[Verse 1]
There's a bloodshot moon risin' on the cornfield
Since she went away
A rusty ax layin' in the barnyard
It's seen better days
The banks are tellin' him he should sell
He's tellin' them to go straight to hell

[Verse 2]
Everyone is headin' for the city
Givin' up on the land
Takin' jobs with the big corporations
Too tired to make a stand
The dusty roads are all empty now
The wind and weather have taken 'em all to task

[Chorus]
The frontier is returnin'
Forward into the past

[Bridge]
From the silent frozen winter
The dark and endless night
Where the plains stretch out forever
In a sea of barren white
To the billion dollar merger
To bailouts in the east
Where currencies are mangled
And Wall Street has a feast
Independence is outmoded
Out of favor, out of sync
Abandoned and forgotten
Discarded in the blink of an eye
[Verse 3]
His hometown's nearly empty now
Schools and churches too
The trains have stopped for a hundred years
They just rumble through
The trucks stay out on the big highway
His whole way of life is fadin' fast

[Chorus]
The tall grass is returnin'
Forward into the past

[Outro]
Forward into the past
Forward into the past
Forward into the past
Forward into the past