The Ballad of John McCrae lyrics

[Verse 1: Carson McKee]
On the banks of the Missouri
Annie washed up in the clay
And they took her to her father
Told him it was John McCrae

Now I'm running through the badlands
Covering my tracks
Northward toward Dakota
With the devil on my back

[Chorus: McKee/Josh Turner/McKee & Turner]
Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
(To our immortal home, it flows to our home)
Oh Annie, oh my soul

[Verse 2: McKee]
Well I took her down by the stream side
For to make that girl my bride
But in the fold of her pretty white dress
Lay her father's bowie knife

Well she pulled that steel blade on me
Told me she would take my life
So I pushed her into the river
She went under with the tide
[Chorus: McKee/Turner/McKee & Turner]
Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
(To our immortal home, it flows to our home)
Oh Annie, oh my soul

[Verse 3: McKee/McKee & Turner]
Well the hound dogs they overtook me
40 miles past Harding town
And I told that young Douglas sherriff
"Boy, you'd better shoot me now."

He said "Poor Johnny, by my orders
Your life I cannot take
But I'll be smiling at your hanging
When they lay you in the grave."

[Chorus: McKee/Turner/McKee & Turner]
Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
(To our immortal home, it flows to our home)
Oh Annie, oh my soul

[Verse 4: McKee]
I am standing at the gallows
And the scaffold it is high
And the hangman asked my last words
Before I'm condemned to die
And I begged God, "Don't forgive me
For the troubles I have sown
For I'll soon see my pretty Annie
In the hell fire down below."

[Chorus: McKee/Turner/McKee & Turner]
Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
(To our immortal home, it flows to our home)
Oh Annie, oh my soul

[Outro: McKee/McKee & Turner]
Oh Annie, oh my soul
Oh Annie, oh my soul