Ruby And Carlos
James McMurtry

capo 2         D/F#=> 200233 
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Ruby said "You're gettin' us in a world of hurt,  Down below the Mason-Dumbass line the food gets worse.
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I can't go back to Tennessee that NASCAR country's not for me, Go on...if you think you must."

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Carlos packed his drums up in the dark of night, Ruby's standing just outside the front porch light
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Chain-smoking Camel straights the sky off to the east got gray, And he rolled off in a cloud of dust.

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And the gray colt knickered at the gate,  She said "You're right it's getting late.
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You and me got work to do, we can't be burning daylight too."
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She took down the long lead rope, and stayed off that slippery slope

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The aspen trees were turning gold up top,  The talk was buzzin 'round the beauty shop
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"Wasn't he barely half her age?,  Well that's just how they do now days
Em                            F#
We should all had been so lucky."

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By spring she'd had the run of the free born men, Ruby turned 50 in a sheep camp tent
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Her body still could rock all night, but her heart was closed and locked up tight
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Potato fields all muddy and brown, the gossip long since quieted down

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And after one more Coggins test, Pouring coffee for the county vet
Em                              F#
Pictures on the ice box door, of Carlos in the first Gulf War
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Black-eyed brown and youthful face, smiling back from a Saudi base

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And then Carlos on the big bay mare, Heavier now and longer hair
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Looking past the saddle shed, From way on back inside his head

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And the old vet said, "One day, Rube, that colt will break an egg in you
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Now and then one comes along you just can't ride." And he went on home.

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And the storm door didn't catch, It blew back hard as she struck a match
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But she cupped it just in time…….  And she sent that ash tray 

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And holding back the flood, Just don't do no good
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You can't unclench your teeth, To howl the way you should
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So you curl your lips around, The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound
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That no one owns but you, No one owns but you

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Carlos took the road gig and he saw it through, He rode the tour bus while the singer flew
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Managed out of music row, Carlos never saw the studio, Session guys had that all sewn up.

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He looks out the window and it starts to sleet, Laying on a friend's couch on Nevada Street
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Lately he's been staying high, Sick all winter and they don't know why
 Em                                                   F#
They don't know why or they just won't say, They don't talk much down at the V.A.

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And Ruby's in his thoughts sometimes, What thoughts can get out past the wine
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He feels her fingers on his brow, And right then he misses how
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She looked in that gray morning light, She never shaved like they all do now
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He sees it all behind his eyes, and his hands go searching but they come up dry

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And half way in that wakin' dream, Carlos lets the land line ring
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He never guessed it was Ruby calling, The pin in her hip from the gray colt falling
Em                           F#
Figure eight in a lazy lope, Stumbled on that slippery slope


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And holding back the flood, Just don't do no good
Cadd9          F#               G \ F# \ Em
You can't unclench your teeth, To howl the way you should
Cadd9          F#             G \ F# \ Em
So you curl your lips around, The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound
Cadd9                        F#
That no one owns but you, No one owns but you