Dave Alvin - Rio Grande lyrics

(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI/Frontera Music, ASCAP)

I guess she put her blue dress on

And walked out late last night

Left one silk stocking

Dangling from the bedside light

I sobered up and called her name

Just before the dawn

I saw her footprints in the sand

And knew that she had gone

Down the Rio Grande.

I pulled out of Albuquerque

Prayin' I wasn't late

I got a couple cups of coffee

At some joint off the interstate

Passin' through Las Cruces

I swear I saw her car

She always said she'd go someday

But never said how far

Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she's in Brownsville

She's got some family there

She was always talkin' ‘bout

The salty Gulf Coast air

Where the river ends

Down the Rio Grande.

I saw an old grey heron

Flyin' south against the wind

Storm clouds over Juarez

Rollin' east to the Big Bend

I drove down Highway Ninety

Through a dusty desert wind

I didn't know where it would lead me

Or if I'd find her again

Down the Rio Grande.

I lit my last cigarette

As the sky began to clear

Black mountains up ahead

A red sundown in my mirror

Lost all the border

‘Tween the future and the past

One fading slowly

And the other comin' fast

Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she's in Brownsville

She's got some family there

She was always talkin' ‘bout

The salty gulf coast air

Where the river ends

Down the Rio Grande.

I bought a bottle in Del Rio

And I parked on the side of the road

I stayed up all night

Starin' at the lights of Mexico

And I walked down to border bridge

At the break of day

And I threw that empty bottle off

And I watched it float away

Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she's in Brownsville

She's got some family there

She was always talkin ‘bout

The salty gulf coast air

Where the river ends

Down the Rio Grande

Where the river ends.