A coupla songs from Out West

I would like to thank 1000Magicians, whose name is Laurie and who resides in the UK, for her fine uploads to YouTube. I use a lot of them because they're simply the best. The lady has exquisite musical taste, which means she likes the same artists and music I do. She also has access to a lot of European performances which we wouldn't get to see otherwise. She's very active and puts up new stuff all the time. She makes this very easy. Here are two of my favorite songs by some of my favorite artists that she uploaded just this week.

Both of these songs are set in God's Country, which runs from about where I'm sitting in the Sierra Nevada east until it plunges down the Rockies to its final reward in ever-expanding Jesusland.

"Nightriders Lament" is a song about choices - doing what you want instead of what others think you should do. Trust me, 'cuz I did it, if you follow your heart instead of your head, you'll be happy in life and you'll never make much money so you have to use your head even more to get by. Funny how that works...

This is by Texas singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith who brings in professional help on the yodelling, Don Edwards.



"Darcy Farrow" was written by Steve Gillette and Tom Campbell (reference deep in here) many years ago. If you've never heard of them you should go read. This version is by Canuckistanian folk/country superstars Ian and Sylvia Tyson with an able assist by the OG* of country rock and La Belleza de Tucson, Linda Ronstadt.

*Original Goddess

This song is set in my neck of the woods. The place names mentioned are all familiar to me.

The West Fork of the Walker River is one of the most scenic rivers in the Eastern Sierra, particularly through the canyon from about the Sonora Pass turnoff on US 395 to the wide spot in the road of Walker which has a joint that serves the best Chile Cheeseburger in the world!.

Yerington is a nice town if you like Superfund sites. The town is very proud to have been mentioned in a song and there may be a reference to it on their city limits signs. Heh.

The Truckee 'runs through' less than half a mile from where I sit and our town's motto is "Flush twice, it's a long way to Reno". Actually, our world-class wastewater treatment plant puts very clean water into the river.

Virginia City is a 2000-foot vertical drop waiting to happen. Most famous for Hoss Cartwright's mad sexual escapades with Julia C. Bulette. No video. Drat. Rumor had it that these thunderous performances were also used to test the integrity of the Deidesheimer Squaresets used to shore up places like this. The Squaresets are still there, peacefully rotting away. Since most of 'em are right under the main street VC better be glad Hoss and Julia ain't.

Now that I've bored you silly, please enjoy this sad and lovely song.