Robert Earl Keen - Billy Gray LYRICS

Billy Gray rode into Gantry back in '83

There he did meet young Sarah McCray

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 Bill Gray

A ruthless man and a dangerous outlaw



Well, the deadly news came creepin' to Billy, fast sleepin'

There in the Clarendon Bar and Hotel

He fled towards 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

Whereshe 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 Granger County clay"