Ten Degrees And Getting Colder Lyrics - Other Voices, Other Rooms - Nanci Griffith

(Gordon Lightfoot) 

He was standing by the highway 

With a sign that just said Mother 

When he heard a driver coming 

About a half a mile away 

So he held the sign up higher 

Where no decent soul could miss it 

It was ten degrees or colder 

Down by Boulder Dam that day 

He was raised up in Milwaukee 

Though he never was that famous 

He was just a road musician 

To the taverns he would go 

Singing songs about the ramblin' 

The lovin' girls and gamblin' 

How the world fell on his shoulders 

Back in Boulder I don't know 

Chorus 

And she told him she would take him 

For a ride in the morning sun 

Back in Boulder he had told her 

I don't know when, I've had a better friend 

It was out in Arizona 

That he heard the lady listening 

To each word that he was saying 

To each line that he would write 

So he sat down at her table 

And they talked about the weather 

98.6 and rising down by Boulder Dam that night 

Chorus 

Now he's traded off his Martin 

Though his troubles ain't over 

His feet are almost frozen and the sun is sinking low 

Won't you listen to me brother, if you ever loved your mother 

Please pull off on the shoulder, if you're goin' Milwaukee way 

It's ten degrees and getting colder down by Boulder Dam today