Beneath Endless Skies
"Beneath Endless Skies" is a song written by Gene Ashby and Darla Kincaid and recorded by Kincaid for the 1993 charity compilation Swift Hooves.[1]
Production
It is a laid-back country-folk road song in the manner of the early 1970s, with strummed acoustic guitar, harmonica, light bass, brushed drums and a little honky-tonk piano. Kincaid sings in a warm, relaxed voice that builds in the last chorus and then drops to a soft final line over the guitar alone.[1]
Themes
The song is sung by a city girl from Nurzhan who rides off with Jengish, a young horseman from the highland clans, down through Talas to Iyık Janyl and up into the Chatkal mountains. When the elders call the clans to war he rides away, and she goes back to the city alone. Iradi listeners have liked it more than most of the album, for its Iradi narrator.[1][2]
Lyrics
Verse
I was a Nurzhan girl in a borrowed coat with a ticket and nowhere to go
When a rider from the high clans came to town with the first of the snow
He had a silver ring and a saddle worn and a laugh like a mountain stream
And he said, "Climb up, city girl, I'll show you things you've never seen"
Chorus
Beneath endless skies, Lord, we had nothin' but the road
Nothin' but the wind and a song and a horse to carry our load
And holdin' Jengish's hand while the steppe went rollin' by
Was worth more than all the gold, Lord, beneath that endless sky
Verse
Down through Talas to Iyık Janyl, past the checkpoints in the night
He sang the songs his grandmother sang by the fire's dancin' light
He laughed at all my city ways and he taught me how to ride
And we slept out under Irad's star with the whole world at our side
Chorus
Beneath endless skies, Lord, we had nothin' but the road
Nothin' but the wind and a song and a horse to carry our load
And holdin' Jengish's hand while the steppe went rollin' by
Was worth more than all the gold, Lord, beneath that endless sky
Verse
Then one morning up the Chatkal where the eagles hunt the sun
He said, "The elders call the clans again, and I'm my mother's only son"
And he rode off up the valley on a horse as white as bone
And I went back down to Nurzhan, Lord, and I went back down alone
Final chorus
Beneath endless skies, Lord, I'd trade all my tomorrows
For one more mile with Jengish and the wind and all his sorrows
I'd give up every city light and every paved-up road
Just to ride once more behind him where the mountain rivers flow
Outro
Beneath endless skies, beneath endless skies
That's where you stole my heart from me
References
- ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 60–62.
- ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.