Mountain Girl - Part One

Jeff at WNKU played a song by Judy Collins on the “Front Porch” radio program on Sunday that was new to me. Although she is most famous for covers, Judy has written many beautiful songs and as soon as I heard “Mountain Girl” I knew it was one of her's. The first few lines of the song brought to mind Joni Mitchell’s “He Played Real Good For Free” but soon the story was undeniably Judy's story. Many, many years ago I learned to play guitar chords by following the little chord boxes in a Judy Collins songbook. The book was also an autobiography of Judy’s early life and wove a memorizing portrait of the mountains of the American West. In the early 1980’s I moved to the mountains of Idaho and lived in the heart of the state in the small town of Hailey. Our home was just eleven miles south of the world famous Sun Valley Ski Resort but that eleven miles was a world away from the homes and lifestyles of the rich and famous who wintered there. Hailey was a town of friendly, hardworking people with a strong sense of community. There was magic in the Sawtooth and Bitterroot mountains to the north of us and my family has been instructed to scatter my ashes in the Bitterroot Valley north of Hailey when my time has passed. Through all the travels of my life, no space on the planet was as beautiful to me as the Bitterroot Valley and I hope to return someday. Before the story of those years can be told, I will begin with how it all came about. Coming soon... Mountain Girl - Part Two
“Deep in my heart I could hear that voice call
Haunting me all that day long
Mountain girl in the city
You've been gone far too long
Find your way back to the mountains
Where you know you belong
Where your dreams can't go wrong”

From Mountain Girl by Judy Collins