The Ranch of All Compassion © 2005 David Roth
written one August afternoon at the Woody Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, MA, and sung there that night, reading the lyrics off my laptop at the piano...I’d just emerged from a week in the woods at a songwriting retreat (no newspapers or TV) to hear about Cindy Sheehan’s trip to the Lone Star State.

In the Berkshire Eagle I read today of a town named Crawford, Texas
There’s a big long road leading to a ranch limousines go back and forth there
There’s tiny crowd gathered by the road, and it’s gaining in it’s numbers
They are holding hands, they are holding signs, they are joined by many others

There’s a mother mourning her proud young son and she stands with friends and neighbors
Who are wondering why all these guns appear in the hands of sons and daughters
Is there anything in this whole wide world that is worth surrendering lives for
I will ask myself, have i done all i can to surrender my agenda

I will raise my voice just because I can
That’s the beauty of my homeland
And I’ll sing til all of the cows come home
To the ranch of all compassion

I’ll sing til all of the cows come home

To the ranch of all compassion

There’s a broken spoke in the mighty wheel, there’s a boulder in the boot
When you walk wherever you might choose be careful of your footprints
To all parents of all brave lost souls there is nothing I can say
But I can raise my voice, we can shine a light til this darkness goes away

I will raise my voice just because I can
That’s the beauty of my homeland
And I’ll sing til all of the cows come home
To the ranch of all compassion

I’ll sing til all of the cows come home

To the ranch of all compassion