California Snow

Dave Alvin/Tom Russell



(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI, and Frontera Music, ASCAP, administered by Bug Music)











I'm just tryin' to make a livin'



I'm an old man at thirty-nine



With two kids and an ex-wife



Who moved up to Riverside



I'm workin' down on the border



Drivin' back roads every night



Mountains east of El Cajon



North of the Tecate line.







Where the California summer sun



Will burn right through your soul



But in the winter you can freeze to death



In the California snow.







I catch the ones I'm able to



And watch the others slip away



I know some by their faces



And I even know some by name



I guess they think that we're all



Movie stars and millionaires



I guess that they still believe



That dreams come true up here.







But I guess the weather's warmer down in Mexico



And no one ever tells them ÔÇ˙bout the California snow.







Last winter I found a man and wife



Just about daybreak



Layin' in a frozen ditch



South of the interstate



I wrapped ÔÇ˙em both in blankets



But she'd already died



The next day we sent him back alone



Across the borderline.







I don't know where they came from



Or where they planned to go



But we carried her all night long



Through the California snow.







Sometimes when I'm alone out here



I get to thinkin' about my life



Maybe I should go to Riverside



And try to fix things with my wife



Or maybe just get in my truck



And drive as far as I can go



Away from all the ghosts that haunt



The California snow.







Where the California summer sun



Can burn right to your soul



And in the winter you can freeze to death



In the California snow.