We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $0.50 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Two-disc wallet of 26 songs and four photos

    Includes unlimited streaming of Between the Wars via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    7
    releases

    Get all 7 The Gothic Cowboy/The Border Band releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Bare Bones, Between the Wars, Fresh Blood / Old Skin, It's a Short Life, Hard West, Magdalene, and Rootless Seed. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $33 USD or more (40% OFF)

     

lyrics

Cold Ohio City
m.litton

With a grubstake from Ohio he went there long ago
Brought a pack mule, a pickax, and a pan to search for gold
Bullet casings, tobacco tins, coffee cans, and bones
Are the remnants left behind his log/sod mountain home
Moss-roofed and fallen now on a high granite slope
Where a lone pine stands sentinel by a dynamite-cratered hole
Gold! was a booming cry in 1900 or so
Gold was a fever
There was gold in Colorado
But the stillness reigns like starlight
And near a dying patch of snow
Lie the rusting, bleaching remnants
Of bullets, tobacco, coffee, and bones

The night was just rolling in
When I finally reached the west end of town
I drifted on down the far side of the street
And the people I did meet in silence passed me by
For I cruelly stared ‘em each one in the eye

The season was late autumn and the wind blew uncommonly hard
As I stepped up to the bar of the “Gold Creek Sporting House”
Where the chorus gals in gowns waved from the balcony
And swarmed about the fair, raven-haired queen
Of cold Ohio City, Colorado gold mining town

She was know as the Bluebell of Beau Simone I clearly do recall
She dazzled ‘em all with her warm and liquid eyes
Blue as the mountain sky above a late evening silhouette
A night with her a mortal man could never forget

She leaned upon the shoulder of a handsome gambler
Name of Beau Simone
The cigar he smoked never left his lips
He wore a pistol on his hip and silver-plated Spanish spurs
Suffice it to say he was dressed beyond words
In cold Ohio City, Colorado gold mining town

I knew ‘em both by other names from a situation I’ll explain in time
The months now number nine since their whereabouts was known
And a bitter seed had grown
I’d come to play the card of revenge
Against this lady, my wife, and this gentleman, my friend

I sat down at their table with a Winchester cradled in my arms
All the others drew apart as I called the cheatin’ pair
They straightened in their chairs
But when he went for that ace up his sleeve
Lord, he never knew what hit ‘im when my hammer hit the breach
In cold Ohio City, Colorado gold mining town

Through Denver the word was spread
Next morning as they read the telegram
A drifter killed a gambler and his belle
But the drifter died as well
For when he knelt at the dying lady’s side
She shot him with a derringer holstered on her thigh

The mining shacks all are gone
As the breezes blow beyond the Great Divide
And where the stream runs behind the old Hickory Mill
Up yonder on a hill beneath a lone white Aspen tree
There lay the bones of Bluebell, Beau Simone, and me
In cold Ohio City, Colorado gold mining town

credits

from Between the Wars, released September 16, 2020

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Gothic Cowboy/The Border Band image

The Gothic Cowboy/The Border Band Lawrence, Kansas

I'm a creekbank ghetto boy. Began my singin' near half a century ago in Canada, then hit northeast, down thru Nashville, Austin, out to Colorado and back to Kansas where I started out and will likely remain. My influences are Leadbelly, Jimmie Rodgers, CCR and The Band, while the juices of a hundred others flavor my music, not to mention the devil himself if that's what it takes to make a song... ... more

contact / help

Contact The Gothic Cowboy/The Border Band

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like The Gothic Cowboy/The Border Band, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Seafood Sam joins the show to discuss his newest album, " Standing On Giant Shoulders".
listen now