Across the border they turn water into wine
Some say it's the devil's blood
They're squeezing from the vines
Some say it's a saviour
In these hard and desperate times
You see it helps me to forget
That we're just born to die

I came here like so many did to find a better life
To find my piece of easy street and finally be alive
I knew 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 streets are paved with gold
They say the oil wells ran deeper here
Than anybody's known
So I packed up on my wife and kids
And left the folks back home
See, there's nothing in this paydirt
The ghosts are all I know

Now the oil's gone, and the money's gone
All the jobs are gone, still we're hanging on

Chorus:

Down in dry county, we're swimming in the sand
Praying for some holy water
To wash these sins from off our hands
In dry county, where 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 were all God's children
And he'd be back, back someday
I hope that he knew something as
He drank that cup of wine
Cause I didn't have to good a feeling
As I headed out to the night

I curse the skies to open, beg the clouds for rain
Prayed all night for water
To cure this burning in my veins (everynight)
It was like my soul's on fire
And I have to watch the flames
As my dreams went up in ashes
And my future blew away

Now the oil's gone, and the money's gone
All the jobs are gone, still we're hanging on

Chorus

A man spends his whole life waiting, praying
For some big reward
And it seems sometimes that pay-off
Leaves him feeling like a dirty whore
If I can choose the way I die
Make it by the gun or knife
Cause the other way there's too much pain
Night after night after night after night

Chorus