Lyrics du Jour - North Dakota

In honor of my recent fabulous trip to gorgeous Portland, Oregon I’m featuring the lyrics to North Dakota. What? Did I say that right? Yes, I did! See, while I was in Portland, Lyle Lovett was playing at the picturesque outdoor venue at Edgefield. And Lyle’s song, “North Dakota” is one of my favorites. I have seen Lyle do this song live in concert at least twice before and it nearly moved me to tears.

Here’s the catch- I didn’t get to see Lyle while we were both in Portland. The reason why was because I was at a wedding. While the wedding reception was lovely and fun, the weather that night was perfect and, truthfully, I would have rather been relaxing outside to the sounds of Lyle. The bride and groom probably would not have missed me and I could have enjoyed the show and pretended Lyle was dedicating “North Dakota” to them. So this post is my own little way of reconciling this by doing my own dedication of the lyrics of this beautiful & honest love song to Dave & Laura Jean:

“The boys in North Dakota, they drink their whiskey for their fun,
The cowboys down in Texas, they polish up their guns,
And they look across the border to learn the ways of love.

If you love me, say I love you,
If you love me, say I do (2x)
And you can say I love you,
And you can say I do.

So I drank myself some whiskey
And I dreamed I was a cowboy
And I rode across the border

If you love me, say I love you,
If you love me, take my hand (2x)
And you can say I love you,
And you can have my hand.

I remember in the morning, waking up,
With your arms around my head
You told me, you can sleep forever
And I’ll still hold you then.

Now the weather’s getting colder,
And it’s even cold down here,
And the words that you have told me,
Hang frozen in the air,
And sometimes I look right through them
As if they were not there

And the boys in North Dakota, they drink whiskey for their fun
And the cowboys down in Texas, they polish up their guns
And they look across the border to learn the ways of love.”

So here’s to the bride and groom! When the weather gets cold, your words of love hang frozen in the air, and you look right through them as if they were not there- remember to look across the border into each other’s eyes to learn the ways of love. And as stated in your vows, may you always treat each other as a newly discovered treasure.