Cowboy Island

Written: 1974

Writers: David Jenneson, Alan Hovden

Status: Recorded but unpublished

Genre and Style: Alt. Country Ballad

Comments: Dave: Al and I got the idea for Cowboy Island in a coffee shop. We were sitting in a booth and at the counter sat someone with a canvas bag and a manuscript entitled Cowboy Island sticking out. Al nudged me and pointed. I tapped the guy on the shoulder. He turned out to be the publisher for Pulp Press, (now Annasia). I pitched him on a novella I had just written called The Helping Hands of Christmas which he duly read, accepted and published in 1972. Several years later we were unable to resist writing a song using the intriguing Cowboy Island title. The song has a Neil Young feel. It is about someone who has been psychologically damaged by life and has found a safe refuge within.

Comments: Al: I always loved the song but hated the demo we did. Thirty-three years later I listened again and wow! This is a cool song… I think we were ahead of our time. I was playing it after I had discovered it again just recently and my girlfriend said she liked the song a lot and hummed it all day.

I’m alive on Cowboy Island

Come no harm

Sleepy streets that drip and glisten

In mama’s arms

You say I hide on Cowboy Island

That’s not kind

But if a man could swim those city streets

And listen to his heartbeat

Then his home he might well find

So tell Jesus

To keep the midnight lamp shining

And tuck in the warming stone

For like a child who’s wandered far away

I might be coming back someday

Back home

Ponies play down in the valley

Through the door

I’m sweeping up the Cowboy Island

General Store

The ferry boat, they say she floats

I really never pay them any mind

And you say I hide on Cowboy Island

And that’s not kind

So tell Jesus

To keep the midnight lamp shining

And tuck in the warming stone

For like a child who’s wandered far away

I might be coming back someday

Back home

Sleepy time sweeps up those streets where

I was born

And I’m alive on Cowboy Island

Safe and warm, so safe and warm

Yes I’m alive on Cowboy Island

Come no harm.