Tom Russell: South Coast

My name is Juan Hano de Castro
My father was a Spanish Grandee
But I won my wife in a card game
To hell with those lords o'er the sea

In my youth I had a Monterey homestead
Creeks, valleys, mountains all mine
I built me a snug little cabin
And I roofed it with Monterey pine

And I had me a bronc, was a buckskin
Like a hawk he could glide over the trail
We rode 40 miles every Friday
To get me some grub and my mail

But the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game in Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone

I sat in a card game at Jolon
I played there with an hombre named Juan
And after I'd taken his money
He set all against my daughter Dawn

I picked up the ace... I had won her
My heart which was down at my feet
Jumped up to my throat in a hurry
Like a warm summer's day she was sweet

He opened the door to the kitchen
And he called the girl out with a curse
Saying "Take her, Goddamn her, you've won her
She's yours now for better or worse"

Yeah the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game in Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone

Her arms had to tighten around me
As we rode up the hill from the south
Not a word did I hear from her that day
Or a kiss from her pretty red mouth

We got to the cabin at twilight
And the stars twinkled over the coast
She soon loved the orchard, the valley
But I knew that she loved me the most

Oh that was a gay happy winter
I carved on a cradle of pine
By a fire in that snug little shanty
I sang with that sweet wife of mine

But the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game in Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone

And then I got hurt in a landslide
Crushed hip and twice broken bone
She saddled up Buck just like lightning
Rode off for a doctor in Jolon

But the lion screamed in the Barranca
Bucky he bolted and he fell on a slide
My young wife lay dead in the moonlight
My heart died that night with my bride

Oh the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game at Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone

They buried her out in the orchard
They carried me down into town
I lost my Chiquita, me ???
I'm an old broken man all alone

The cabin still stands on the hillside
Its doors open wide to the rain
Both the cradle and my heart are empty
I never can go there again


Yeah the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game at Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone