John Foltz: listen

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

Just a story song. A friend and I were driving home from Las Vegas when the original inspiration hit. The final impetus for writing it came on a trip with the same friend to Yuma. No real rhyme or reason, just one of those good she-done-left-and-I'm-fixin'-to-end-it-all songs.

Nevada, dusty town
Interstate to California
And this time, no around
To see him cross the state line
Just past 1 AM
And he is tired, determined for San Diego
But now he stops at the tracks

And he is standing before the river
It’s fury strong and deep below
He knows he’ll make it beyond this river

Vacant walls, rusty nails
Pulls the shades to hide the sunlight
From his eyes, it burns them
Like a thousand summers in the desert
He should just walk away
Drive away to Arizona
See the state-line bridge
Stop at the top, lean over the edge

And now he’s standing above the river
He stands above the eventide
And he can see her within that river
She follows him
She follows like a shadow inside the restless raging river

One might say, out of touch
Out of place sophistication
Nothing more, nothing is less
Nothing is a limitation
Being here
She is here, she is there, she is everywhere
She’s anywhere he wants to be or not be

He’s standing before the river
Before and after and in between
He has been inside the quiet river
Tried to escape the hands that pulled and kept him
Standing before the river
Break down the dams, set the floodgates free
And he will be washed away far from her

Standing before the river