Silence in the Wind
Words and Music by Tom May


A song about changing times in the west, taken from a story told to me by a 4th generation rancher in Gordon, Nebraska.


Verse 1
Give me a clear cloudless day, and the wide open spaces
And a sunburned old face with a big cowboy smile
But there’s a tear in his eye, for the lost and lovely places
Where the rain seldom comes, and the people pass you by

Chorus
Because the river’s just a dusty trail that travels by the ranch house
Where he raised up four children, where the mountains seem to end
The waters all been taken by the towns and the cities
And there’s nothin’ grows but sagebrush here, and the silence in the wind

Verse 2
Give me a time long gone by, when a man lived and prospered
By the cattle that he’d raise and the sweat upon his brow
When you knew what came next
From the changin’ of the seasons
But now that’s all turned over, like some field behind the plow

Chorus
Because the river’s just a dusty trail that travels by the ranch house
Where he raised up four children, where the mountains seem to end
The waters all been taken by the towns and the cities
And there’s nothin’ grows but sagebrush here, and the silence in the wind

Bridge
Look across the pasture boys, the thistle’s takin’ over
the wind is tearin’ down the fence that once held the driftin snow
they say there’s no good reason boys, to graze this western country
but cattle and the big sky, are the only life I know

Verse 3
So give me a high lonesome plain
And a good old pinto pony
One last autumn day just to ride these boundary hills
I’ll pause on a ridge
Reflect for a moment, then I’ll say one last goodbye
To this land I love still

Chorus
Because the river’s just a dusty trail that travels by the ranch house
Where he raised up four children, where the mountains seem to end
The waters all been taken by the towns and the cities
And there’s nothin’ grows but sagebrush here, and the silence in the wind

©1993 Blue Vignette Publishing, ASCAP