BILLY GRAY
Words and music by Norman Blake
As sung by Robert Earl Keen Jr. on "Walking Distance," 1998.

Billy Gray rode into Gantry back in eighty-three.
There he did meet young Sarah MacCray,
The wild rose of morning, that pale flower of dawning,
Herald of springtime in his young life that day.

Sarah she could not see the daylight of reality.
In her young eyes, Billy bore not a flaw,
Knowing not her chosen one was a hired gun,
Wanted in Kansas City by the law.

Then one day a tall man came riding 'cross the badlands
That lie to the north of New Mexico.
He was overheard to say he was lookin' for Billy Gray,
A ruthless man and a dangerous outlaw.

The deadly news came creeping to Billy fast sleeping
There in the Clarendon Bar and Hotel.
He fled toward the old church there on the outskirts,
Thinking he'd climb that old steeple bell.

But a rifle ball came flying. Face down he lay dying
There in the dust of the road where he fell.
Sarah she ran to him, cursing the lawman,
Accepting no reason, knowing he was killed.

Sarah lives in that same old white frame house
Where she first met Billy some forty years ago.
And the wild rose of morning has faded with the dawning
Of each day of sorrow the long years have sown.

Written on a stone where the dusty winds have long blown,
Eighteen words to a passing world say:
"True love knows no season, no rhyme nor no reason,
Justice is cold as the Grainger County clay.

"True love knows no season, no rhyme nor no reason,
Justice is cold as the Grainger County clay."