Chris LeDoux - Johnson County War

Headed for Wyoming in 1882, a woman, a team and a wagonGonna make our dreams come trueSettled in the foothills of the big horn mountain slopeLife is sweet, we lived on the meat of the deer and the antelopeWe cut house logs upon the mountain with the team we hauled 'em downPeeled 'em and we stacked 'em up for a house and bought some groundTraded for some cattle, turned 'em out on the open rangeThe skies were blue, we never knew how things were gonna changeOh, Powder River, you're muddy and you're wideHow many men have died along your shore?When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a sideThere's no middle ground in this Johnson County warWell the neighbors stopped by yesterday while I was outside choppin' woodThey filled me in on a local news, ain't none of it sounded goodSaid, there had been some cattle stealin' by some no count outlaw bandsWe'd all been branded rustlers by the big ranchers of this landWell, it was us against the cattlemen and the years just made it worseFirst the drought and then the tough winterJohnson County had been dealt a curseThen there came the story about the two dry gulch attacksRanger Jones and John Tisdale had been both shot in the backOh, Powder River, you're muddy and you're wideHow many men have died along your shore?When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a sideThere's no middle ground in this Johnson County warThen, last night at supper time riders stopped by chanceThey said cattleman and their hired guns just burned the Kaycee RanchTwo men had died this mornin', shot down in the snowNow the vigilante army was on the march to BuffaloWell the County was in an uproar and every man saddled up to rideCaught the cattlemen at the TA Ranch and surrounded all four sidesWe hailed the house with bullets and swore they were gonna payBut the cavalry came across the plains and once again they saved the dayWell, they marched 'em off to Cheyenne, no one went to jailThe cattlemen were all turned loose and the hired guns hit the trailAnd I guess the only justice wasn't much to say the leastLast winter me and mine ate mighty fine on the cattle baron's beefOh, Powder River, you're muddy and you're wideHow many men have died along your shore?When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a sideThere's no middle ground in this Johnson County warThere's no middle ground in this Johnson County war
Headed for Wyoming in 1882, a woman, a team and a wagonGonna make our dreams come trueSettled in the foothills of the big horn mountain slopeLife is sweet, we lived on the meat of the deer and the antelopeWe cut house logs upon the mountain with the team we hauled 'em downPeeled 'em and we stacked 'em up for a house and bought some groundTraded for some cattle, turned 'em out on the open rangeThe skies were blue, we never knew how things were gonna changeOh, Powder River, you're muddy and you're wideHow many men have died along your shore?When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a sideThere's no middle ground in this Johnson County warWell the neighbors stopped by yesterday while I was outside choppin' woodThey filled me in on a local news, ain't none of it sounded goodSaid, there had been some cattle stealin' by some no count outlaw bandsWe'd all been branded rustlers by the big ranchers of this landWell, it was us against the cattlemen and the years just made it worseFirst the drought and then the tough winterJohnson County had been dealt a curseThen there came the story about the two dry gulch attacksRanger Jones and John Tisdale had been both shot in the backOh, Powder River, you're muddy and you're wideHow many men have died along your shore?When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a sideThere's no middle ground in this Johnson County warThen, last night at supper time riders stopped by chanceThey said cattleman and their hired guns just burned the Kaycee RanchTwo men had died this mornin', shot down in the snowNow the vigilante army was on the march to BuffaloWell the County was in an uproar and every man saddled up to rideCaught the cattlemen at the TA Ranch and surrounded all four sidesWe hailed the house with bullets and swore they were gonna payBut the cavalry came across the plains and once again they saved the dayWell, they marched 'em off to Cheyenne, no one went to jailThe cattlemen were all turned loose and the hired guns hit the trailAnd I guess the only justice wasn't much to say the leastLast winter me and mine ate mighty fine on the cattle baron's beefOh, Powder River, you're muddy and you're wideHow many men have died along your shore?When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a sideThere's no middle ground in this Johnson County warThere's no middle ground in this Johnson County war

Chris LeDoux

Chris LeDoux