Al was a dear friend who I met at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1997 and
visited every time I made it to the Texas hill country after that, up until
he suddenly died in a flash flood on the road home from a gig. I wrote this
song while driving around the Texas hill country around the time of Camp
Casey, listening to a CD of Al's and thinking about him and his often
brilliant way with words.
Lyrics
When I come to central Texas
And I’m amid the shrubs and stone
And I’m driving down the highway
And I’m driving on my own
It makes me think about a friend
Who I knew not long ago
Who lived beneath the moonlight
On a ranch called Armadillo
When I’m cruising through the desert
On this road that loves my car
It makes me think of wild roses
And a beat up old guitar
It makes me think of how I’d stop there
On my way on through
And hang with the deadhead boxcar
The lonely railroad tracks and you
(Chorus)
Sometimes love hurts, Al
Other times it kills
An Alberta boy who fell in love
With the Texas hills
We’d reminisce of friends
That we both knew somewhere
You’d tell me of a woman
With flowers in her hair
We’d swap songs and stories
That happened since last year
The ones you always liked the best
Was when we all ended up in tears
(Chorus)
You still had the sneakers
Though you’d given up the wine
You found a trailer by the highway
That treated you just fine
Where you could write the finest lines
About whoever took your heart
Flew it to the clouds
And ripped it all apart
(Chorus)
