Robert Earl Keen - Tom Ames' Prayer Lyrics

everyone in Nachadoces knew Tom Ames
come from some bad kin
cause the sheriff caught him stealin chickens and such
by the time that he was ten
one day his daddy took a ten dollar bill
and he tucked it in his hand
he said i know that you're headed for trouble son
your mamma woudln't understand

so he took his dad's money and his brother's old bay
and he left without of thanks
he fell into this crowd in some border town
and he took to robbing banks

outside the law your luck will run out fast
a few years came and went
till he's trapt in a alley in abliene
with all but four shells spent

and he realized praying was the only thing
that he had never tried
well he wasn't sure that he knew quite how
but he looked up to the sky
he said you don't owe me nothing and as far as i know lord
i don't owe nothing to you
i aint asking for a mircle lord
just a little bit of luck will do
and you know i aint ever prayed lord
cause it always seemed to me
that praying is the same as begging lord and i don't take no charity

right now lord with my back to the wall
Can't help but recall
How they nearly hung me for stealin' a horse
in Fort Smith Arkansas

judge Parker said guilty and the gavel came down
just like a cannon shot
i went away quietly
and I began to file and plot

they sent the preacher down to my cell
he said the Lord is your only hope
he's the only friend that you gonna have son
when you hit the end of Parker's rope

and i guess he coulda' kept on preachin' 'till Christmas
but he turned his back on me
i put a homemade blade to that golden throat
and asked the deputy for the key

it ain't the first trouble i seen before
as you already know
had some help from you Lord and the devil himself
it's been strictly touch and go

yeah but who in the hell am I talkin' to
there ain't no one here but me
so he cocked both his pistols and spit in the dirt
and he walked out in the street