Sunset on the LaGaritas

Sunset on the LaGaritas
(kathy hussey)

I'm gonna build a house
at the high end of this valley
Nothin too grand, 'cept this great big view
All I really need is a porch
that wraps around
The end of every day
This old guitar, and you

Here at the end of the rainbow
There's a fire in the sky
As the sun goes down,
as the sun goes down
And nothing could be finer
Than to sit right here with you
And watch the sunset
on the La Garitas

Right here is where
I'll stack the stones I've carried
I'll shape a hearth
Where you can warm your feet
As we watch the storms roll in
Through the big glass wall of windows
Where wild raindrops
and slanting twilight meet

Here at the end of the rainbow
There's a fire in the sky

As the sun goes down,
as the sun goes down
And nothing could be finer
Than to sit right here with you
And watch the sunset
on the La Garitas

But right now I'm sitting
on the cold bare ground
And you are nowhere to be found
One of these days you'll turn right around
And come back to me
Cause I can feel you on my skin
I can taste you in my tears
I can hear you on the wind
But for now I'll be right here...

...at the end of the rainbow
Where there's a fire in the sky
As the sun goes down,
as the sun goes down
And nothing would be finer
Than to sit right here with you
And watch the sunset
on the La Garitas
and someday soon I know
that I'll be sittin here with you

Watchin the sunset on the La Garitas

Yeah, we'll watch the sun go down

<---previous song next song --->

The Story:

August 31 2002

Several years ago, my friend Steve left his life and a long-time girlfriend in Aspen, CO
to move to a wonderful rugged little town in southern Colorado called Creede...
I actually met him there while I was in town teaching a summer songwriting workshop,
which I have done for a number of years. He told me his story about leaving his girl behind
because she wouldn't leave Aspen and he just couldn't live there anymore (he calls it
"the big city", which illustrates why he loves Creede so much...imagine Telluride 30 years
ago). So, he's in Creede, and talking about his plans to buy a lot and build a house - a lot
of the visual details in the song came directly out things that he said ("as we watch the
storms roll in through the big glass wall of windows".)

I wrote the song in his voice, and tried to capture his excitement about creating his new life
in this extraordinary place, but it being tempered by not having his love to share it with.

An interesting detail: The LaGarita Mountains actually lie to the east of Creede so the
sun doesn't set on them, it rises over them...but the real show at sunset is usually on that
side of the valley as the light changes and reflects off the mountains.