Wild Montana Skies

(album: It's About Time - 1983)

He was born in the Bitteroot Valley in the early morning rain.
Wild geese over the water, heading north and home again.
Bringing a warm wind from the south, bringing the first taste of the spring.
His mother took him to her breast, and softly she did sing:
Oh Montana, give this child a home.
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own.
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes,
give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana Skies.

His mother died that summer and he never learned to cry.
He never knew his father and he never did ask why.
He never knew the answers that would make an easy way,
but he learned to know the wilderness and to be a man that way.
His mother's brother took him in to his family and his home,
gave him a hand that he could lean on and a strength to call his own.
And he learned to be a farmer, and he learned to love the land,
and he learned to read the seasons and he learned to make a stand.
Oh Montana, give this child a home.
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own.
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes,
give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana Skies.

On the eve of his 2lst birthday, he set out on his own.
He was 30 years and running when he found his way back home.
Riding a storm across the mountains and an aching in his heart,
said he came to turn the pages and to make a brand new start.
Now he never told a story of the time that he was gone.
Some say he was a lawyer, some say he was a John.
There was something in the city that he said he couldn't breathe,
there was something in the country that he said he couldn't leave.
Now some say he was crazy, some are glad he's gone.
Some of us will miss him and try to carry on,
giving a voice to the forest, giving a voice to the dawn.
Giving a voice to the wilderness and the land that he lived on.
Oh Montana, give this child a home.
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own.
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes,
give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana Skies.
Oh Montana, give this child a home.
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own.
Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes,
give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana Skies.