The wife of one of my good pals hails from Winnipeg. Her Dad owned a paving company and, because the long, cold winters tended to interfere with road-building, her family would winter in Brownsville, Texas, where she eventually attended High School. She was then and is now a big jock, who also has a firearms license, who builds her own furniture, hikes for weeks off-grid, is an awesome cook, and is a lovely person. This song was just me imagining how things might have been, had she elected to marry a high school sweetheart in the land of the Rio Grande instead of the university sweetheart she would eventually meet back home. I am pretty sure in real life there are many remarkable women like this working farms and ranches not just in Texas, but in Montana or Alberta, or anywhere else a lasso gets thrown. Please consider this my love letter to y’all.
Lyrics
She likes my old rusty shitbox and takes the wheel all the time / She’d change a flat if she had to, as fast as any two men combined / She’s got a way with the horses and she can ride like a pro / Should see this trick with her lasso / Works on every throw / But sundown something magical happens kickin’ off the dust of her day / She puts on that dress with summer flowers and any breath you have she takes away / She’s my South Texas Sweetie, She's my South Texas pal / Ain’t no how you’ll do better than marrying a South Texas gal / If there’s a gate that needs mending right, she’d be the first on the scene / You’ve heard of lovers who hold their torch? / Hers is acetylene / She bought herself a new skid-steer for mucking stalls in the barn / She got a thing for equipment and she don’t give a darn / Sundown something wonderful happens casting off the weight of her day / She lets down her hair and comes to greet you and suddenly your knees are giving way / She’s my South Texas Sweetie etc / Give her a label, she’s willing and able, name the role and she’ll play the part / In all of my sunsets I’ve never met one yet with such a warm and beautiful heart / She’s my South Texas Sweetie etc