The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia

I agree completely with Dragix except for one thing.. he or she probably just left out... I think the judge was so unfair because he too slept with the cheating wife..

I do say this is quite a sad very possible stroy. Very meaningful

A lyrical and fictional story told in a young woman's point of view.

On his way back to his hometown Georgia from Candletop, a newly-wed man meets his best friend Andy Wo-Lo at Web's Bar. Andy sits him down to deliver the bad news that his new bride has been cheating on him with Seth Amos. Naturally, the guy starts showing signs of violent rage, even before Andy adds his confession that he himself has also slept with his best friend's woman.

Andy and the betrayed groom leave the bar and their friendship behind. The cheating bride is nowhere to be found. Her husband goes home to find the only thing that their (his and the narrator's) father had left them: a gun. He sets off with the intent to kill his ex-best-friend Andy.

Upon arriving at Andy's house, the man realizes that someone else (with small footprints) had already been there. Andy was already dead. The Georgia patrol had been around that area earlier and fired a random shot when he heard a disturbance.

The Mystery: Who killed Andy?

The judge dismisses a quick trial where he finds the narrator's older brother (newlywed groom) guilty of Andy's murder, even though he was innocent. The town hung an innocent man. No lawyer could have saved him; the judge was unfair during the trial. The traitorous wife was also murdered, except her body was never found.

It was the narrator, his sister, who murdered her brother's best friend and her brother's wife.

Quite poetic, if you ask me.

I too agree with Dragix, except one thing - the brother fired the shot to flag down the patrol in the area. When the sheriff got there, he grabbed the brother as the killer, since he'd heard the shot.

And, yeah, awesome story/song. Everything a great country song should be.

youtube.com/watch

I like this song. It tells a story.

AMAZING SONG!!!!!

Believe it or not, this song was originally sung by Vicky Lawrence (costar of 'The Carol Burnett Show').

Another of my top 5 favorite Reba songs... love the song AND video.

Little sister don't like it when people mess with her family. so she takes matters into her own hands...kills her big brothers cheatin wife and his buddy who stabbed in the back. great story =]

This is about the song's lyrics as well as Reba's video version. The sister's story is full of inconsistencies. 1)murder trial's even back then were allways a trial by jury so the judge could not hand down a guilty verdict prejudice or no prejudice because of his relationship with Raymond's wife. In Reba's version in the video the sister confesses to be the killer and that Raymond pleadeed guilty. If his plea was in fact a guilty one then in front of a jury he would have had to plead guilty and then the judge, if he accepts it, would tell the jury to deliver a verdict of guilty, and the 'backwoods southern lawyer' could not be called incompetent for allowing his client to plead guilty if he refused advice to plead not guilty. 2) After leaving the bar after Raymond Andy would have had to reach home meet and have sex with Raymond's wife, the sister would have then found them together, shot and killed them and get rid of the body and then come back to finish the job, all in the time it would take Raymond who left the bar first to get home, get a gun and take a short cut to Andy's house. how plausibile is this especially since Andy obviously knows that Raymond knows about the affair. 3) how do they even know that the wife is dead since in the song and the video the sister admits to killing her and getting rid of the body which no one has found. Raymond assumed that she left town, he does not even know that she is dead, so how could the judge's relationship with the wife affect his judicial decision when the only victim they have is Andy who never even mentions that the judge was also sleeping with the wife, I doubt the judge is Sam Amos. 4) Raymond plead guilty to save his sister so he knew that she was the one who made the foot prints (this is where the video differed from the lyrics, but to say she did not have time to tell Raymond that they were her foot prints they would not have allowed her to see him at any time after he was arrested.) Ther was absolutely nothing stopping her from confessing to the murders in the video since he would not be convicted immediately upon arrest. And what does trusting the lawyer have to do with the judge being guilty of adultery, there is no mention that the lawyer even did anything wrong. She should blame the hanging death of her innocent brother where it belongs, and that is upon herself, she was the only criminally guilty party and did absolutely nothing to prevent her brother's death. That is just my take on the song. Any comment on my comment is welcomed whether good or bad. P.S. Andy left the bar feeling so scared for himself because of what he told Raymond yet still went home to put some loving on the wife, get real.

Ok for those who don't understand why amos was not killed it was her fiance or husband. It is explained in the music video look it up on you tube