Cottonwood and Cowboys

It's Rodeo Week in Cottonwood -- here's a cowboy song inspired by living in a place where the west is still a little wild:



Cowboy on Her Mind
© Erin Coombs Friedman

In a high-rise corner office
She’ll crunch numbers for the bosses
Spend all day working on the bottom line
It’s the long ride home that does it
DJ says, “Here’s Lyle Lovett”
And she’ll spend tonight
With a Cowboy on Her Mind

And the Cowboy on Her Mind
Is the brave and wild kind
Could not be tamed -- Lord knows she tried
Silver buckle – Cuervo Gold
“Cowboy Man” on the stereo
On her own with a Cowboy on Her Mind

Her ghostly hero rides in
She takes her place beside him
Taste the kisses mixed with salt and lime
The man she lost in Colorado
Will be gone again tomorrow
But she’ll spend tonight
With a Cowboy on Her Mind

Details on Rodeo Week and all the activities are available here.

Cottonwood Cowboy Donny Martin

By all accounts, he was the bullfighter you wanted in your corner. The pick-up man that countless cowboys counted on. Cottonwood Cowboy Donny Martin left a proud legacy when he passed away on July 1st.

A website dedicated to his memory provides details on the services (Friday, July 11th) and the Donny Martin Family Crisis Fund, and features some wonderful photos of a man doing what he loved to do: Donny Martin.com.

I wrote Ride Away, Cowboy a few years ago, and daughter Annie joined us on fiddle. It seems appropriate at the moment.




Leaves of October lie buried in snow
Nights growin’ colder and long
Seasons surrender and trees have let go
The cowboy just keeps holdin’ on

Hard times don’t travel that last lonesome road
And he’s achin’ to take up the reins
Hard as I try, I can’t justify
Keepin’ a cowboy in chains

So Ride Away, Cowboy
Your work here is done
Pack up the ponies and run
For horizons unknown on highways untried
Ride Away, Cowboy, ride

The hero sets out and the silence sets in
Solemn and still and complete
Til the music within the whisperin’ wind
Echoes the comfort I need