Lyr. Add: THE RED RIVER VALLEY 4
Powder River Jack H. Lee
^^
From the Valley they say you are going;
I will miss your sweet face and bright smile,
But at last you are seeking the sunshine
That will brighten your pathway awhile.

I've been thinking a long time, my darling,
Of the sweet words you never would say,
But at last all my fond hopes have vanished,
For they say you are going away.

Chorus
Come and sit by my side if you love me,
Do not hasten to bid me adieu,
But remember the Red River Valley
And the cowboy who loved you so true.

Do you think of this valley you are leaving?
Oh how lonely and how dreary it wil be!
Do you think of the fond heart you are breaking
And the pain you are causing to me?

I have promised you, darling, that never
Would a word from my lips cause you pain;
I have promised to be yours forever
If you will only love me again.

Chorus
Come and tarry awhile, do not leave me,
Do not hasten to bid me adieu,
But remember the Red River Valley
And the cowboy who loved you so true.

Oh, there never should be such a longing,
Such an anguish and pain in the breast,
As dwells in the heart of a cowboy
Where I wait in my home in the West.

So bury me out on the prairie,
Where the roses and wildflowers grow;
Lay me to sleep by the hillside,
For I can't live without you, I know.

Chorus
Oh, consider awhile, do not leave me,
Do not hasten to bid me adieu,
But remember the Red River Valley
And the cowboy who loved you so true.

"Cowboy Songs," 1938, Powder River Jack H. Lee, pp. 8-9, with sheet music, published by The McKee Printing Co., Butte, Montana.

"The original version of the Red River valley pertains to a love affair between a cowboy and a school teacher who hailed from the east and was returning to her home. He knew that if she left him that he had no doubt would never see her again, and so as he sings he is pleading with her to tarry awhile and hoping to influence her at the same time regarding her departure. Some of the later versions have lost the real meaning of this song, such as the "Red girl who loved you so true, etc.," and in all events there were six verses in the written copy of the original as I first heard it, and the first line of each chorus at the end of the second verse differed from the preceding choruses. The Red River Valley in the original song refers to South Dakota, where I first heard Frank Chamberlin sing it at a cow camp up on the Moreau River. Carl Sprague was given credit for the music, and of all sentimental songs of the cowboys, there are none more beautifully expressed and withmore real deep feeling than the Red River Valley."

"Many years have passed since I first met pretty Kitty Lee, and as we'd race our broncs along the stretches of Powder River, this is the song that we loved and would sing while riding in the moonlight. And then I went away and headed south to trail the beef herds, and ten years passed before we met again. On a glorious golden day in New Mexico, as I cantered up to the chuck wagon of the Circle Diamond outfit, I spied the form of a lithe girl on a fiery pinto, and again I met Kitty Lee, who, with her brother, was riding overland to Texas, and with their pack outfit came in to join us for chuck. And now we ride the trails together and "side by side we hope to travel the great divide," and the Red River Valley will always mean to me the starlight nights of years gone by, when the Wyoming moon shone down and the Big Horn Ranges cast their long shadows where the coyotes lurked and howled and where we parted for the fleeting years."
Quoted from Lee's introduction to "Th Red River Valley" in "Cowboy Songs."
A much purtier story than that Canadian one.

Jack and Kitty Lee, after he left cowboyin,' of course married and composed and sang western songs for many years.