Heart Shaped Stones

I think of this song as another gift from the Sacramento River. I was walking on the shore at Anderson River Park, navigating the river rock, when I began a story song about a woman who collects Heart Shaped Stones.

I originally thought about making her a victim of unrequited love – filling her pockets with heart shaped stones and dramatically throwing herself into the river.

Yuck. I hate singing Poor-Pitiful-Me songs. I much prefer to sing about powerful women, so I came up with a more enjoyable storyline.

In true country music tradition, it includes the requisite elements: love, loss, revenge and a pick-up truck.

My kids consider this song “twisted” and “creepy.” I like that.




Heart Shaped Stones
words and music by Erin Coombs Friedman © 2004

She hoped for hearts and flowers, maybe wedding bells
Instead she got the valentine from hell
A year has passed, but it she pictures it like yesterday
The way he laughed, got in his truck and drove away

She walks down by the riverside collecting valentines
Heart Shaped Stones aren’t hard to find
Everyday she fills her pockets up
With stones that remind her of
The hard-hearted man she used to love

The river wields a mighty power all its own
Making pretty things from shapeless sand and stone
She washes out her wounds and heals her scars
Strolls along the shore searchin’ for hearts

She walks down by the riverside collecting valentines
Heart Shaped Stones aren’t hard to find
Everyday she fills her pockets up
With stones that remind her of
The hard-hearted man she used to love

They found his pick-up wrecked beneath the overpass
His battered body in a pool of blood and shattered glass
The case remains unsolved – motive unknown
But the cause of death was Heart Shaped Stones


She walks down by the riverside collecting valentines
Heart Shaped Stones aren’t hard to find
Everyday she fills her pockets up
With stones that remind her of
The hard-hearted man she used to love

A woman with an ax to grind
Can pitch a pretty mean valentine
Those Heart Shaped Stones work every time