Across the border they turn

Water into wine

Some say it’s the devil’s blood

They’re squeezing from the vine

Some say it’s a saviour

In these hard and desperate times

For me it helps me to forget

That we’re just born to die



I came here like so many did

To find the better life

To find my piece of easy street

To finally be alive

And I know nothing good comes easy

All good things take some time

I made my bed I lie in it

To die in it’s the crime



You can’t help but prosper

When the street are paved with gold

They say the oil wells ran deeper here

Than anybody’s known

I packed up on my wife and kid

And left them back at home

Now there’s nothing in this paydirt

The ghost are all I know



Now the oil’s gone

The money’s gone

And the jobs are gone

Still we’re hangin’ on



Down in dry county

They’re swimming in the sand

Praying for some holy water

To wash the sins from off our hands

Here in dry county

The promise has run dry

Where nobody cries

And no one’s getting out of here alive



In the blessed name of Jesus

I heard a preacher say

That we are God’s children

And that he’d be back someday

And I hoped that he knew

Something as he drank his cup of wine

I didn’t have too good of a feeling

As I head out to the night



I cursed the sky to open

I begged the clouds for rain

I prayed to God for water

For this burning in my veins

It was like my soul’s on fire

And I had to watch the flames

All my dreams went up in ashes

And my future blew away



Now the oil’s gone

The money’s gone

And the jobs are gone

Still we’re hangin’ on



Down in dry county

They’re swimming in the sand

Praying for some holy water

To wash the sins from off our hands

Here in dry county

The promise has run dry

Where nobody cries

And no one’s getting out of here alive



Men spend their whole lives

Waiting praying for their big reward

But it seems sometimes

The payoff leaves you feeling

Like a dirty whore

If I could choose the way I’ll die

Make it by the gun or knife

‘Couse the other way there’s too much pain

night after night after night…



Down in dry county

They’re swimming in the sand

Praying for some holy water

To wash the sins from off our hands

Here in dry county

The promise has run dry

Where nobody cries

And no one’s getting out of here alive