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#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
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This file is for personal private use only.  All copyright laws apply.
-transcribed by Greg Steele - 
http://www.gregorysteele.com - gsteele214@netscape.net

"Shades of Gray" written by Robert Earl Keen
Performed by Cry, Cry, Cry - Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, and Lucy Kaplansky

Capo on 4th fret
Intro:  Am  F C G   F   G  Am


Am                 C
We made Oklahoma a little after three

G                                   Am
Randy, his brother Bob, in my old GMC

                                  C
We had some moonshine whiskey and some of Bob's homegrown

        G                                                Am
We were so messed up, we didn't know if we were drunk or stoned


Randy was a sad-sack, tall and kinda frail
Bob was a raving maniac, and crazier than hell
They'd been kicked out of high school several years ago
For kicking over Port-a-cans at the 4-H rodeo

Since then they done their little dance right outside the law
Popped twice in Oklahoma, and once in Arkansas
And I don't know what possessed me to want to tag along
'Caused I was raised a Christian, and I knew right from wrong

Chorus:
F                        C 
Right or wrong, black or white

G                            Am
Cross the line, you're gonna pay

C      G               Am
In the dawn before the light

F           G                Am  
You live or die by shades of gray


We stole two charolais heifers from Randy's sweetheart's pa
And sold them at the livestock sale outside of Wichita
We got nine hundred dollars and never did suspect
The world of hurt we'd be in once we cashed the check

The next day we heard the story on the local radio
And made our plans that very night to go to Mexico
And I swear we would've made it if it wasn't for the 'shine
I got sick about the time we crossed that Kansas line

<Chorus>
<repeat intro chords>

I was lying in the bar ditch, praying I would die
When a light come on above us and a voice called from the sky
A half a dozen unmarked cars came screeching to a halt
They grabbed Bob; he started screaming it was all my fault

There were men and dogs and helicopters flyin' all around
They had the brothers on the pickup hood and me down on the ground
Then Bob flew all to pieces, but Randy he held tight
When a black man in a suit and tie stepped into the light

He told his men to turn us loose and they put down their guns
He said, "These are just some sorry kids, they ain't the ones"

<Chorus>

They left us by the roadside, downhearted and alone
Randy got behind the wheel, said, "Boys, I'm going home"
So we turned 'round and faced our fate, hung over but alive
On that morning, Oklahoma, late April, '95