Longview, Alberta
Well it’s two eggs up on whiskey toast
And home fries on the side
Wash it down with the road house coffee
Burns up your insides
Just a Canyon-Colorado Diner
And a waitress I did love
I sat in the back neath an old stuffed bear
And a worn out Navajo rug
This worn-out Navajo rug once belonged to Ian Tyson. I don’t know if it is the one he sat on in the back of the Canyon-Colorado Diner with the waitress he did love, but today I have the good fortune of owning it.
Ian Tyson’s estate sale was held August 20th. I couldn’t pass on an opportunity to own a piece of the legend, so I came away with some treasures.
Well Old Jack, the boss, he left at six
And it’s Katie bar the door
She’d pull down that Navajo rug
And she’d spread it across the floor
Hey, I saw lightning cross the sacred mountains
Saw woven turtle doves
I was sittin’ next to Katie
On that old Navajo rug
Romeo and Juliette, the tragic Shakespearean play of lives torn apart by cultural circumstances, is an enduring love story. As is Evangeline, Wm. Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem about Gabriel and Evangeline, separated during the Great Expulsion of Acadians, and their lifelong search for one another.
But those are ancient stories, Navajo Rug portrays lovers separated by contemporary circumstances.
Everybody has a Katie (or a Billie), that person you knew when you were young but let slip away. The relationships we squandered in our youth because we were too reckless or insensitive, or even worse, where we never tried, shine brighter as time goes by.
Well I saw old Jack about a year ago
He said the place burned to the ground
And all I saved was this old bear tooth
And Katie, she left town
Oh, but Katie, she got her souvenir too
Jack spat a tobacco plug
Well you should have seen her a-coming through the smoke
Draggin’ that Navajo rug
Aye, Aye, Aye, Katie
Shades of red and blue
Aye, Aye, Aye, Katie
Whatever became of the Navajo rug and you
Katie, shades of red and blue
Ian Tyson’s Navajo Rug is a magic carpet. Click on the link and take it for a ride through your memories of long-lost love,…
… Aye, Aye, Aye!
So every time I cross the sacred mountains
And lightning breaks above
It always takes me back in time
To my long lost Katie love
But everything keeps on a-moving
Yeah, everybody’s on the go
You don’t find things that last anymore
Like an old woven Navajo
Aye, Aye, Aye, Katie
Shades of red and blue
Aye, Aye, Aye, Katie
Whatever became of the Navajo rug and you
Katie, shades of red and blue
Valerie Guillemin
I agree with Scott – never going to forget the opportunity we had to see him live – a true legend.
Russ Paton
That decade marker is almost at an end. I have no clue who could fill Ian’s boots in 2025…. Happy to hear suggestions.
Nephew Scott
So awesome! Many Ian Tyson songs have woven themselves into the soundtrack of our lives on this branch of the family bush. We are genuinely and truly grateful for the opportunity to have seen him play in a very intimate setting on a beautiful ranch in the foothills 😉
Russ Paton
Thanks Scott, there aren’t many songs you can listen to 1000 times and still look forward to the next. Tyson has dozens of them.