She was a girl on a wagon train Headed west across the plains The train got lost in a summer storm They couldn't move west and they couldn't go home Then she saw him ridin' through the rain He took charge of the wagons and he saved the train And she looked down and her heart was gone The train went west but she stayed on In Lonesome Dove.
A farmer's daughter with a gentle hand A blooming rose in a bed of sand She loved the man who wore a star A Texas Ranger known near and far So they got married and they had a child But times were tough and the West was wild So it was no surprise the day she learned That her Texas man would not return To Lonesome Dove.
(chorus) Back to back with the Rio Grande A Christian woman in the devil's land She learned the language and she learned to fight But she never learned how to beat the lonely nights In Lonesome Dove, Lonesome Dove.
She watched her boy grow into a man He had an angel's heart and the devil's hand He wore his star for all to see He was a Texas lawman legacy Then one day word blew into town It seemed the men that shot his father down Had robbed a bank in Cherico The only thing 'tween them and Mexico Was Lonesome Dove.
The shadows stretched across the land As the shots rang out down the Rio Grande And when the smoke had finally cleared the street The men lay at the ranger's feet But legend tells to this very day (legend tells to this very day) That shots were comin' from an alleyway Though no one knows who held the gun There ain't no doubt if you ask someone In Lonesome Dove.