🎶 [Verse 1]

There is a town past Baton Rouge

Where the shadows speak in tongues

And I was just a preacher’s son

'Til I loaded up my gun

My mama warned me soft and low

"Don't chase no woman’s flame"

But I followed one with ruby eyes

And burned in her sweet name

🎶 [Chorus]

Oh mother, tell the children

Don’t walk where devils roam

There’s ghosts that cry in Jericho

And none of them come home

🎶 [Verse 2]

She danced behind a curtain veil

In a room of smoke and sin

She kissed me like a curse at night

And tore my soul within

I gambled more than just my pay

I bet my name and fate

Now every time the church bells ring

They toll a second late

🎶 [Chorus]

Oh mother, tell the children

Don’t walk where devils roam

There’s ghosts that cry in Jericho

And none of them come home

🎶 [Bridge – Guitar solo in minor blues scale, organ swells]

🎶 [Verse 3]

I sleep beneath the cypress trees

Where the wind still hums her song

And I’ll be there 'til judgment day

Just pray they don’t stay long

🎶 [Final Chorus]

Oh mother, tell the children

Don’t chase a woman’s moan

There’s ghosts that cry in Jericho

And I became one of their own