Henry Chappell

This song was ripping through my head when I wrote a certain scene in The Callings. (Actually a rawer version by Julie Miller, but I love this version too, and Buddy and Julie are there with Emmylou.) Nowadays when I hear "All My Tears" I can't help but think of two teenagers grappling with hope and death on the Canadian River in late autumn of 1873.

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I'm not one to quote myself, but I'll make an exception here. This reminds me of a passage in The Callings, in which three buffalo hunters look out over a river bottom in the Texas Panhandle, in 1873:

Logan could think of nothing to say. Columns of bison came out of the southern breaks to the river while others moved into the hills and draws or onto the plains beyond. Packs of wolves skulked about the bands. Bulls bellowed and butted heads and rolled in the sand, yet the herd and the wolves and the coyotes seemed to Logan like one expansive living thing. "Only God Hisself could make this."

Ezra smiled and kept his eyes on the spectacle. "God's work or not, they won't be here five years from now. Better see it while you can. Your sons and daughters won't believe it. Nobody will. You can't tell it right. You gotta see it."




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