#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------# #This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the # #song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. # #------------------------------------------------------------------------------## From: [email protected] Tom Ames Prayer by Steve Earle G Everyone in Nacodoches G D Knew Tom Ames would come to a bad end Em 'Cause the sheriff caught him C G D G Stealin' chickens and such by the time he was ten One day his Daddy took a ten dollar bill And tucked it in his hand He said I know you're headed for trouble son Your Momma wouldn't understand So he took his Dad's money and his brother's old bay He left without a word of thanks He fell in with this crowd in some border town And he took to robbing banks Outside the law his luck a- run out fast A few years came and went 'Til he's trapped in an alley in Abilene With all but four shells spent And he realized prayin' was the only thing That he hadn't ever tried Well he wasn't sure he quite knew how But he looked up to the sky He said you don't owe me nothin' and as far as I know Lord I don't owe nothin' to you I ain't askin' for a miricle Lord Just a little bit of luck will do You know I ain't never prayed before 'Cause it always seemed to me That prayin's the same as beggin' Lord I don't take no charity but right now Lord with my back to the wall I 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 I began to file a plot They sent the preacher down to my cell He said the Lord's your only hope He's the only friend you're gonna have son When you hit the end of Parker's rope And I guess he could have kept preachin' till Christmas but he turned his back on me I put a homemade blade to that golden throat Asked the deputy for the key It ain't the first trouble I've seen before As you already know I've had some help from you Lord and the Devil himself'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 he spit in the dirt And he walked out into that street
