Campfire on the Long Dry Road

The sun was a hammer on the station track;

And the red dust rose and the wheel got black;

I was three days out with a busted spring;

And a water bag low as a dying thing;

We camped by a gum tree lean and bare;

With the creek bed cracked and the night lit square;

There was salt in the breeze and grit in my teeth;

And the stars came out like a promise to keep;

Oh, the long dry road will test your soul;

It'll bend your back and it'll take its toll;

But a fire of dusk and a mate nearby;

Can stitch up a heart when the work runs dry;

So sing me low in the deep night air;

Of the lives we lose and the loath we bear;

Old Mick said, son, don't trust that sky;

When the clouds roll thin and the winds run high;

He'd seen more floods than a river should hold;

And more men go quiet in the heat and cold;

We laughed at the yawns till the moon hung near;

Then the engines failed and the road grew weird;

The camels in memory, the cattle in line;

Every hard luck story felt a bit like mine;

Oh, the long dry road will test your soul;

It'll bend your back and it'll take its toll;

But a fire of dusk and a mate nearby;

Can teach up a heart when the work runs dry;

So sing me low in the deep night air;

Of the life we lose in the logi bed;

And I still hear that harmonica moan;

Like a wind through wire on a lonely homestead bone;

Slide guitar crying where the mulberry grows;

Bringing back the names that the heart mound owes;

If I ever head west when my shadows fall;

I'll be chasing that light past the station wall;

Oh, the long travel will test your soul;

It'll bend your back and it'll take its toll;

But a fire it does can't make nearby;

Can't stitch up a heart when the work runs dry;

So sing me love;

In the deep night air;

Of the lives we lose;

And the lows we bear;

When the coals burn down;

I'll be just a bloke with the dust in his eyes;

Tellin' this tale till the dawn comes slow;

Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh;

Oh-oh-oh, oh;