Day 18: Songs of Place

There's interesting information about The Brazos Rover Song here. I think this is a song I discovered through the wonders of the Internet. The first version I ever heard was by Townes van Zandt. I figured he wrote it, but the link above clears up that matter. It was a true folk song, coming down to us from ultimately unknown sources.

The song names just about all the rivers in Texas, I suppose. The singer seems to know these rivers intimately, but every river makes him think about the one river, the Brazos, where he once walked with his love.

Looking for versions to post here, I've come upon many wonderful renditions. It's a true Cowboy song. You can imagine it sung around a campfire in West Texas, under the stars, maybe a cowboy with a squeezebox or a harmonica, another strumming a beat up guitar, and still another singing lowly. It might have sounded a little like this: