🎙️CLASSIC RODEO TUNES 🎶 & 🐴BRONC BALLADS

Amarillo by mornin’
Up from San Antone
Everything that I got
Is just what I’ve got on

When that Sun is high
In that Texas sky
I’ll be buckin’ at the county fair
Amarillo by mornin’
Amarillo I’ll be there

They took my saddle in Houston
Broke my leg in Santa Fe
Lost my wife and a girlfriend
Somewhere along the way

But I’ll be lookin’ for eight
When they pull that gate
And I hope that
Judge ain’t blind
Amarillo by mornin’

Amarillo’s on my mind

Amarillo by mornin’
Up from San Antone
Everything that I got
Is just what I’ve got on

I ain’t got a dime
But what I’ve got is mine
I ain’t rich
But Lord, I’m free

Amarillo by mornin’
Amarillo’s where I’ll be
Amarillo by mornin’
Amarillo’s where I’ll be

 

• Written by Terry Stafford and Paul Fraser, and originally recorded by Stafford in 1973.
• Recorded in 1975 by Chris LeDoux (1976 World Champion Bareback Rider) on his album “Life as a Rodeo Man”
• George Strait most-famously cut the song on his 1982 album, “Strait from the Heart.”

I was hanging round town, just spending my time
Being out of a job and not earning a dime
A fellow walks up, and he says, “I suppose
You’re a bronc rider, from the looks of your clothes”

“Well, you figured me right, and I’m a good one, I claim
Would you happen to have any outlaws to tame?”
He says, “I’ve got one and a good one to buck
At throwing top riders he’s had lots of luck”

He says this here’s one pony that’s never been rode
And the man that gets on him is bound to get throwed
I got all het up and I asked what he’d pay
To ride this old nag for a couple of days

Well, he offered me ten, and I says, “I’m your man
For the bronc isn’t living that I couldn’t fan”
He says, “Get your saddle, I’ll give you the chance”
So we hopped in his buckboard and rode to his ranch

Out in the horse corral, standing alone
Is an old cavallo, a strawberry roan
Little pin ears that touch at the tip
A big 44 brand upon his left hip

He was spavined all round, and he had pigeon toes
Little pig eyes, and a big roman nose
U-necked and old, with a long lower jaw
You could tell at a glance he’s a regular outlaw

Well, I buckle on my spurs, and I’m sure feeling fine
I pull down my hat and I pick up my twine
Throw my loop on him, and well I know then
Before he gets rode, I’ll sure earn my ten

I get the blinds on him with a terrible fight
Next comes the saddle, and I cinch him up tight
Then I step on him and raise up the blinds
“Get out of the way, boys, he’s bound to unwind!”

Well, I threw him his head, and I’ll say he unwound
He seemed to quit living down here on the ground
Went up in the east and come down in the west
I’m sitting up on him and doing my best

He sure was a frog-walker, he heaved a big sigh
He only lacked wings for to be on the fly
Turned his old belly right up to the sun
He sure was a sunfishing son of a gun

He’s about the worst bucker I’ve seen on the range
He could turn on a nickle and give you some change
I lost both my stirrups and also my hat
I’m reaching for leather and blind as a bat

He come down on all fours, and he went up on high
And he left me a-spinning up there in the sky
Turned over twice and I come down to the earth
And I lit into cussing the day of his birth

Now I know there’s ponies that I cannot ride
There’s some of them living, they haven’t all died
But I’ll bet my money there’s no man alive
Who can stay with old Strawberry when he makes his high dive

 

• Carmen William “Curley” Fletcher (1892—1954), also known as Curley W. Fletcher and Curley Fletcher, was an American composer of “Western music (North America)” cowboy songs and “Cowboy poetry”.   A prolific creator of this material, he is best remembered for the classic cowboy song “The Strawberry Roan”, written in 1915, and for his 1931 book, Songs of the Sage.

