Hills of Roan Country
In the beautiful hills, way back in Roan Country There's where I roamed for many long years There's where my heart's been tending most ever That's where the first step of misfortune I made I was thirty years old when I courted and married When Armanda Gilbreath was then called my wife Her brother stabbed me for some unknown reason Just three months later I'd taken Tom's life For twenty five years this whole world I rambled I went to old England to France and to Spain And I thought of my home way back in Roan Country I boarded a steamer and came back again I was captured and tried in the village of Kingston Not a man in the country would speak a kind word When the jury came in with the verdict next morning A lifetime in prison was the word that I heard When the train pulled out, poor mother stood weepin And sister she sat, alone with a sing And the last words I heard was, Willie God bless you Was Will God bless you, God bless you, good bye Sweet Martha was buried but corey was better There's better and worse, although you can see Boys when you write home form the prison in Nashville Place one of my songs in your letter for me