Ballad Of The Red Fox

Down where the black water don’t run clear
Cypress trees whisper what a man can’t hear
There’s a rider comes quiet through the midnight fog
With a rifle on his back and a heart gone hard

They say he crossed the ocean from a frozen land
With blood on his boots and a gun in his hand
Didn’t bring mercy, didn’t bring law
Just a red-eyed stare and a quick-draw claw

Oh the Red Fox rides where the lanterns die
Where the wolves don’t howl and the crows don’t cry
If you see his shadow when the moon hangs low
Pray to God he ain’t the man you owe 

Down in the marsh where the old ghosts sing
A guitar cries soft on a rusted string
Bluewater wind and a devil’s tune
Calling lost souls to the swamp too soon

They say the Fox once rode through the burning rain
Left a town in ashes and a trail of pain
Lawmen chased him but they lost his track
Only hoofbeats fading in the dark out back

Oh the Red Fox rides where the lanterns die
Where the wolves don’t howl and the crows don’t cry
If you see his shadow when the moon hangs low
Pray to God he ain’t the man you owe

Some men run from their sins at night
Some men drown them in whiskey and fight
But the Fox just rides where the wind blows cold
With a heart like iron and a soul half sold

Now if you’re riding through the pines alone
And you hear hoofbeats where the road ain’t known
Don’t turn around and don’t look back slow

’Cause the last thing you’ll see…
is the Red Fox’s shadow.

blues, jazz