Lyrics:

My name is Juan Hano de Castro
My father was a Spanish Grandee
But I won my wife in a card game
To hell with those lords o'er the sea

In my youth I had a Monterey homestead
Creeks, valleys, mountains all mine
I built me a snug little cabin
And I roofed it with Monterey pine

And I had me a bronc, was a buckskin
Like a hawk he could glide over the trail
We rode 40 miles every Friday
To get me some grub and my mail

But the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game in Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone

I sat in a card game at Jolon
I played there with an hombre named Juan
And after I'd taken his money
He set all against my daughter Dawn

I picked up the ace... I had won her
My heart which was down at my feet
Jumped up to my throat in a hurry
Like a warm summer's day she was sweet

He opened the door to the kitchen
And he called the girl out with a curse
Saying 'Take her, Goddamn her, you've won her
She's yours now for better or worse'

Yeah the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game in Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone

Her arms had to tighten around me
As we rode up the hill from the south
Not a word did I hear from her that day
Or a kiss from her pretty red mouth

We got to the cabin at twilight
And the stars twinkled over the coast
She soon loved the orchard, the valley
But I knew that she loved me the most

Oh that was a gay happy winter
I carved on a cradle of pine
By a fire in that snug little shanty
I sang with that sweet wife of mine

But the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game in Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone

And then I got hurt in a landslide
Crushed hip and twice broken bone
She saddled up Buck just like lightning
Rode off for a doctor in Jolon

But the lion screamed in the Barranca
Bucky he bolted and he fell on a slide
My young wife lay dead in the moonlight
My heart died that night with my bride

Oh the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game at Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone

They buried her out in the orchard
They carried me down into town
I lost my Chiquita, me ?
I'm an old broken man all alone

The cabin still stands on the hillside
Its doors open wide to the rain
Both the cradle and my heart are empty
I never can go there again

Yeah the South Coast is a wild coast and lonely
You may win a card game at Jolon
But the lion still rules the Barranca
And a man there is always alone