Music Inspiration by Shannon Grissom

Shannon Grissom

I laughed and knew right away that I would use her words in a song.

A few days later I was talking with songwriter Jason Shepherd about the Steve Goodman and his song, The City of New Orleans,

Goodman’s story and the imagery from the song really stuck with me.

The last  piece of the puzzle came from our own refrigerator. Staring at me was  a six-pack of Sierra Nevada’s Ruthless Rye.  I’ve been wanting  to use that beer in a song for a long long time!

This kaleidoscope of ideas all merged when I sat down Saturday to write the song.   It makes me sad and smile all at the same time..

Lyrics

I met her in a strange dream
On an invisible train
The kind that never lose ground
And the kind that never gain
We passed seven coyotes
And a bright purple crane
She didn’t try to hide her pain

Said she lost her love
To the bottom
Of a bottle of ruthless rye
Still she’s holding hope that he’ll come back
Don’t ya know that cowboys and wizards
Never lose their hats

I watched her leave him downstream
Quoting Mark Twain
Words that make you proud
Some you’d have to ‘splain
There were seven possums
Waving white flags
Her silent tears turned to rain

Said she lost her love
To the bottom
Of a bottle of ruthless rye
Still she’s holding hope that he’ll come back
Don’t ya know that cowboys and wizards
Never lose their hats

Like a blue belly lizard,  he grew his tail back
Like a king salmon he swam upstream
He’s both a wizard and a cowboy
Then the girl turned around and she was me

Oh I lost my love
To the bottom
Of a bottle of ruthless rye
Still I’m holding hope that he’ll come back
Don’t ya know that cowboys and wizards
Never lose their hats

Oh I lost my love
To the bottom
Of a bottle of ruthless rye
But I know, I know that I’ll come back
Don’t ya know that cowgirls and wizards
Never lose their hats