Claude Dallas

Dm   Am

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


[Instrumental]
Am  G  Em7 Am    G   Am  G  

Em7 Am  Em7 Am


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


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


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


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