hair gold | Kathleen Dunbar

Red Bird
Lyrics from my new cd The Storm in Our Head
Dan Feiszli on his luscious standup bass made in 1932 in Cleveland, Ohio
Gawain Mathews playing superbly haunting acoustic and electric guitars
Me singing, channeling the Red Bird

I come down from old cold mountain
I was a child without no home
there are wings on birds in the mountain
there are wings on birds who have flown
I had no ma or pa to love me
I had no one to ease my way
I had my body ripe as a pear
when I needed money my body would pay

Chorus
when the rain is through I’ll be gone
when the rain is through I’ll be free
sage smells sweet and the moon is bright
I see and I hear spirits in the night
they come to claim me

many the men who pass through this town
askin for Red Bird by that I am known
I wear a red dress not for my pleasure
I wear a red dress it’s all that I own
here come the riders so dusty and wild
the range and the bottle is all they call home
to pay for the women’s sweet flesh till the mornin
they ride through the rain and the lightnin storm

Chorus

I don’t give my laugh or my whiskey for free
till I met a cowboy beside me he lay
eyes like the sky and hair gold as sun
he told me my love I’ll take you away
he sat playin cards by an evil-eyed stranger
who shot my love I can still hear the sound
the stranger’s horse I’ve stolen, I’m ridin
when I hang by his hand will you cut me down

Chorus

and I fly and I fly and I fly and I fly
I fly and I fly and I fly
and I fly and I fly and I fly through the night
I fly and I fly and I fly
and I fly and I fly and I fly through the night
I fly and I fly and I fly
and I fly and I fly and I fly through the night
I fly and I fly and I fly