There's a bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
The bluebird is calling, the water's run slow
I'll build you a house with a gate down below
By the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
She was a treasure with soft auburn hair
And hazel green eyes, no prisoner she spared
The blacksmith's first daughter, just all of eighteen
She told me she loved me where the water's run clean
And me, just a farm boy, no money, no name
I drifted off slowly toward the Wyoming ranch
I left her there waiting, she told me she would
Where the river runs shallow by the old cottonwoods
There's a bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
The bluebird is calling, the water's run slow
I'll build you a house with a gate down below
By the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
Summers and winters, through wind and through rain
Over mountains and prairies I carried her name
The high winds were lonesome, the treetops they moaned
And the cold cut right through me, right straight to the bone
Too many seasons alone for too long
A man can lose track of just where he belongs
Trouble lies waiting in the devil's best clothes
At a turn on the highway or a fork in the road
There's a bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
The bluebird is calling, the water's run slow
I'll build you a house with a gate down below
By the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
There's a tree on a hillside and a creek there below
The shadows spread slowly on a late winter's snow
The silence unbroken, the bluebird had flown
Toward the river that's calling me forever home
There's a bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
The bluebird is calling, the water's run slow
I'll build you a house with a gate down below
By the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
There's a bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
The bluebird is calling, the water's run slow
I'll build you a house with a gate down below
By the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow
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