• “THE STRAWBERRY ROAN”
  (Written by Curley Fletcher) Recorded by: Bill Boyd & His Cowboy Wranglers – 1934
  Lucile Morris – 1934
  Gene Autry (feat. in the film “The Strawberry Roan”) – 1948
  Montana Slim – 1956
  Dick Curless – 1958
  Marty Robbins – 1959
  The Willis Brothers – 1963
  Peter LaFarge – 1964
  Chris LeDoux – 1973
  Moe Bandy – 1982
  Michael Martin Murphy – 1993

  *Also recorded by:
  Roy Rogers & Dale Evans; Rex Allen; Henson Cargill; Roy “Lonesome Charley” Faulkner; Arizona Wranglers; Sons Of The Pioneers; Billy Walker; Carson Robison;
  Rex Kelly; Don Edwards; Red Sovine; Slim Critchlow; David Allan Coe; Red River Dave; Jim Bob Tinsley; Fletcher Jowers; Merrick Jarrett; Stuart Hamblen; Cisco Houston; Sleepy LaBeef; Wilf Carter…. and others.

• “The Strawberry Roan” is a classic American cowboy song, written by California cowboy “Curley Fletcher” and first published in 1915, as a poem called
  The Outlaw Broncho By the early 1930s, the song had become famous; in 1931 it was sung by a cowboy in the Broadway play Green Grow the Lilacs. It has become one of the best-known cowboy songs, found in dozens of collections of American folk music and performed on numerous recordings. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time

Wild as a coastal boranca, swift as the wind blowin’ free
With two eyes like fire brands that glow in the night
Somewhere up there he’s waitin’ for me
And he knows that I’m coming for him
I just can’t rest ’til I find
That raven black stallion, who wears no man’s brand
With a wild restless spirit like mine

They call him Caballo Diablo
Half horse, half devil they say
Caballo Diablo the outlaw
Of the blanca Sierra Madre

Two men before tried to take him
They had their chance one by one
But each met his fate when those flashin’ black hooves
Brought death ‘neath the Mexican sun
Still I can’t leave I must find him
You fool of a horse can’t you see
I may be half man, but the other half’s devil
And you’re just exactly like me

They call him Caballo Diablo
Half horse, half devil they say
Caballo Diablo the outlaw
Of the blanca Sierra Madre

Even the breeze has stopped movin’
Hush now – be still
Don’t make a sound and stay close to the ground
Cause he’s waitin’ just over that hill
Downwind behind him move quickly
Do it fast now, he’s startin’ to stir
Grab a hand full of mane and up onto his back
And start breaking him down with my spurs
But try as he will he can’t shake me
As over the precipice we go
To spill the lifes blood of a horse and a man
On the rocky Sierra below

They call him Caballo Diablo
Half horse, half devil they say
Caballo Diablo the outlaw
Of the blanca Sierra Madre

 

• Written by Charlie Daniels, released on 1974 album, “Fire On the Mountain”
• Recorded by Chris Ledoux in 1975 on the album, “Life As a Rodeo Man”
• Re-recorded by Chris LeDoux (featuring Charlie Daniels) in 1998 on the album, “One Road Man”.

His Stetson was faded and battered and worn
The stubble of his beard showed flecks of gray
His limp was severe cause a leg had been torn by a bronc in his rodeo days

He hung round the chutes while we waited to mount
With a vague look of longing in his eyes
He spoke very few words but he made ’em count
He was broken, forgotten but wise

He said life’s is just like ridin’ broncs its a battle
Then he rolled a cigarette with shaky hands
Son I’ll gladly take ten seconds in the saddle
For a lifetime of watching from the stands

I noticed the cigarette burns on his vest
And the remnant of a dream left in his eyes
The boys said he could have well been the best
Had not fate cheated him of his prize

Oh but I learned a lesson that I never known
From this guy who’d been busted so bad
It’s better to ride even if you get throwed
Than to wind up just wishing you had

He said life’s is just like ridin’ broncs, its a battle
Then he rolled a cigarette with shaky hands
Son, I’d gladly take ten seconds in the saddle
For a lifetime of watching from the stands

