortness of their fuse

Bonnie's pretty little trigger finger was twitchin' by her side

And Clyde was cleanin' his fingernails with a foot long Bowie Knife

I brung 'em back the Cigarettes and the Dallas Mornin' Sun

I told 'em they made the papers front page and column one

Ah, we don't need no smart-assed kid actin' as our guide

Now just run along like you never seen, Miss Bonnie and Mr. Clyde

Excuse me sir I says to him, but I thought you was a business guy

I might have a little proposition that just might catch your eye

The biggest haul of Fort Knox Gold they're a- haulin back tonight

And loadin' it up in an Armored Car at the crack of the mornin' light

Bonnie grabbed me by the belt loop and pulled me in the car

And Clyde held a saw'd-off to my head and lit me a big cigar

If you're on the level then we might just be partners on the side

But don't even think about double crossin' Miss Bonnie and Mr. Clyde

Within a week I'd been transformed from a beggar to a wanted man

The dreams I'd had of a glamorous life were now, oh so close at hand

Bonnie kept makin' eyes at me, it was hard to look away

She looked like an innocent country girl who had somehow gone astray

Clyde once imagined he was Robin Hood but now his greed was startin' to show

Instead of spreading the wealth around he was wallerin' in the Dough

And when he started slappin' Bonnie around something went off in me inside, I said,

If you keep slappin' Bonnie around, I'm gonna have your hide! Clyde!

Clyde would've shot me then and there if he wasn't so sluggin' drunk

'Bout the time he raised his shootin' iron he passed out on his trunk

Me and Bonnie made our break, in Clyde's Caddilac De Ville

Bonnie was already on my lap as we flew thru Louisville

We got married in Niagra Falls, I got a job as a paper man

Within a week the headlines came, showed Clyde on an old divan

Shot full of holes, the both of them, which the paper then Identified

As the love who led him to his grave, Miss Bonnie and Mr. Clyde

We just couldn't believe we got away with a scheme as big as that

We were buying drinks and tossin' scraps to all the dogs and cats

We rented us a barrel that night at the Whiskey Still

And decided to spend our Honeymoon floatin' down Niagra Hill

We made the maddest wettest bumpiest love fallin' down that waterfall

Like a crazy pair of desert doves who had never seen rain fall

The Police lights were blinkin' at our motel room, outside

But We never went back to hear the tale of Miss Bonnie and Mr. Clyde

6. LETTER TO LAREDO

BY JOE ELY

As I was rolling across the Mississippi
I stopped there and I cried
No use for a man to keep a mighty river
All dammed up inside

I jumped bail from the Sweetwater County
Now I'm on the run
On my head is a five number bounty
For a crime I never done

Take this letter to Laredo
To the one I love
Tell her to stay low
Beneath the stars above
Her love is my only alibi
It's for her love I lied
Yeah, yeah, yeah

"Why did Frankie have to pull that trigger?
Why did you have to hide?
The sheriff still thinks I was standing with her
It's for your love I lied."

"Love will make a free man a prisioner
Will make an honest man lie
Love can be tough, love can be tender
It's my only alibi"

Take this Letter to Laredo

To the one I love

Tell her to stay low

Beneath the stars above

Her love is my only alibi

It's for her love I lied...

Yeah, yeah, yeah…

7. WHERE IS MY LOVE

BY RANDY BANKS

Here I am drinkin'. I am caught thinkin'

I wasn't always lonely like this.

It must be the liquor that makes me remember

The ones that I swore I'd forget.

But I was unkind. I left them behind

And now I can just reminisce.

Where is my love on a night like tonight?

Does she still see the same stars as I?

Where is my love on a night like tonight?

Does she still see the same stars as I?

I left pretty quick. I give justice the slip

I gave up the ones that I love.

I was strung out on need. I had to leave

But I left myself with no choice.

Now my romance is gone. I'm exiled alone.

I'm holed up somewhere near love.

Where is my love on a night like tonight?

Does she still see the same stars as I?

Where is my love on a night like tonight?

Does she still see the same stars as I?

Don't ask my advuce on the secrets of life.

Just buy me another round.

I got no more answers. I took too many chances.

The path that I chose was unwise.

That's why I'm lonely. I'm broke and I'm only.

Some wanderer wondering why.

Donde esta' mi amor en una noche como hoy?

Vera' el mismo cielo que yo?

Where is my love on a night like tonight?

Does she still see the same stars as I?

8. RANCHES AND RIVERS

BY JOE ELY

In the cool of the evening

She calls me to dance

My back's about broken

From choppin' the plants

My soul is so thirsty

I can't sleep at night

She walks in my dreams

and brings me delight

I was born to the workers

To toil and to strife

My father before me

He worked all his life

He took nothing for granted

He said son never bend

This heart that's been broken

Only her love can mend

Some men could give you

Ranches and Rivers

With fences of Barbed Wire

To keep out the cold

But me, I got nothin'

No Titles to nothin'

Just a Love and a Fire

More Precious than gold

Your daddy works me in the ground

He knows something's goin' down

Will you pack your things

And ride with me

Tomorrow at sunrise

With the dew on the cotton

They cut loose the watchdogs

When they see that we're gone

The smile of my sweet one

Asleep on the car seat

Ten miles to the border

Where we will be free

9. ALL THAT YOU NEED

BY JOE ELY

I been workin' on the farm

Just me and my brother Jack

Choppin' a sea of cotton

'Till I thought I'd break my back

Everything changed

When my daddy got hurt

Our lives were so connected

To that brown ol' flatland dirt

When the government man from Austin

Come sniffin' around our land

Askin' a bunch of questions

That we did not understand

There's more to farmin' cotton

Than just tendin' to your seed

The ones who set the policy

Don't give a damn about our needs

Sow the seed in the ground below

Fall to your knees and pray real slow

That rain will come and kiss the seed

And bless you with all that you need

Mama says to Jackie

Would she bring the car around?

She's wearin' her finest dress

That's how I know she's goin' to town

I wish I'd never seen that letter

That I found there in her room

They're sellin' the farm on the courthouse step

This Saturday afternoon

Me and Jack moved into town

To a shack by the train depot

Jack got a job as a bouncer

At a bar on Paradise Row

Mama got a job in the cotton gin

Grading cotton by the bale

She cried when a trailer full of cotton come in

From the farm we had to sell

Sow the seed in the ground below

Fall to your knees and pray real slow

That rain will come and kiss the seed

And bless you with all that you need

Me, I ended up in jail

Sick of livin' on welfare

And the hardest thing ever happened to me

Is when mama come to visit me there

Don't you worry your pretty little head

I said as I buttoned my shirt

When I get out of this iron hotel

I'm goin' back to that dry-land dirt

For some it's just a livin'

But for us its our whole life

If it kills me I'm gonna rake that ground

And make a livin' out of toil and strife

The ways of the cities makes no sense

Strapped to dependency

I'd rather be sweatin' a-'neath a clear blue sky

Plantin' cotton with my family

Sow the seed in the ground below

Fall to your knees and pray real slow

That rain will come and kiss the seed

And bless you with all that you needAll That You Need lyrics © BMG Rights