Although I sing mostly cowboy songs nowadays, and have sung them all my life, this would have to be the song you'd know me by:

I was born in the path of the winter wind,
Raised where the mountains are old --
Their springtime waters came dancing down,
And I remember the tales they told.

The whistling ways of my younger days
Too quickly have faded on by,
But all of their memories linger on
Like the light in a fading sky.

River, take me along,
In your sunshine, sing me a song,
Ever moving and winding and free,
You rolling old river, you changing old river,
Let's you and me, river, run down to the sea.

I've been to the cities and back again,
And I've been moved by some things that I've learned.
Met a lot of good people and called them friends,
Felt the change when the seasons turned.

I've heard all the songs that the children sang,
And I've listened to love's melodies.
I've felt my own music within me rise
Like the wind in the autumn trees.

River, take me along,
In your sunshine, sing me a song,
Ever moving and winding and free,
You rolling old river, you changing old river,
Let's you and me, river, run down to the sea.

Some day when the flowers are blooming still,
Some day when the grass is still green,
My rolling waters will round the bend
And flow into the open sea.

So here's to the rainbow that's followed me here
And here's to the friends that I know,
And here's to the song that's within me now --
I will sing it wherever I go.

River, take me along,
In your sunshine, sing me a song,
Ever moving and winding and free,
You rolling old river, you changing old river,
Let's you and me, river, run down to the sea.

The song is, of course, "River" by Bill Staines. I learned it from him years ago. I sang it at my Granddaddy's funeral -- he taught me to fish (he also taught me *how* to fish, but that's different) and most of the best of what I know about being a man. I like to think somebody will sing it at mine some day.