Yes, I’d gladly take ten seconds in the saddle
For a lifetime of watching from the stands

 

• Written & recorded by Chris LeDoux on his 1980 album, “Western Tunesmith”

Them bareback horses are the only thing
That make your arm hurt then make your bell ring
They’re hard on tailbones and they make your neck sore
But when it’s all over you’re craving some more

Well you drive down the road in a broke down car
You stop in some town you wonder where in the hell you are
You get yourself a road map and head out once again
With only enough for fees so you’d damn sure better win
You finally make the pitchin’ with your entry fees all paid
You get on another snatcher and he flings you away
So you head to town broken hearted lookin’ for a chance
To get a little drunk and find some girl and dance
Well you meet a little girl at the bar all alone
You whoop some words on her to get her to take you home
But she’s got a big boyfriend who just came from the can
And he says move on there buddy cause he’s her lovin’ man
So you climb back in your car after your little bitty fight
You’re drunk and broken hearted
And it’s twelve o’clock at night
And you ain’t got a dime in your old blue jeans
But by golly you got a half a tank of gas
And a can of pork and beans

You write a hot check to pay your fees once again
You got yourself a good one so you ought to win
The horse is standin’ in the chute then he bucks around
The whistle blows then you’re standin’ on the ground
The judges total their markings and they tally up the score
And you’re beatin’ everybody by at least ten points or more
So you climb back in your car with a pocket full of cash
A good feelin’ in your heart and a tank full of gas
But boys the day finally comes when you get old and grey
You gotta take your spurs off and put your riggin’ away
You look back now with a wantin’ eye
But brother it’s all gone so you sit and cry

 

• Chris Ledoux, Album: “Songs of Rodeo”, 1971

Just a rodeo drifter, he comes and he goes
Like a wild wind that blows in the night
The highways and backroads are all that he knows
He’ll be gone with the mornin’s gray light

Like a blue norther howlin’, like the tumbleweeds blow
There’s no way to settle him down
His spirit’s as wild as the horses he rides
His freedom he wears like a crown

And he rides the wild horses
The same blood flows through their veins
Yes, he rides the wild horses
Like the horses, he’ll never be tamed

He’ll never be broke, he won’t be tied down
He’ll never wear no man’s brand
He won’t fit in with the nine to five crowd
‘Cause movin’s all he understands

And he rides the wild horses
The same blood flows through their veins
Yes, he rides the wild horses
Like the horses, he’ll never be tamed

And he rides the wild horses
The same blood flows through their veins
Yes, he rides the wild horses
Like the horses, he’ll never be tamed

 

• Chris LeDoux, 1981. Released on multiple albums including: “Gold Buckle Dreams”

Seven years old on a gold palomino
I sat up tall with my face to the wind
I’d seen the rodeo cowboys in Reno
So I dug in my boot heels and pulled on the reins

And Blaze, he took off running
He threw me down off the side
Then my Uncle Jim picked me up once again
Said get back on that pony and ride
Get back on that pony and ride

So lift up your head, boy, I know how you’re feeling
You say you won’t ride with a chance you might lose
You’ve fallen from love and your head is still reeling
Your heart and your pride have been shaken and bruised

Like Blaze, she took off running
Love threw you down off the side
But stand up again, shake it off if you can
Get back on that pony and ride
Get back on that pony and ride

I’m not saying forget what you lost
I suppose there’s a purpose in pain
What we make of ourselves has a cost
And it’s paid every time we take hold of the reins

So dust off your blue jeans
Get back in the saddle
Losing’s a place to start over again
Gettin’ back up there is half of the battle
And love like a pony should race with the wind

And like Blaze, it takes off running
It may throw you down off the side
Stand up again, shake it off if you can
And get back on that pony and ride
Get back on that pony and ride

 

• Written by Cori Conners
• Recorded by Chris LeDoux on his 1993 album, “Under The Old Hat”