Lyrics
[Verse 1]
He came down from the timberline
Face like a burned-out map
White lines crossing old red lines
Every mile another trap
Lantern in his shaking hand
Smell of iron
Dirt and pine
Said
“Pour your poison
I’ll pour my ghosts
Been outrunning them all night”
[Chorus]
I hunted that thing they only whisper
By the river where the shadows keep their names
I walked into its hunger and its history
Tore my way back through the teeth and flame
I’ve got claws in my memory
Bones in my skin
But I crawled out of that canyon of sin
I hunted that thing they only whisper
And I lived to tell the tale
[Verse 2]
He spoke of hoofprints shaped like hands
Pressed deep in frozen clay
A circle of ravens on bare black limbs
Watching him lose his way
Said its eyes were two cold lanterns
Swinging on a gallows tree
And every step it took toward him
Sounded like his own heartbeat
[Chorus]
I hunted that thing they only whisper
By the river where the shadows keep their names
I walked into its hunger and its history
Tore my way back through the teeth and flame
I’ve got claws in my memory
Bones in my skin
But I crawled out of that canyon of sin
I hunted that thing they only whisper
And I lived to tell the tale
[Bridge]
“It bargained in the blizzard
” he said (oh Lord)
“In a voice that sounded like me
Offered me peace for a piece of my soul
I offered it steel and cedar and meat
It took my blood
It took my years
Left these marks like crooked rails
It died howling in the snowdrift
But I’m the one who wears its tale”
[Chorus]
I hunted that thing they only whisper
By the river where the shadows keep their names
I walked into its hunger and its history
Tore my way back through the teeth and flame
I’ve got claws in my memory
Bones in my skin
Still I crawled out of that canyon of sin
I hunted that thing they only whisper
And I lived to tell the tale
Style
folkdark country folk ballad with male vocalshushed baritone over a creaking acoustic guitar and bowed fiddle drones; verse storytelling stays sparse and close-mic’dthen chorus swells with harmony stack and stomping floor tom. harmonica doubles the melody on the bridgefinal chorus drops to near-whisper before a rawgravelly last line.countryballad
Prompt
A dark country folk ballad about a old trapper covered in scars that hunted a beast of folklaw and made his escape and lived to tell the tale
Credits
Prompt by_red_nomad_
GeneratedFeb 5, 2026
ModelAria v5
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