The Goodnight Loving Trail was used to drive cattle in the 1860s. It ran from Texas eventually to Wyoming. The trail was named after an army officer, Charles Goodnight and a cattleman, Oliver Loving. It also happens to be a song written by the late U. Utah Phillips, the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest.

The song is about the “old woman” on the cattle drive, too old to wrangle or ride on the range, he becomes the cook for the trail drive. The lyrics are beautiful.

Too old to wrangle or ride on the swing,
You beat the triangle and you curse everything.
If dirt was a kingdom, they you'd be the king.

     On the Goodnight Trail, on the Loving Trail,
     Our Old Woman's lonesome tonight.
     Your French harp blows like the low bawling calf.
     It's a wonder the wind don't tear off your skin.
     Get in there and blow out the light.

With your snake oil and herbs and your liniments, too,
You can do anything that a doctor can do,
Except find a cure for your own god damned stew

     CHORUS

The campfire's gone out and the coffee's all gone,
The boys are all up and they're raising the dawn.
You're still sitting there, lost in a song.

     CHORUS

I know that some day I'll be just the same,
Wearing an apron instead of a name.
There's nothing can change it, there's no one to blame
For the desert's a book writ in lizards and sage,
Easy to look like an old torn out page,
Faded and cracked with the colors of age.     CHORUS
Here's Ian Tyson's version
http://youtu.be/1ZL2E0173IY
Joe Ely