Standard (EADGBE)

Verse 1

There’s a backyard show where everybody goes

‘cause everybody knows at this masquerade

They wear strange costumes and heave water balloons

and one kid’s dressed up like a deviled egg

That’s when I say, “ What’s this? There’s something that I’ve missed

there ain’t nothing like this back in Upstate”

But “When in Louisville,” they say, “join the crazy ballet”

So with blazing waterguns I join the fray

Chorus

Yes I learned on that day what local flavor means

With a dinner made from dumpsters on Kentucky streets

You won’t learn anything tied up in restaurant chains

Why bother traveling if it all just tastes the same?

Interlude

A,D x 3 E, Repeat.

Verse 2

On the guidebook page a travel-weary sage

is sharing the best secrets from her latest trek

Then the tourists come and money builds it up and

pretty soon the place is just a wreck

But when I hit the road I want pie a la mode

from a café where they don’t wear uniforms

Where the salt of the earth season their hometown turf

with art that you can’t find in any store

Chorus

Yes I know there’s nothing new out on the interstate

And a journey’s pointless if the asphalt mediates

You won’t find anything if you’re tied with retail chains

Why bother traveling if it all just looks the same

Verse 3

( First five lines are a capella)

There’s a warehouse show out in New Mexico and

films are being screened up on a Brooklyn roof

Basement galleries in Knoxville,

Tennessee and Tallahassee games under the moon

So will you come with me to either shining sea

to cleanse the monoculture from our souls?

Then we’ll roam town to town listening for any sound

that can tell us they’re having a show

So raise a glass of your sweat to acknowledge the debt

that we owe to our most gracious hosts