I've been hearing this Peter Rowan "hippie-grass" song at festivals and picking sessions for years, but just got around to learning it. I thought I'd share it in case anybody else has had it lurking around in their brain half-learned. I got the lyrics from The Bluegrass Index website. I corrected some obvious errors in their transcription and am not absolutely 100% certain about some of the rest. I do not have a recording of Peter Rowan himself singing the song to use for verification. The version that I do have, by Keller Williams, has a few minor differences from this transcription, but I don't know which is correct. If anybody learned it from "the horse's mouth" and notices any errors, please post corrections.

One thing I find unusual about this song is that it is popular among the jam-band, "Dead-Head" set (due to Rowan's assosciation with the band "Old and in the Way" in which Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia played banjo) and among some Christian performers (wandering thirsty in the rain being a metaphor for refusal to accept Christian salvation). I find the Christian interpretation a tiny bit ironic since Peter is a practicing Tibetan Buddhist.   


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Thirsty in the Rain - Peter Rowan

Instrumental intro:
(G) (F) (C) (G) - (G) (F) (C) (G)

(G) There's an (D) eagle and he keeps on (F) flyin'
Over the (C) mountains capped with white (G) snow
(G) In green (D) valleys lonesome people (F) tryin' so hard
To tell each (C) other what they think they (G) know
(G) With greedy (D) hands they take each other's (F) money
Just to (C) buy back each other's (G)pain
(G)In this (Em) land of flowing milk and (Bm) honey
They wander (F) thirsty (C) in the (G) rain (A) (F) Thirsty (C) in the (G) rain

(G) (F) (C) (G) - (G) (F) (C) (G)

Like that eagle now my soul is flyin'
Over the valleys through crimson morning skies
And there don't seem to be no need in tryin' so hard
And there don't seem to be no reason why
I must fight you for the rich man's money
I can't buy back his helpless pain
It seems so useless and somehow funny
to be thirsty in the rain... thirsty in the rain

It's fare the well now my own true lover
My face you never will see here no more
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on that shining golden shore
Golden shore, love, where the eagle soars
So high above the fruitful plain
I'm the same friend that you knew when
we wandered thirsty in the rain... thirsty in the rain