Moonlight in Montgomery (Short Variations)

Moonlight in Montgomery (C) Copyright Bill Buckels 2025. All Rights Reserved.
Short Variations

Find a particular song or audio section by clicking on its start time (Key Moment - Chapter) below:

00:00:00 Moonlight in Montgomery 1
00:05:37 Moonlight in Montgomery 2
00:11:03 Moonlight in Montgomery 6
00:16:07 Moonlight in Montgomery 8
00:21:51 Two Cities, One Soul
00:25:43 Two Cities, Two Souls
00:29:20 Total Running Time

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Moonlight In Killarney (Prairie Gothic) Lyrics By Bill Buckels in plain text format (to Download Click Below);
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Moonlight In Montgomery (Southern Gothic) Lyrics By Bill Buckels in plain text format (to Download Click Below);
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[Moonlight in Montgomery] (C) Copyright Bill Buckels 2025. All Rights Reserved.

[Verse 1]
I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man’s a child who has finally grown old
If dreams were like lightning and desire was thunder
This house would be ashes and the story be told
But the rain keeps on falling and the creek’s rising under
And nobody here even whispers my name
I’m tired of the hunger and I’m tired of the wonder
Of living a life that is always the same

[Verse 2]
I walked past the garden when the clock struck the hour
To the place where the highway meets gravel and stone
I saw a Silver Eagle, stripped of its power
With a scent of cheap whiskey and a chill in my bones
The door hissed on open like a secret was whispered
The driver’s seat empty, just a hat on the wheel
The chrome was all glowing and the windows were blistered
With a coldness so heavy it was something to feel

[Chorus]
Make me an eagle that flies from Montgomery
In the moonlight when the whip-poor-wills cry
Put me on a poster of a haunted rodeo
Underneath the purple of a cold winter sky
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
(One thing to hold on to)
To believe in this living is just a hard way to die

[Verse 3]
I stepped up the stairs and the air turned to velvet
I saw a man in a rhinestone cowboy suit
He said "Take a seat, honey, I know you can’t help it
When the branch of the willow is bearing its fruit"
I told him my cowboy was a free-rambling dreamer
But he died in the traces of a broken-down life
The ghost just leaned back like a holy redeemer
And said "Music's a mistress, but the road is a wife"

[Verse 4]
The engine began a low, rhythmic thrumming
Like the heart of a giant waking up from the clay
He asked me "Old woman, can you hear the song coming?
The one that you’ve hummed since you first walked away?"
I reached for the dashboard, the steel and the plastic
And the years flowed by like a broken-down dam
The world in the mirror grew strange and fantastic
And I finally remembered just who I am

[Chorus]
Make me an eagle that flies from Montgomery
In the moonlight when the whip-poor-wills cry
Put me on a poster of a haunted rodeo
Underneath the purple of a cold winter sky
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
(One thing to hold on to)
To believe in this living is just a hard way to die

[Verse 5] There’s flies in the kitchen, but I’m not there to hear 'em And the sink’s full of dishes that I’ll never clean I’m riding the Eagle, I don't have to fear 'em The faces of people and the ghosts in between.

[Instrumental]

[Verse 6] Through the red tail lights, I saw my house shrinking A box made of wood on a patch of red ground The man in the rhinestone suit sat there just thinking As the moonlight in Montgomery washed over the town

[Bridge] How can a person wake up in the morning And go to a job where they don’t know your soul? Then climb on a bus without any warning And let the big wheels start to silver and roll? The wind’s picking up and I hear a song drifting A lonesome old whistle, a moan in the air The weight of the decades is finally shifting He’s always singing... and I’m almost there

[Chorus]
Make me an eagle that flies from Montgomery
In the moonlight when the whip-poor-wills cry
Put me on a poster of a haunted rodeo
Underneath the purple of a cold winter sky
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
(One thing to hold on to)
To believe in this living is just a hard way to die

[Outro] I’m so lonesome I could cry (So lonesome I could cry)

[Instrumental]