Tom Russell Sonora's Death Row
Mezcal is free in Amanda's saloon
For the boys from the old Broken O
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 gay happy town
Had a street named Sonora's Death Row
Well inside Amanda's we were all dancin'
With all of Amanda's gals
I won some silver at seven card stud
So I was outdoin' my pals
But the whiskey and mezcal and peso cigars
Drove me outside for some air
Where 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
A ware of the fool I had been
I rushed to my pony, I grabbed my Winchester
And I entered Amanda's gain
Where I saw my partners twirlin' my pistols
And throwin' my money round
Blinded by rage, I pulled the trigger
And one of them fell to the ground
Well Amanda's grew silent like night in the desert
My friends stared in pure dis belief
Amanda was kneeling be side the dead cowboy
Plainly expressing her grief
And as I bowed my head, a tremble shot through me
My six-gun was there at my side
I felt in my pockets and there was my money
I fell to my knees and I cried
For a nightmare of mezcal was all that it was
No one had robbed me at all
I wish I was dreamin' the sound of the gallows
They're testin' just outside the walls
And the mezcal's still free in Amanda's saloon
For the boys from the old Broken O
And I'd give a ransom to drink there today
And be free of Sonora's Death Row
Yeah I'd give a ransom to drink there today
And be free of Sonora's Death Row