Five Brothers

(album: More Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs - 1960)

Five brothers who left Arkansas
Set out to find the gambler
Who murdered their pa
Five brothers and three in their teens
Gotta find the man
Who killed their pa in New Orleans

They heard of him in Houston
And his trail was leading west
He'd left there many months ago
And so they couldn't rest
Five brothers and three in their teens
Gotta find the man
Who killed their pa in New Orleans
New Orleans

The sun was hot as fire
And the nights were cold as steel
Hate was strong and youth was wild
And so they couldn't feel
Five brothers and three in their teens
Gotta find the man
Who killed their pa in New Orleans

His trail led to the Badlands
And the desert promised death
The gambler's odds were different now
He treasured every breath
Five brothers and three in their teens
Close behind the man
Who killed their pa in New Orleans
New Orleans

When first they saw the killer
He was by the waterhole
Five rifles rang out through the night
They killed the gambler cold
Five brothers and three in their teens
Finally got the man
Who killed their pa in New Orleans

The desert is their keeper now
For this a traveler said
That poison lived within the hole
Now six of them are dead
Five brothers and three in their teens
Lay beside the man
Who killed their pa in New Orleans
Lay beside the man
Who killed their pa in New Orleans