We have been using pictures to prompt stories/lyrics. @fabkebab started this off using the Ansel Adams photograph – Moonrise – Hernandez, NM. He passed that lyric off to me for the music and we went back and forth from there.

#Americana #singersongwriter

Ariana

Words and Music by Ron Tintner and Andrew Richardson ©2026, ASCAP

Mission in Hernandez, no sun, it’s cold and dark Your shadow in the dying moon… vivid, gray and stark Distant mountains, snowy peaks, frame this somber scene And I’m with you Ariana in this dream within a dream

Chorus: I never should have loved you Ariana I never should have taken you aside I never would have left you Ariana If only you had given me a sign

Mesquite and brown adobe sprinkled through the night Past homes, the graveyard crosses and the limits of my sight I know the time has come and gone for me to pack and go Leave behind this tortured town and everything I know

CHORUS

I want to travel east to the longleaf pines But what am I to do Where green things grow, and silver water shines But everything I see makes me think of you

I never should have left you Ariana I never should have taken you aside I never would have left you Ariana If only you had given me a sign

Tag: No, I never could have left you Ariana… If only you had given me a sign

• Inspired by the Ansel Adams photograph – Moonrise – Hernandez, NM