From the recording Kid Russell
Why me? I'm not a country artist...I'm a rocker. Someone has to bring back the life of cowboy artist Charles Marion Russell. I am inspired by this wonderful man, Kid Russell, so I wrote this first song for my album as a tribute to him. I play all the music and vocals and my wife Eileen added the special soundbites. I used a Casio CTK for two different tracks then added drums and maybe six vocal tracks. I recorded all on a Teac Tascam 4-track. All my songs for this album tell a story about Charley. He (me) is singing in the first tense with his cowboy and Indian pals. This one is for my friend, Ron Floyd. Thanks.
Download this song here.
Lyrics
Kid Russell
Words and Music by Calvin Luna Balli
Copyright 2013 Calvin Balli Music
I came from St. Louis by wagon and by train
I came to the Judith to that big Montana sky
Ol' Pike Miller offered me a job herding sheep
I was going to be a goat roper, Ha Ha
I quickly came to my senses
I bought two ponies and I made my claim
in the land of the Indian and the valleys of verdant green
I'm a man driven by thirst
a faith in heart of a vanishing west
I bunked in with the boys of the O & H ranch
I became my dream...a night wrangler
From Montana I'd paint it…Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
or mold it from clay
a buffalo calf and a mother...Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
I can tell you stories of me and my friends
I'm a night wrangler, I'm a night wrangler
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
I took my ponies to the best grazing grass in all the land
(He's gonna...I know nothing)
I go take off for the Judith on the Yogo...go
I'm traveling out for a job and Ol' Pike Miller...he shows me
in camp he says “Hey boy you want to do some sheep herding?”
and he says...I says Hey! I need a job, but you know
it took me two weeks later, I just couldn't hang
I know I got tired of being called a goat roper
I'm Kid Russell. I got...I'm on my own
La, La, La,...….....
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
He's the buckskin kid
I'm going through the woods
gonna get me some beaver and some rabbit tail
I'm gonna be a free man
I'm going to mine like the old men
getting the gold from the...just live with the mountains
That's why I'm Kid Russell, the buckskin kid
Hey come on boys herd them this way boys
(Sounds of a cattle herd)
Bring them this way Charley, Come on Kid
Come on bring them in here, clear the ponies
Come on don't let them get away from there Chuck
Come on Chuck get 'um , get 'um boy
awwwww boy...Kid, man you can't let them get away like that
He's the Buckskin Kid
He wears his sash and got his sombrero properly cocked this way
Yeah he doesn't know a bowl of beans about the guns and nothing
but he sho' can paint, yeah he can paint...sho' paint
La, La, La, La.....La, La, La, La
La, La, La, La.....La, La, La, La
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
Kid Russell
I'm gonna ride the plains of Montana
Gonna chop some wood
Get some game gonna kick back do my paints
I'm gonna show the world I'm gonna be somebody
I'm gonna be someone
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
(Indians singing)
Come on boys, gotta bring the beef to the market
we gotta go to Lewistown
party down in Utica
How about Mary Mary Jane
(coyotes howling)