Texas Trilogy
Steven Fromholtz


Daybreak

Em        D            G           D                
6'oclock silence of a new day beginning
     Em         D          Bm                    
is heard in a small Texas town
Em        D         G           D                A        
Like a signal from nowhere the people  who live there
    Em      D       Bm                      
are up and movin' around
                E                         A                    
'cause there's bacon to  fry and there's biscuits to bake
       E                      A                                  
On a stove that the Salvation Army won't take
        E                     A                                  
And you open the windows and turn on the fan
         Em               A            F            B            
'cause it's hotter than hell when the sun hits the land

Em          D           G           D               
Walter and Fanny well they own the grocery
that sells most all that you need
They've been up and workin' since early this mornin'
they've got the whole village to feed
They put out fresh eggs and throw the bad ones away
that rotted because of the heat yesterday
The store is all dark so you can't see the flies
that settle on round steak and last Monday's pies

Sleepy Hill's drugstore and the cafe are open
the coffee is bubbling hot
The folks who ain't workin' gonna sit there till sundown
and talk about what they ain't got
Someone just blew a clutch in the ol pickup truck
Seems like they're ridin' on a streak of bad luck
The doctor bills came and the well has gone dry
Seems their grown kids don't care whether they live or die

Spoken:
Hell I can remember when Kopperl, Texas was a good place for a man to live 
and raise a family. 'Course that was before the cotton gin closed down. 
Has it been that long ago? You know it seems like only yesterday ol Steve Hughes
lost his arm in that infernal machine and walked all the way home a bleedin' 
to death. 'Course the new highway helped some. They dammed up the Brazos to 
build Lake Whitney. Brought some fishermen down from Dallas and Ft. Worth. 
Town shure has been quiet since they closed down the depot and built that 
new trestle of west of town.

You know the train just don't stop here anymore
No- the train just don't stop here anymore........



Trainride
          D                               C
Well the last time I remember that train stoppin at the depot
         G                           D
was when me and my Aunt Veeda came a ridin' back from Waco
     D                            C                             G
I remember I was wearin' my long pants and I was sharin' conversation
                    D
with a man who sold ball point pens and paper
         C                                      D 
And the train stopped once in Clifton where my Aunt  bought me some ice cream
    C                                 D
My mom was there to meet us when the train pulled into Kopperl


CHORUS:
     C                   D               
Now kids at night break window lights 
         C                 D     
And the sound of trains only remains 
        C               D            
In the memories of the ones like me 
          C                         D
Who have turned their backs on the splintered cracks
        C                       D 
In the walls that stand on the railroad land
          C                D                  G 
Where we used to play and run away, from the depot man

Spoken:
Yeah, but the train just don't stop here anymore


Well I remember me and brother used to run down to the depot 
Just to listen to the whistle blow when the train pulled into Kopperl 
And the engine big and shiny black as coal that fed the fire
And the engineer he'd smile and say Howdy, how ya fellas.
And the people by the windows playin cards and readin papers 
Looked as far away to us as next summer school vacation

CHORUS


Spoken:
I wonder why it is you never see no young folks around Kopperl. 
Seems like as soon as the first of May rolls around and all the seniors 
graduate, they go runnin' off to Cleburne and Ft. Worth and get 'em a good 
job.


Bosque County Romance

      G              C              D     G
Mary Martin was a school girl, just 17 or so
 G                      C           A         D
When she married Billy Archer 'bout 14 years ago.
    C            D                 G                C
Not even out of highschool, folks said it wouldn't last
              Am                                        D
But when you grow up in the country you grow up mighty fast.
      G            C         D                      G
They married in a hurry, in March 'fore school was out.
 G                   C               A                    D
Folks said she was pregnant. " Just wait and you'll find out."
    C               D          G             C
It came about that winter one grey November morn.
     G                             D            G
The first of many more to come, a baby boy was born.

Chorus:
     G
And cattle is their game
                   C         A                          D
And Archer is the name they give to the acres that they own.
         C               D           G                    C
If the Brazos don't run dry and the newborn calves don't die
  G                               Em
Another year from Mary will have flown.
  G                D               G
Another year from Mary will have flown.


Now Billy he kept what cattle his daddy could afford
Bouncin' cross the cactus in a 1950 Ford
But the cows were sick and skinny and the weeds was all that grew
But Billy kept the place alive, the only thing he knew

And Mary cooked the supper and Mary scrubbed the floor
And Mary busted horses and blew the baby's nose
And Mary and her shotgun kept the rattlesnakes away
But how she kept on smilin, no one could ever  say

Repeat Chorus

Now the drought of '57 was a curse upon the land
No one in Bosque County could give Bill a helpin' hand
The ground was cracked and broken, and the truck was out of gas
And cows can't feed on prickly pears, instead of growin' grass
Then the weather took the water and a snakebite took a child
And the fire in the old barn took the hay that Bill had piled
The mortgage got the money and the screworms got the cows
The years had come for Mary, she's waitin' for 'em now

Repeat Chorus                            

Repeat  Daybreak first verse.