A Cowboy Like Me - Chris Ledoux

Just barely eighteen when the Great War was through

Ridin' and fighin' was all that I knew

Hard life and death was all that I seen

Ridin' hell bend for leather in search of a dream

I rode drag on a heard up the old Chisum trail

Straight through Oklahoma to Dodge City’s jail

My hard dusty wages played out way too soon

On whisky and Keno at the Long Branch Saloon

All I have left is my stories to tell

Heavens too far and I’m plumb scared of hell

Nobody wants this pain and misery

But there still are some who think they could be a cowboy like me

I spent one lonely winter in an old line shack

With beans in my belly rain on my back

A ration of coffee and a mountain of snow

With cattle to attend to at forty below

And it’s back for the round up in April or May

You round up the calf’s boys and you cut out the strays

And you might touch a woman before the long summer ends

Then its back to the line shack and do it all again

And all I have left…

I’ve given some bad guys a hard way to go

I busted my bones in them old time rodeos

I might have stretched truth Lord but I’ve never lied

Can’t you tell I’m a cowboy by the scars on my side

But I rode with Cole Younger and New Jesse James

Me and old Wyatt use to ride on the range

And men all said sir to my Colt 45

And I was with Hitchcock the night that he died

All I have left…