Billy Gray Lyrics - Singles - Robert Earl Keen

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 

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 Granger County clay"