He was born in the Bitterroot valley in the early morning rain   Wild geese over the water, heading north and home again   Bringin' a warm wind from the south, bringin' the first taste of the spring   His mother took him to her breast, softly she did sing      Oh, oh, oh, oh, Montana, give this child a home   Give him a love of a good family and a woman of his own   Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes   Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies      His mother died that summer and he never learned to cry   He never knew his father and he never did ask why   And he never knew the answers that would make an easy way   But he learned to know the wilderness and to be a man that way      His mother's brother took him in to his family and his home   Gave him a hand that he could lean on and a strength to call his own   And he learned to be a farmer and he learned to love the land   And he learned to read the seasons and he learned to make a stand      Oh, oh, oh, oh, Montana, give this child a home   Give him a love of a good family and a woman of his own   Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes   Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies      On the eve of his twenty first birthday, he set out on his own   He was thirty years and runnin' when he found his way back home   Ridin' a storm across the mountains and an achin' in his heart   Said he came to turn the pages and to make a brand new start      Now he never told the story of the time that he was gone   Some say he was a lawyer, some say he was a John   There was something in the city that he said he couldn't breathe   There was something in the country that he said he couldn't leave      Oh, oh, oh, oh, Montana, give this child a home   Give him a love of a good family and a woman of his own   Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes   Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies      Now some say he was crazy, some are glad he's gone   Some of us will miss him, we'll try to carry on   Giving a voice to the forest, giving a voice to the dawn   Giving a voice to the wilderness and the land that he lived on      Oh, oh, oh, oh, Montana, give this child a home   Give him a love of a good family and a woman of his own   Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes   Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies      Oh, oh, oh, oh, Montana, give this child a home   Give him a love of a good family and a woman of his own   Give him a fire in his heart, give him a light in his eyes   Give him the wild wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies