Here are the lyrics to a song I wrote based on the myths and legends regarding the Red River. I wrote a novel based on the fever legend. You can check it out on the sidebar. I’m working on the song structure. I’m sure it will be in a minor key.

Red River Fever by Rickey E. Pittman

On the edge of the Indian nations,

Once a violent no man’s land,

Spirits move along the river’s banks,

Ghosts of lost and desperate men.

Whores and Comancheros

Wanted men and half-breeds,

Jayhawkers, scalpers, and outlaws,

They once made this valley bleed.

Hidden by the thickets,

Logjams, quicksand, and flood,

They killed and thieved and raged,

Until the river flowed with blood.

And the river whispered secrets

Into their souls each night,

Dark and cruel and blood things,

And they listened with delight.

Infected with a fever that

Boiled their blood and brains

The demons of the valley

Made men violent and insane.

The demons only set them free,

When the river’s work was done,

The fever’s only cure was death,

By rope or knife or gun.

The fever’s gone they say,

But still the blood-red waters flow

And whispers yet its secrets,

To the dark and lost in soul.