Lyr Req: Billy Gray (Norman Blake)

Subject: Please: lyrics for 'Billy Grey', by Norm
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 22 Sep 99 - 02:58 AM

Just heard a lovely song by Norman Blake called "Billy Grey". Couldn't find a listing in DT, none of the sites for Norman that Alta Vista listed has borne any fruit. Might Mudcat-dom Assembled be of assistance?

Subject: RE: Please: lyrics for 'Billy Grey', by Norm
From: Dale Rose
Date: 22 Sep 99 - 03:55 AM

Actually I heard this first by Michael Martin Murphey and Debbie Nims on MMM's Cowboy Songs III -- Rhymes of the Renegades, and loved it instantly. (I have a cousin named Billy Gray, but I don't think there's much resemblence) Later on, I heard the Norman Blake version, and am hard put to choose a favorite between them. Blake certainly wrote an instant classic.

The lyrics are at COWPIE as done by Robert Earl Keene. Note that Cowpie's Keene version spells it Grey, while Blake and Murphey both choose Gray. The Norman Blake album The Fields of November/Old & New is available on Rounder/Flying Fish and the Michael Martin Murphey on Warner Western.

Subject: RE: Please: lyrics for 'Billy Grey', by Norm
From: kevin cloud
Date: 22 Sep 99 - 04:36 AM

I know this song as "True love knows no season", from a Planxty album (their most well-known, whatever it's called), and lyrics are in the digitrad database under that title. BTW, doing a 'full lyrics' search on digitrad (as opposed to a 'title only' search) is a real good way to get what you want...if 'billy gray' didn't turn it up, 'billy grey' would, as would 'badlands', 'gantry', 'clarendon', 'granger', or... It's a gorgeous song that I've just begun to play. The planxty version seems overly understated, almost soporific,to me. looking forward to hearing other versions. enjoy....kc

Subject: RE: Please: lyrics for 'Billy Grey', by Norm
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 22 Sep 99 - 11:23 AM

Got it. The blue clicky thing is such a delight. Thankyou all.

Subject: RE: Please: lyrics for 'Billy Grey', by Norm
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 08:35 AM

Cowboy songs are not something I take much interest in, normally - but this one has long been a favourite of mine. The tune and the story just seem to fit so snugly together.

regards

Subject: Lyr Add: BILLY GRAY (from Robert Earl Keen)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Dec 04 - 10:55 PM

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."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Billy Gray (Norman Blake)
From: GUEST,Nick Barnett
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 10:29 AM

New Mexico; Kansas City; Grainger County -- they're pretty spaced out across the USA, and Gantry . . . I couldn't find anywhere named that, not now, not in 1883, when BG rode in, nor in 1923 when SMc was still there.

Do you think Norman just chose all four of them because they scanned and fit the mood of the song? Or is there any narrative value involved?

And actually, does anyone know whether there IS anywhere called Gantry?

As for Grainger County (TN, pop. 22,650) does it have colder clay than other counties, do you think?

Smashing song, by the way -- I came across it by Caleb and Reeb. (Smashing performers, as a duo, or part of the Foghorn Stringband.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Billy Gray (Norman Blake)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 10:48 AM

Neat writeup about the song at Sing Out!, but it doesn't answer the Gantry question.

https://singout.org/a-ruthless-man-and-a-dangerous-outlaw/