Becky Reyes: Music & Lyrics

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)
• MP3 play whole song, lo-fi (modem)

I wrote this in '92 or '93 when I was playing at Common Grounds Coffee House in Bath, NY. My friend Todd Stratton and I were playing a lot. It was originally a bluegrass song.

When I came to southeastern Arizona, it came to represent the San Pedro River. Actually, it represents all of the rivers here. When they're dry, they are bone dry, but when the monsoons come, the swell, roil, burst and they are amazing.

My friends, John Messenger on lead guitar, Lance Grey on upright bass, Bill Morrison (RIP good friend, I miss you) and I may have done two takes on this one. My brother Joe lugged his equipment up a steep set of steps in Bisbee and we recorded this in my living room.

This River

Here is a river
Runs by my life
The current is strong here
It's mouth, it is wide

This river, she bubbles
This river, she cries
This river she rages
This river runs dry

Many have stopped here
To camp by my fire
We'll sing to each other or
We'll talk 'til we're tired

I had a garden
Tilled with my blood
The river, she took it
During the flood

I took my lover
Rowing one night
The full moon, she floated and
She sailed outa-sight