High Country Snows

Release Date - April 1985
Producers - Dan Fogelberg with Marty Lewis
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Tracks (click song title for lyrics) -

Down The Road Mountain Pass Sutter's Mill Wolf Creek High Country Snows The Outlaw	Shallow Rivers Go Down Easy Wandering Shepherd Think of What You've Done The Higher You Climb
All songs written by Dan Fogelberg © 1985 Hickory Grove Music & April Music, Inc. ASCAP, except: "Down The Road" (Earl Scruggs/Lester Flatt) © 1950 CBS Unart Catalog, Inc BMI "The Outlaw" (Jay Bolotin) © 1984 Doc Owsley Music BMI "Go Down Easy" (Jay Bolotin) © 1973 Irving Music Inc/Danor Music, Inc. BMI "Think of What You've Done" (Carter Stanley) © 1959 Fred Rose Music, Inc. BMI

Musicians - Dan Fogelberg (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, piano, Kurzweil synthesizer, and hand claps); Herb Petersen (vocals and banjo); Ricky Skaggs (vocals); David Grisman (mandolin and mandola); Jim Buchanon (fiddle); Emory Gordy, Jr. (bass); Russ Kunkel (drums and tambourine); Jerry Douglas (dobro); Charlie McCoy (harmonica); Doc Watson (melody acoustic guitar on "Wolf Creek"); Chris Hillman (mandolins and harmony vocals on "High Country Snows"); Al Perkins (pedal steel on "High Country Snows" and "The Higher You Climb"); Barry 'Byrd' Burton (2nd dobro on "Go Down Easy"); Michael Hanna (Yamaha Dx-7 synthesizer on "Go Down Easy"); Dan Murakami (handclaps on "Go Down Easy"); David Briggs (piano on "The Higher You Climb"); and Tracy Nelson, Dianne Davidson and Anita Ball (backing vocals on "The Higher You Climb").

Recorded at - the Bennett House, Franklin, TN (this was Norbert Putnam's studio)
Hit single - "Go Down Easy"
Notes - This is a fabulous country/bluegrass-rooted set inspired by Dan's 1983 visit to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado. Dan returned to the Festival in 1993 and re-united with many of the musicians featured on this album.

Down the road
Down the road
Got a little pretty girl, Down the Road
Down the road
Down the road
Got a little pretty girl, down the road

Well, I’m runnin’ down this mountain pass at midnight;
Those truckers, they all flash their lights at me.
This highway ain’t the very best companion,
‘cause I know there’s somewhere else I’d rather be.

The moonlight on the snow just sets me thinking
‘Bout the way your smile shines upon your face.
And I know this ain’t the last beer I’ll be drinking
Before I reach my final resting place
Oh, I...

Oh my wheels are running hard against this mountain,
I finally crossed the Archuleta line.
Another hour and I’ll be with my darlin’
To dry those lonesome tears that she’s been cryin’
But I...

I’m runnin’ down this mountain pass at midnight;
Those truckers, they all flash their lights at me.
This highway ain’t the very best companion,
‘cause I know there’s somewhere else I’d rather be.
Oh, I...

I am runnin’ down this mountain pass at midnight,
Wishin’ I was in your arms again.

In the Spring of Forty-seven,
So the story, it is told,
Old John Sutter went to the mill site
Found a piece of shining gold.

Well, he took it to the city
Where the word, like wildfire, spread.
And old John Sutter soon came to wish he’d
Left that stone in the river bed.

For they came like herds of locusts
Every woman, child and man
In their lumbering Conestogas
They left their tracks upon the land.

Well, they came from New York City,
And they came from Alabam’
With their dreams of finding fortunes
In this wild unsettled land.

Well, some fell prey to hostile arrows
As they tried to cross the plains.
And some were lost in the Rocky Mountains
With their hands froze to the reins.

Well, some pushed on to California
And others stopped to take their rest.
And by the Spring of Eighteen-sixty
They had opened up the west.

And then the railroad came behind them
And the land was plowed and tamed,
When Old John Sutter went to meet his maker,
He’d not one penny to his name.

And some would curse John Sutter’s Mill
Some men’s thirsts are never filled.

There’s a place in the Rockies
A place that I know
Where the world cannot find me
And the time goes so slow.

In the piney wood forest
There’s a flower that grows
Through the long months of winter
And the high country snows.

