Buffalo Thunder from Dark Harvest by Malcolm MacWatt
James “Scotty” Philips is credited with saving the American buffalo from total extinction. He was a cattle rancher, an advocate for the plains Indians, inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Auchness Farm where he was born is still there in Dallas, just a few miles from my hometown in Morayshire. It was a privilege to visit the farm with Scotty’s great, great nephew Dave Martin who played bodhran on the song. I think I struck the right balance between cowboy campfire song and Scottish fiddle tune as I love those links between Scotland and America - a slice of Celticana!
Tracklist
| 9. | Buffalo Thunder | 4:17 |
Lyrics
There’s a man called Scotty Philip in the Cowboy Hall of Fame
Born in Dallas Morayshire in 1858
He headed west to dig for gold but the Black Hills left him poor and cold
All he found was an empty hole so he tried another way
When America was born on Independence Day
50 million buffalo roamed the western plains
When 1900 came around a scant 500 walked the ground
Wiped out to put the red man down, a policy insane
CH: Cowboys and Indians, they understand
The sound of buffalo thunder on American land
Cowboys and Indians know deep down inside
When the last buffalo passes, the heart of America dies
Scotty wed a pretty girl and she was half Cheyenne
They started raising cattle on native treaty land
Pretty soon they had a ranch, and Scotty thought he saw a chance
To save the bison bring them back and make a final stand
Crazy Horse and Red Cloud considered him a friend
For America’s first peoples he tried to do his best
A visionary with a dream to see the bison herds run free
A nation’s soul could be redeemed, a symbol of the west
Bodhran: Dave Martin
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
“MacWatt will doubtless be considered among the best of the new breed of folksingers and songwriters, who speak of the past as a way to perhaps understand it and move forward” Stephen Rapid, Lonesome Highway
“He shines as a singer and he shines as an interpreter of the eternal folk songbook,” Tom Brosseau, The Great American Folk Show, North Dakota