Claude Dallas - Tom Russell

In a land the Spanish once had called the Northern Mystery

Where rivers run and disappear the mustang still is free

By the Devil’s wash and coyote hole in the wild Owyhee Range

Somewhere in the sage tonight the wind calls out his name

Aye, aye, aye

Come gather 'round me buckaroos and a story I will tell

Of the fugitive Claude Dallas who just broke out of jail

You might think this tale is history from before the West was won

But the events that I’ll describe took place in nineteen eighty-one

He was born out in Virginia, left home when school was through;

In the deserts of Nevada he became a buckaroo

And he learned the ways of cattle, and he learned to sit a horse

And he always packed a pistol, and he practiced deadly force

Then Claude he became a trapper, and he dreamed of the bygone days

And he studied bobcat logic and their wild and silent ways

In the bloody runs near Paradise, in monitors down south

Trapping cats and coyotes, living hand to mouth

Aye, aye, aye

Then Claude took to livin' all alone out many miles from town

A friend--Jim Stevens--brought supplies and he stayed to hang around

That day two wardens--Pogue and Elms--rode into check Claude out

They were seeking violations and to see what Claude’s about

Now Claude had hung some venison, he had a bobcat pelt or two;

Pogue claimed they were out of season, he said «Dallas, you're all thru.»

But Dallas would not leave his camp.

He refused to go to town

As the wind howled throught the bull-camp they stared each other down

Its hard to say what happend next, perhaps we’ll never know

They were gonna take Claude in to jail, and he vowed he’d never go

Jim Stevens heard the gunfire, and when he turned around

Bill Pogue was falling backwards, Conley Elms he fell face down

Aye, aye, aye

Jim stevens walked on over;there was a gun near Bill Pogue’s hand

It was hard to say who drawn his first, but Claude had made his stand

Claude said «I am justified Jim, they were gonna cut me down

And a man’s got a right to hang some meat

When he’s livin' this far from town.»

It took eighteen men and fifteen months to finally run Claude down

In the sage outside of Paradise they drove him to the ground

Convicted up in Idaho--manslaughter by decree--

Thirty years at maximum, but soon Claude would break free

There’s two sides two this story, there may be no right or wrong

The lawman and the renegade have graced a thousand songs

The story is an old one.

Conclusion's hard to draw

But Claude’s out in the sage tonight he may be the last outlaw

Aye, aye, aye

In a land the Spanish once had called the Northern Mystery

Where rivers run and disappear the mustang still is free

By the Devil’s wash and the coyote hole in the wild Owyhee Range

Somewhere in the sage tonight the wind calls out his name

Aye, aye, aye