Christmas for Cowboys
"Tall in the saddle, he spends Christmas Day
Driving the cattle over snow covered plains
All of the good gifts given today
His is the sky and the wide open range..."
Back when I was walking the aisles of that great library I once mentioned--the library of Christmas songs--looking for my cover songs to include on Wintertide,
"Christmas for Cowboys" caught my eye. I jotted this title down on my first list of song possibilities, and then the second list, and then the third... This song made it onto every list of potential songs I wanted to record, and it then sailed through my final choices. It made the final cut without hesitation.
I love this song.
I love this painting of a life well-lived in simple yet beautiful moments, trading a "football and eggnog and Christmas parades" Christmas for one spent hard at work on the "wide open range".
Simple beauty.
In "Christmas for Cowboys", it's the blanketed plains and the cattle themselves. A small, toasty campfire and the starry sky overhead. The quiet of the night and the voice of the wind. These are gifts to the cowboy--these are gifts to us, and they are as loving and grand as anything under the Christmas tree. They are enough.
The mountains around my home are lightly dusted over right now, but soon they'll be snow-covered like the cowboy's plains. I always look forward to the snow. The days are getting shorter and darker, but when it snows, the moon has something to reflect on--brightening the dreariness of gray, cold, too-short days. The stars will shine all the brighter, and looking up through the evergreen trees on the mountain, they will indeed be our "Christmas tree lights"...
This Christmas I want to be more on the lookout for these kinds of gifts, stepping away from the noise and removing everything else but the beauty so I can see how deep that beauty goes. If you come across such a gift this season, I would love to hear about it.
"Christmas for Cowboys" was written by Steve Weisberg and first recorded and released by John Denver in 1975. It's a song I've heard every year my entire life. Sometimes I choose to record a cover song purely because I love it, and I do love this song so much; but also keeping a songwriter alive in some small way in the songs they wrote... That is truly an honor.
Until next week...
All the love,
Brittany