Claude Dallas

Dm   Am

[Verse 1]
                                          G
In a land the Spanish once had called the Northern Mystery
      D                                F
Where rivers run and disappear and the mustang still lives free
       C                                       G
By the Devil’s wash and the coyote hole in the wild Owyhee Range
D                                  F
Somewhere in the sage tonight, the wind calls out his name
      Am
Ay-yi-yi


[Verse 2]
                                  G
Come gather round me buckaroos, a story I will tell
       Em7                         Am
Of the fugitive Claude Dallas, who just broke out of jail
                                           G
You may think this tale is a history, from before the West was won
        Em7                                     Am
But the events that I’ll describe took place in nineteen eighty-one


[Verse 3]
                                  G
He was born out in Virginia, left home when school was through
       Em7                         Am
In the deserts of Nevada, he became a buckaroo
                                  G
He learned the ways of cattle, he learned to sit a horse
   Em7                           Am
He always packed a pistol and he practiced deadly force


[Verse 4]
         C                              G
And then Claude became a trapper and he dreamt of the bygone days
       D                            F
And he studied bobcat logic and the wild and silent ways
       C                                 G
In the bloody runs near Paradise and the monitors down south
D                            F
Trapping cats and coytes and living hand to mouth
      Am
Ay-yi-yi


[Verse 5]
                                          G
Then Claude took to living all alone, out many miles from town
  Em7                                          Am
A friend, Jim Stevens, brought supplies and he stayed to hang around
                                            G
That day two wardens, Pogue and Elms, drove in to check Claude out
          Em7                       Am
They were seeking violations and to see what Claude's about


[Verse 6]
                                           G
Now Claude had hung some venison, he had a bobcat pelt or two
      Em7                                        Am
Pogue claimed they were out of season, he said, "Dallas, you're all through"
                                          G
But Dallas would not leave his camp, he refused to go to town
       Em7                                    Am
As the wind howled through the bull-camp they stared each other down


[Verse 7]
     C                                  G
It's hard to say what happened next, perhaps we'll never know
          D                                    F
They were gonna take Claude in to jail, and he vowed he'd never go
    C                             G
Jim Stevens heard the gunshot and when he turned around
     D                                   F
Bill Pogue was falling backwards, Conley Elms, he fell face down
      Am
Ay-yi-yi


[Instrumental]
Am  G  Em7 Am    G   Am  G  Em7 Am  Em7 Am


[Verse 8]
                                        G
Jim Stevens walked on over, there was a gun near Bill Pogue's hand
     Em7                                    Am
It's hard to say who'd drawn his first, but Claude had made his stand
                                           G
Claude said, "I'm justified Jim, they were gonna gun me down
      Em7                                           Am
And a man's got a right to hang some meat when he's living this far from town"


[Verse 9]
                                           G
It took eighteen men and fifteen months to finally hunt Claude down
       Em7                            Am
In the sage outside of Paradise, they ran him to the ground
                          G                    Em
Convicted up in Idaho, manslaughter by decree
                             Am
Twenty years in maximum, but soon Claude would break free


[Verse 10]
        C                                  G
There's two sides two the story, there may be no right or wrong
    D                            F
The lawman and the renegade have graced a thousand songs
    C                         G
The story is an old one, a conclusion's hard to draw
    D                                        F
But Claude's out in the sage tonight, he may be the last outlaw
      Am
Ay-yi-yi


[Verse 11]
                                          G
In a land the Spanish once had called the Northern Mystery
      D                                F
Where rivers run and disappear and the mustang still lives free
       C                                       G
By the Devil’s wash and the coyote hole in the wild Owyhee Range
D                                  F
Somewhere in the sage tonight, the wind calls out his name
      Am
Ay-yi-yi