Versions

Version	Length	Source	Availability
Studio	4:24	Mark Seymour Slow Dawn album.	Moderately common. Available new in digital form.

 Recommended Version.

Commentary

A train across America, Interstate 80. The ‘Immigration Trail.’ From the manic cleanliness of the Latterday Saints, across the ranges into the lonely casino towns, past nuclear power plants, fracking pipes and roadside prisons where signs direct the traveller:

“Do not shoot from the highway.”

The desert neon cowboy toting a pair of colts, rises high above the plain while street people lurk in the twilight, scavenging food down by the Jordan River.

The western dream in slow decay.

Lyrics

They got a slick operation west in the desert
Where the great silverados rust in the sun
Religion in the water and a sky with no mercy
The judgement of strangers for the kingdom to come

The people who live there look out from their houses
Watch the dark highway as the strangers go by
The buffalo are nervous in the stockyards of Yuma
The shade of the applewood’s a good place to die

The skies of Nevada were set to explode
The cops pulled us over and the black eagle crowed
And right on the border all cards are welcome
There’s room for the wicked out on Applewood Road

Rumour was a brewin’ as we crawled through the canyons
Cold country comfort and a home on the range
The girl in the tabernacle was smiling for the camera
People took pictures as the weather grew strange

There was truth in the legend broken down somewhere
Beggin’ for mercy as the mountains caught fire
All will be forgiven under banners of glory
They built towers in the desert out of lust and desire

And the skies of Nevada were set to explode
The cops pulled us over the black eagle crowed
And right on the highway all cards are welcome!
There’s room for the wicked out on Applewood Road

The big neon cowboy was glowin’ at sunset
Rainbows and pistols and the dark sky above
And the cattle rolled in, what the hell were they thinking?
To go lookin’ for water and the promise of love

We counted our blessings and curses on Sunday
In a life changing moment little flags in the yard
The saints and the angels went runnin’ for cover
As the dawn’s early light she was comin’ down hard

The skies of Nevada were set to explode
The cops pulled us over and the black eagle crowed
And right on the border all cards are welcome
There’s room for the wicked out on Applewood Road

And the charge in the mountain was set to explode
The iron horse buckled under the load
And right on the border they were lined up at sunset
The night we got busted out on Applewood Road