| I'd never written
a bluegrass song, and wasn't particularly intending to, when all of a sudden
Blue
River Falls just kinda snuck into my head. It didn't have any words
right away; at first I was just singing the melody as if it were an instrumental
and my voice was a fiddle. Then I started doing that falsetto thing at
the beginning of the chorus,
and came up with Blue River Falls for the name of a town. When I added the rhyme of Minnesota with North Dakota, I figured that I'd better get out my road atlas and find some geographical stuff. Since I was making it all up as I went along anyway, I picked out some place names, and added the wildlife that I was pretty sure they had up there. I never did find a Blue River Falls in Minnesota, but all of the other places mentioned in the lyrics actually exist. For what it's worth, it's the only time I've ever written a song about a place I've never been. (Or written a bluegrass song.) -Steve H. |
1. Way up by / the Wild Rice River
/ where the eagles fly / and the badgers play
Up where the winter / is really winter
/ and the thaw don't come / until early May
A little bit south / of the northern
border / where the pines / are growin' tall
My true love is waitin' there / outside
of St. Hilaire / up by Blue River Falls
chorus: Blue River Falls /
where the wolf howls / and the wild goose calls
Gonna lay me down to sleep / where
that snow is driftin' deep
Up by Blue River Falls
2. I've been drivin' / all night long
from Memphis / eleven hours / still three to go
There's a sheet of ice / on this
old highway / outside it's twenty-two / below
But when she wraps / her arms around
me / then I won't / be cold at all
If I can make it through this storm
/ I know she'll keep me warm / up by Blue River Falls
repeat chorus
3. Up in the wilds / of Minnesota
/ on a twisting road / at the edge of town
Right across the Red / from North
Dakota / I'm gonna lay / my body down
And when I get / home to my darlin'
/ then you won't hear / from me at all
I won't do a blessed thing / gonna
hibernate 'til Spring / up by Blue River Falls
repeat chorus.
| "Blue River
Falls"
appears on the Steve Haggard CD,
Make Your Move.
Available on Wild Oats Records (OAT-713) |