Redemption Rails Lyrics and Music by Duane Hultin


Billy's still drunk its the middle of the night
He grows tired of riding the rails
With the spirits bottle low and the moon rising high
he's paying hard for jumping bail

I stare out the window past curtains all torn
past the broken down ford he left parked on the lawn
our dream died that day as the summer slipped away
with a shot on a mean august night

But we'll both feel the cold and the hard driving rain
we'll both sleep hoping for old lives again
but he should have been thinkin
when he fired that gun
now i'm haunting the rail lines
and i'm all alone

Through town after town the stories stay the same
a bloodied pool stick and the sheriff takin names
sure i saw him he was just an angry young man
flying low through the door with a pistol in his hand

The telephone rings and i wake up with a scream
the baby starts cryin someone make this all a dream
but these scenes are for real and the bills keep piling high
why'd you have to pull that trigger?
tell me why! tell me why!


On some starlit nights when i'm out here all alone
with my head pounding hard and my hands freezing cold
I pray the end will come soon and redemption comes for me
a scared and lonely life thats the way it has to be

Billy Jr's graduation twenty years have slipped away
and all the tears have gone away too
but from the back of my mind i'm thinking
is he the same kind?
so i keep looking for his father in Billy's eyes