From the recordings Flower Time and FLOWER TIME
My father was one of 2.5 million people who migrated West during the Great Depression of the 1930's. He and his older brother hitch-hiked out to California from Detroit, Michigan as teenagers. This is their story.
Lead vocals and acoustic guitars - Rags Rosenberg / Harmonies - Artemis, Tim & Faith Chinnock / Violin - Bob Furgo /
Lap Steel and Pedal Steel - Gar Robertson / Percussion - Tim Chinnock / Accordion - Lisa Mednick Powell / Bass - Baba Elefante
Lyrics
CALIFORNIA BOUND
Ten of us kids, a house of pain
No room to move
Nothin’ to lose
Me and my older brother Cain
Struck out on our own
Find a new home
Anywhere we end up couldn’t be this bad
So heart broke sad, no work to be had
So, we’re California, California, we’re California bound
Yeah, we’re California, California, California bound.
All along Route 66
Thumbs in the air
Everywhere
Hungry men with walking sticks
Runnin’ from the dust
The rot and rust
Thirty miles south of Henderson
The sheriff hauled us in “Don’t come this way again.”
Go to California, California, we’re California bound
Yeah, we’re California, California, California bound.
Trucker dropped us off at the Frisco Bay
We worked the docks those long, hot days
We picked the crops down in Monterey
Ended up in LA
Cain became a businessman
Got him a real good wife
Yeah, he did all right
Me, I do the best I can
Try to make ends meet
Keep it off the street
I dream about those days out on the road
so young and bold, so full of hope…
Goin’ to California, California, we’re California bound
Yeah, we were California, California, California bound.
c Rags Rosenberg