MY SADDLE’S IN MONTANA
(chorus)
My saddle’s in Montana
My heart is back there too
Send me back to Montana
I’ve got these cowboy blues
Montana, Montana
Big sky country so free
I pray the Lord will guide me back
To the place where I long to be
– (verse) Well the city is made for other fellas
There just ain’t nothin’ to see
Send me back to Montana’s
Wide open spaces for me
I walked into a café I ordered me a steak
One bite is all that it took friends
My stomach is still at ache
I looked at the tab on the counter
Two dollars and forty cents
I didn’t have any money
So they put me behind the fence
Thirty days in the jailhouse
A payin’ for my wrong
And every day in the jailhouse
They heard me a singin’ this song
– (sing chorus here)
Then one day the warden
He walked up and he said “Son,
We’re sending’ you back to Montana
Back to your hat and your gun”
He handed me a ticket
One way on the north bound train
And said “As far as this jailhouse
I hope I don’t see you again”
I said “Oh yes you can betcha’
Sure as that train engines purrs
I’m headin’ back to Montana
Back to my chaps and my spurs”
– (chorus) My saddle’s in Montana
My heart is back there too
Send me back to Montana
I’ve got these cowboy blues
Montana, Montana Big sky country so free
I pray the Lord will guide me back
To the place where I long to be.
Lyrics and Music Written by My Brother: Mel “Montana” Sell Lived 1942 to 1990
–
THOSE COYOTES IN THE SKY
Well I drifted on down into Texas
Thought I would sleep by the trail
Pulled out my saddle, lay down beside it
Those coyotes started to wail
– So I headed on to Oklahoma
Lay down my head with a sigh
I was dead beat, I needed some sleep
Those coyotes started to cry
– Up in the saddle I headed for Colorado
I heard it was coyote free
But those mangy critters were there everywhere
Why were they pickin’ on me
– My nerves are so bad that I’m shakin’
My eyes are all sunken and red
I ain’t had no sleep in more than a week
It won’t be too long before I’m dead
– I see those pearly gates comin’
Saint Peter’s there by the door
I pulled out my makins’ and rolled me a smoke
I know it’s my last one for ‘shore
– ‘Twas then that the boss he done kicked me
Said “sorry for ruinin’ your sleep
It’s time you got back to your huntin’
Those coyotes that’s been killin’ my sheep”
– I thought about what I was dreamin’
I thought about how it could be
I threw down my rifle, asked for my pay
No more huntin’ coyotes for me
– So if you are a coyote hunter
You’d best do the same thing as I
Or you’ll be there a huntin’
Those coyotes in the sky
Lyrics and Music Written by: Mel “Montana” Sell, 1980-83
–
SUCH IS WAR
A silent shell to spend a life
A silent prayer amid the strife
A trench to hide a sleepless night
Small choice is but to die or fight
A shadow moves, there’s heard a cry
A friend is gone with no goodbye
The endless night of death goes by
The endless hours when brave men cry
Then comes the dawn to count the dead
And word of life to be unread
Then comes the sun to heat the fight
To care not who is dead or right
Life and death walk hand in hand
With favors dealt to no one man
Yes life is there but so beguiled
As fate is judge and life’s on trial
Alas the end and home is near
An end to fighting, death and fear
But glory not, just crosses lined
For those who died and stayed behind.
Written by: Mel “Montana” Sell
–
MY BROTHER HAS GONE
My brother has gone
From the fire and the darkness
To the light
From whence he came.
I see his tall lone self
Walking the mountains
Where I found him
And God I’d give a part of this soul
He didn’t take with him
To see him again.
And now sometimes
I seek him on the sea
And look to these
Other mountains
And sense the some of him
Sensing me.
Written by: Elaine Sell Prefontaine, June 6, 1990
Inside Passage, BC West Coast, Grenville Channel
This poem is dedicated to My Brother Mel “Montana” Sell
Who died alone tragically on the mountain of fire and exposure
In the darkness of the January 17, 1990 night.
–
CHASING RAINBOWS
It’s only natural to chase rainbows
Sometimes in life it’s on every person’s mind
There is nothing wrong with chasing rainbows
But don’t burn that bridge behind
There is no exact place for a rainbow
A perfect place is hard to find
It could be that place you came from
So don’t burn that bridge behind.
Written by My Dad “Randall Sell”
Lived 1915 to 2001
–
ODE TO THE CARIBOU
God must have made this land for love and song
Long before the white man came along
To dig the gold and fish the streams
And to surely have destroyed the Indian’s dreams
He cut the forests and killed the game
All for personal greed and gain
He took the wealth that God gave free
That could have lasted for eternity
But now is the time to take our stand
To save this great and beautiful land
From a fate which around us we can easily see
Let’s pitch in now, and never let it be.
Written by My Dad “Randall Sell”
While living near “Lac La Hache”
Located in “The Caribou Region” of British Columbia, Canada
—