American Rivers

	  		



Intro 
C 

verse 1 
              F           C    
Ain’t no more cane on the Brazos 
      F     G     C 
Yeah, yeah, yeah 
              F                C 
It’s all been ground down to molasses 
F     G     C 
Yeah, yeah, yeah 


verse 2 

I saw a red iron sunset 

From a rust iron bridge 
              F 
In the Indian country 
                   C 
Of the mockingbird kid 


verse 3 

I saw the moon in a boxcar 

Being carried as freight 
                  F 
Through sixty-two winters  
                    C 
Through forty-eight states 


verse 4 

In an old Chinese graveyard  

I slept in the weeds 
                  F 
When a song and a story  
               C 
Were all a kid needs 


Verse 5 

Hear the rhymes and the rattles  

Of those runaway trains 
                     F 
And the songs of the cowboy  
                     C 
And the sound of the rain 



And it’s, "Mom, I miss you" 

I woke up and screamed 
         F 
American rivers 
                     C 
Roll deep through my dreams 
         F               C 
It's Colorado, yeah, Allegheny 
      F           C 
Shenandoah, Susquehanny 
        Am                         G 
And the Wabash and the Hudson, the brave Rio Grande 
        F                                  C 
I was a kid there, asleep in the sandy old water 
F         C  F     C 
Yeah, old water, yeah 



Interlude 
C  Bb  C  Bb     C  


Verse 6 

We named ‘em for Indians  

Our guilt to forsake 
                 F 
The Delaware the Blackfoot  
                 C 
The Flathead the Snake 


Verse 7 

Now they roll past casinos  

And old hamburger stands 
                       F 
They’re all waving farewell  
                  C 
To the kid on the land 


Verse 8 

With their jigsawed old arteries  

So clogged and defiled 
              F 
No open heart miracle  
                       C 
Is gonna turn ’em back wild 


Verse 9 

Past towns gone to bankers  

Past fields gone to seed 
               F 
All cut up and carved out  
              C 
So divided by greed 


verse 10 

And old grandfather catfish  

With his whiskers so long 
                  F 
And his life in a struggle  
                    C 
'Cause the oxygen’s gone 




"Oh, mom, I miss you", I woke up and screamed 
               F 
These American rivers 
               C 
They poison my dreams 
         F               C 
It's Colorado, yeah, Allegheny 
      F           C 
Shenandoah, Susquehanny 
        Am                         G 
And the Wabash and the Hudson, the brave Rio Grande 
        F                                        C 
I was a kid there, I was asleep in the sandy old water 
F         C  F 
Yeah, old water, yeah 



Outro 
C  Bb  C  Bb     C