January 2018

Come on down and hear the tale

Of a man with a bounty the size of a whale

A Colt .45 was his dame of choice

A six-round shooter his second voice

Running train jumps in the old southwest

A team of fugitives nobody put to the test

But Bill Miner’s first rule for a good Shanghai

Under no circumstance should any man die

Run, Devil run

Run, Devil run

Run, Devil run

Billy grip your gun

Was a real good run but Bill got framed

For a murder on a job on a southbound train

Sheriff caught a bullet between his eyes

And now Billy’s caught in a web of lies

Run, Devil run

Run, Devil run

Run, Devil run

Billy grip your gun

A big courthouse, a jury of peers

But all Bill’s words, they fall on deaf ears

Lying through the teeth, they come out and say

That Bill, he pulled the trigger on that fateful day

Now Billy’s six feet under from the snap of a rope

And to find the real killer, well there’s no hope

They say that the Devil’s still running free

On the boardwalk past you and me

So run, Devil run

Run, Devil run

Run, Devil run

Billy grip your gun

No Capo, Standard Tuning, 128 BPM

Verse: Dm A7 C G [x2]

Chorus: Dm C A7 G [x2]

I wrote this song for an event my family did when I was in high school called Circle of Songs. Once a month, a group of family and friends would come together and play songs that we had written about a previously decided topic. This was my entry for the topic of “Murder Ballad.”