[Verse 1]
Sis Draper had a guitar player
Named Kentucky Sue
And everywhere old Sis played
Sue was picking too

[Verse 2]
They worked their way from town to town
Fiddled their way out west
And every place she blew through
They said she was the best

[Refrain]
They played the dances, played the bars
Beneath the western stars
Sis was getting on in years
She lived it pretty hard
Burned both ends of the candle
And broke many a heart

[Verse 3]
Now out in old New Mexico
A snowstorm coming on
They thought they'd just wait it out
And play the El Patron
[Verse 4]
Now some old gal with coal black eyes
Was in a jealous tiff
She was quite sure her old man
Was slipping 'round with Sis

[Refrain]
She was a waitress at the El Patron
Out on the edge of town
She poisoned Sis' whiskey
And Sis just drank it down
Sis started feeling poorly
So she laid her fiddle down

[Verse 5]
Out behind the El Patron
They dug a shallow grave
Laid her down beneath that ground
Her fiddle in her coffin case
Her fiddle in her coffin case

[Verse 6]
Kentucky Sue played Shady Grove
On her old beat-up guitar
Tears running down her face
She took it pretty hard
[Refrain]
Now somewhere in the distance
You could hear the mission bells
Some folks go to Heaven
Some folks go to Hell
Sis Draper went to Arkansas
And that's all there is to tell