“Up on the Divide” was written by Martha Scanlan, who based it on a cattle ranch in the Tongue River country of eastern Montana where she spent time. It was, by her account, the first song she ever wrote, and it appeared on her 2007 album “The West Was Burning.”
The song follows a cowboy heading out in spring to drive cattle up to the high valleys, his horse beside him. Along the way it gathers the stories of others bound to that land, a portrait of ranch life and the country that holds it.
The song was later recorded by Mighty Poplar, a string band drawn to old and new roots material. The version heard here is by Mighty Poplar.
