Week 112 - "The Ballad of Romiette and Julio"

This is a song written for the Shakespeare adaptation "A Midsummer Night's Western," with lyrics by the playwright August Mergelman and music by Samuel Stokes.  This will be used for an upcoming production near Colorado Springs.

Lyrics:

Pete:
Now you got your French folks, and they like their sparkin’,
And you got your Irish, and they like to brawl,
But down in the land that is shaped like my left boot,
You got Eye-talians, and they like it all.

Tom:
There was a ranch half a mile from Verona
With extended family, ranch hands, and hens,
And over the draw was a spread just as handsome,
But there was no love creepin’ over the fence.

Pete:
Till one day a fella was out treein’ coons.
He suddenly lowered his head, and he smiled,
When he locked his eyes with a purty young filly,
And she got to blushin’ ‘cause she was beguiled.

So Romiette told all of this to her nana.
Ole Nana ‘tweren’t  happy, but she didn’t scold,
And Julio told all of this to the parson.
The parson was skittish ‘bout what he’d been told.

Then Romiette’s daddy decided his daughter
Would marry the fella he’d picked out for her.
Oh, he was a dude from around Paris, Texas.
A real drugstore cowboy with gold-plated spurs.

Robin:
On Saturday night all the boys came to town,
A-cussin’ and gamblin’ and fightin’ and drunk.
When Romiette’s cousin crossed Julio’s buddy,
They fought, and their final grave was the bunk.

Pete:
Well, as you can guess, there was plenty hard feelin’s.
It looked like the lovers should get hitched and fast.
So that moonlit night, when their folks was asleep,
They snuck out their winders and met up at last.