To a house by a meadow
‘Neath the towering peaks
Is a place where my heart goes
When it’s love that it seeks.

There a woman lies waiting
Like the wild growing rose
Through the long months of winter
And the high country snows.

In the space of a lifetime
A man misses much
Till he finds him a woman
And treasures her touch.

When the lakes all are frozen
And the wild wind blows
I’ll return to my darlin’
And the high country snows.

Among the possesions of an outlaw of a low class kind
Is this little bottle of French perfume
Taken as a last thought from a drug store in suburbia
He said, "Lady, look what I’ve got for you."
She said, "Jesse, I don’t hardly even know you anymore.
And judging from your grin, you’d think you held up Henry Ford.
And I don’t believe I want you a comin’ ‘round here anymore. Ooh."

Jesse, he was hurt, boy, and he left there, and he slammed the door.
And he wandered through the alleyways.
Thinkin’ all the while that she’d be proud of what he stole for her,
And he tried to think of better ways.
Dreamin’ of a movie that he’d seen one afternoon,
He drew out all his savings and he went and bought a gun.
And he ran right home and stood before his mirror
Acting like a thug, ooh.

He waited for a dark night; he was frightened, boy, the fog rolled in,
As a rich man, he came walkin’ by,
"Hold your hands up high," he cried,
"I’ve come to make your fortune mine."
But his eyes, they gave him right away,
Jesse dropped the gun and they both stared at to where it lay.
And Jesse asked the man if he’d please leave him in his pain.
And the man tried to forgive him, but there’s not much he could say. Ooh.

Among the possessions of an outlaw of a low class kind
Is this little bottle of French perfume
Taken as a last thought from a drugstore in suburbia.
He said, "Lady, look what I’ve got for you."
"Ah, take it, ah, please take it; I’m tired and I’m poor.
And this crappy French perfume is nothin’ less than my own soul.
I was feelin’ half a man; I wanted to feel whole, ooh."
Oooh...ooh,ooh.

Shallow rivers run between us
Where a stone may never sink.
Though we taste, we are left thirsty
For a deep and soulful drink.

Narrow channels, barely open
Fraught with dangers out of view;
In the current, we are helpless
Still I cling to you.

Shallow rivers run between us
Never mind the nevermore,
Up ahead the water quickens;
I can hear those rapids roar.

Narrow channels, barely open
Flood the waves with treachery,
Hope I long to see the sunrise
On a peaceful sea.

Linda lost her lover in the early part of autumn
And she moved out to the country
Hoping all would be forgotten.
The last time that I saw her
She was makin’ sure the winter
Wouldn’t come through that old door frame
Where the door is several inches from the ground,
The cold hard ground.

Well, she learned to cook the meals
And she learned to start the fire;
And she learned to make jewelry
Out of stones and precious metals.
She sits down to the table
With her friends and several others
And she tries real hard to never be alone.

Now the winter wind blows cold
Upon a fair and gentle soul
And she feels as if her time is passin’ easy.
Her friends are sometimes lovers,
Though they’ll always be another
She thinks about when the night time lays on down.

Wandering shepherd, wander no more
Wandering shepherd, wander no more
Wandering shepherd, wander no more
Lay down your troubles, your worries and woes.

Traveling pilgrim, rest for the night
Traveling pilgrim, rest for the night
Traveling pilgrim, rest for the night
Sup with the Savior and drink of his Light.

Homeless believer, find here a home
Homeless believer, find here a home
Homeless believer, find here a home
You may be lonely but never alone.

Wandering shepherd, wander no more
Wandering shepherd, wander no more
Wandering shepherd, wander no more
Lay down your troubles, your worries and woes.

Heart to heart, dear, how I need you
Like the flowers need the dew.
Lovin’ you has been my life, love
Lord, I can’t believe we’re through.

Well, I’ve go back to Colorado,
Where the mountains meet the sky.
It was here I learned to love you
And I’ll stay here till I die.

The higher you climb,
The more that you see.
The more that you see,
The less that you know.
The less that you know,
The more that you yearn.
The more that you yearn,
The higher you climb.

The farther you reach,
The more that you touch.
The more that you touch,
The fuller you feel.
The fuller you feel,
The less that you need.
The less that you need,
The farther you reach.

The higher you climb,
The more that you see.
The more that you see,
The less that you know.
The less that you know,
The more that you yearn.
The more that you yearn,
The higher you climb.