Dead Man's Hand (words & music by Roy Evan Burstiner)
Way past midnite at the Holy Oak bar and it seems the poker game’s going on and on
Bronco Bill held out all his cards with a big grin that never would end
The Colorado Kid with a scar on his cheek stared down Bronco man to man
The Kid shot him dead thru the whiskey stained cards in the night of the dead man’s hand
Well all hell broke loose among the Bronco’s gang,
and they drew out all of their guns
And the kid he sprang in a hail of bullets as he made a dash out on the run,
Well he jumped on his horse and he raced out of town, and he headed for the dark of the land,
And the Bronco gang road out after him in the night of the dead man’s hand
Well they chased him thru the midnight moon,
but they didn’t seem to close their ground
Cause the kid had a horse whose name was Lightnin’
was the fastest mare ever around
Well they yelled and hollored and they fired the guns
as they bounded thru the frontier land
With a hanging rope at their beckon call in the night of the dead man’s hand
The kid was laughing all the way out of town, as the gang chased him all through the night
They swore they’d kill him and they’d get their revenge,
As they raced him out in the moonlight
The story they say is the kid got away, and another said they shot him down
A few folk claimed that he lived to be quite old in a sleepy little Mexican town
And in the heat of the night if you look real hard you can see him riding thru the badlands
Cause he’s always running from the Bronco’s gang in the night of the dead man’s hand
Now I’m sitting in a bar some 60 years have passed,
There’s an old man sitting at the end.
And I buy him a whiskey, and I ask him if he’s heard of the legend of the Colorado Kid,
Well he smiled at me with that scar on his cheek and he grabs my arm and shakes my hand
He says, “I’ll tell you a tale from the days of old, ‘bout that night of the dead man’s hand.