We're very excited that our song The Hour of the Outlaw received an Honorable Mention in the Folk category of the West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest.
I wrote the song in response to a challenge on the Songwriting Scene blog: "Write a song based on a book title." I had read Maiya Williams' time-travel novel, The Hour of the Outlaw, to my kids a few years before and thought the title had a nice musical lilt to it. For the song's story, I found inspiration in a local historical event -- the Ruggles Brothers legend, with its bad boys, sunken treasure and lynch mob.
As a songwriter, I like to take the truth and make it better, so I whipped out my Poetic License and embellished the tale, creating a Shasta County folk song with a supernatural twist.
The song is on our latest CD, Storms and Other Blessed Burdens.
The Hour of the Outlaw
words and music © 2010 Erin Friedman
He checked his pocket watch and he pulled his hat down low
Crouched in shadowed canyon beside the stagecoach road
Stood ready with his shotgun and when the stage arrived
Shot the guard and stole the gold and proved his daddy right
The Hour of the Outlaw
Seconds beat like a drum
The Hour of the Outlaw
The countdown has begun
His daddy was a scoundrel, a gambler and a thief
Took a bullet in his back for the aces up his sleeve
Before he died he said, "Son, outlaw blood runs through your veins
And all I got to leave you is this pocket watch and chain"
The Outlaw of the stagecoach trail could not out run his fate
Time had come for justice and justice would not wait
An angry mob rode out to Whiskey Creek and tracked him down
Left him swinging like a pendulum from the highest tree in town
The treasure still lies buried on the banks of Whiskey Creek
Many men have searched and failed - fortunately
But when the time is right, some unsuspecting soul
Will dig up a cursed pocket watch and strongbox full of gold
