The Ballad of Sally Rose - Emmylou Harris

Her mama picked him up in south Minnesota

He promised her the world but they never got that far

For he was last seen in that '59 DeSoto

When Sally was born in the Black Hills of Dakota

She was washed in the blood of the dying Sioux nation

Raised with a proud but a wandering heart

And she knew that her roots were in the old reservation

But she had stars in her eyes and greater expectations

No rings on her fingers, no bells on her toes

With bugs on her headlights and runs in her hose

Through the valley of the shadow of Roosevelt’s nose

Adios South Dakota, adios Sally Rose

They’ve got a national monument carved out of stone

On the side of a mountain where her forefathers roamed

Playing cowboys and Indians right under the nose

Of Theodore Roosevelt and the sweet Sally Rose

So she left Rapid City in the blue moonlight hour

With her eye on the highway and her foot on the floor

And turning the dial, she was pulled by the power

Of the word coming out of the broadcasting tower

No rings on her fingers, no bells on her toes

With bugs on her headlights and runs in her hose

Through the valley of the shadow of Roosevelt’s nose

Adios South Dakota, adios Sally Rose