Sonora's Death Row

About Sonora's Death Row

"Sonora's Death Row" is a story song written by California songwriter Kevin "Blackie" Farrell and published by Drifter Music/Bug Music (BMI), ©1975. Recorded covers of the song have been performed by Robert Earl Keen, Leo Kottke, Michael Martin Murphey, Tom Russell, Richard Shindell, Dave Alvin, Johnny Rodriguez and others. The song was also printed in the 1995 Spring issue of Sing Out! with the following introduction: Legendary Texas Ranger and Arizona Border Guard Jeff Milton once described Sonora as a hell and a paradise, Michael Martin Murphy tells us. Blackie Farrell's classic Old West ballad, Murphy says, "captures the dangers implicit in cowboys on a tequila spree." more »

Year:

1978

4:33

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Mescal is free in Amanda's saloon for the boys from the old Broken Hole
Saturday nights in the town of Sonora are the best in all Mexico
They've got guitars and trumpets and sweet senoritas who won't want to let you go 
You'd never believe such a happy town had a street called Sonora's death row

Inside Amanda's we were all dancing with six of Amanda's gals
I won some silver at 7-card stud so I was outdoing my pals
But the whiskey and mescal and peso cigars drove me outside for some air 
Somebody whispered "Your life or your money," I reached but my gun wasn't there

I woke up face down in Amanda's back alley, aware of the fool I had been
Rushed to a saddle and grabbed someone's rifle and entered Amanda's again
Where I saw my partners twirling my pistol and throwing my money around
Blinded by anger, I jacked the lever and one of them fell to the ground

Amanda's got silent like night in the desert, my friends stared in pure disbelief
Amanda was kneeling beside the dead cowboy plainly expressing her grief
And as I bowed my head a tremble shot through me, my pistol was still at my side
I felt my pockets and there was my money, I fell to my knees and I cried

A nightmare of mescal was all that it was, no one had robbed me at all
I wish I was dreaming the sound of the gallows they're testing just outside the wall
And the mescal's still free in Amanda's saloon for the boys from the old Broken Hole 
I'd pay a ransom to drink there today and be free of Sonora's death row

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Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945, Athens, Georgia, U.S.) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. Kottke overcame a series of personal obstacles, including partial loss of hearing and a nearly career-ending bout with tendon damage in his right hand to emerge as a widely-recognized master of his instrument. Leo currently resides in the Minneapolis area with his family. more »

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