Standard (EADGBE)

My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back in his younger days

Prohibition was the talk, but the rich folks walked to the woods where my Daddy stayed

Jugs and jars from shiners, these old boys here, they ain't miners

They came from the twenty-niners

It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face

Back in the thirties when the dust bowl dried

And the woods in Alabama didn't see no light

My Daddy played poker by a hard wood fire

Squeezing all his luck from a hot copper wire

Scrap like a wildcat fights till the end

Trap a wildcat and take his skin

Deal from the bottom, put the ace in the hole

One hand on the jug but you never do know

Son come running

You better come quick

This rotgut moonshine is making me sick

Your Mama called the law and they're gonna take me away

Down so far even the Devil won't stay

Where I call to the Lord with all my soul

I can hear him rattling the chains on the door

He couldn't get in I could see he tried

Through the shadows of the cage around the forty watt light

Daddy tell me another story

Tell me about the lows and the highs

Tell me how to tell the difference between what they tell me is the truth or a lie

Tell me why the ones who have so much make the ones who don't go mad

With the same skin stretched over their white bones and the same jug in their hand

My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back when the world was gray

Before black and white went and chose up sides and gave a little bit of both their way

The only blood that's any cleaner is the blood that's blue or greener

Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away

Lyrics by Mike Cooley and Ed Cooley (based on a poem by Ed Cooley) / Music by Drive-By Truckers

Shonna Tucker

TORNADOES

Make an E chord, then move it up to the B and A position as listed below:

variation

-0

-0

-8

-9

-9

-0

variation

-0

-0

-6

-7

-7

-0

E Clouds started forming, B 5:00 PM.

A Funnel clouds touched down 5 miles E north of Russellville...

repeat through verse...

the other part for the "pieces of that truckstop" part is something like this:

THE DAY JOHN HENRY DIED

I watched the rain; it settled in. We disappeared for days again.

Most of us were staying in, lazy like the sky.

The letters flew across the wire filtered through a million liars.

The whole world smelled like burning tires the day John Henry died.

We knew about that big machine that ran on human hope and steam.

Bets on John were far between and mostly on the side.

We heard he put up quite a fight. His hands and feet turned snowy white.

That hammer rang out through the night the day John Henry died.

When John Henry was a little bitty baby

nobody ever taught him how to read

but he knew the perfect way to hold a hammer

was the way the railroad baron held the deed.

It didn't matter if he won, if he lived, or if he'd run.

They changed the way his job was done. Labor costs were high.

That new machine was cheap as hell and only John would work as well,

so they left him laying where he fell the day John Henry died.

John Henry was a steel-driving bastard but John Henry was a bastard just the same.

An engine never thinks about his daddy and an engine never needs to write its name.

So pack your bags, we're headed west and L.A. ain't no place to rest.

You'll need some sleep to pass the test, so get some on the flight

and say your prayers John Henry Ford 'cause we don't need your work no more.

You should have known the final score the day John Henry died.

PUTTIN' PEOPLE ON THE MOON

I found this one on allcountrytabs, but I didn't see an author. If you need credit for

please let us know.

Mary Alice had a baby and he looked just like I did

We got married on a Monday and I been working ever since

Every week down at the Ford Plant but now they say they're shutting down

God Damned Reagan in the White House and no one there gives a damn

Double Digit unemployment, TVA be shutting soon

While over there in Huntsville, They puttin' people on the moon

So I took to runnin' numbers for this man I used to know

And I sell a few narcotics and I sell a little blow

I ain't getting rich now but I'm gettin' more than by

Ain’t it tough to make a living but a man just got to try

If I died in Colbert County, Would it make the evening news?

They too busy blowin' rockets, Puttin' people on the moon

Mary Alice quit askin' why I do the things I do

I ain't sayin' that she likes it, but what else I'm gonna do?

If I could solve the world's problems,

Probably start with hers and mine

But they can put a man on the moon

And I'm stuck down here just scraping by

Mary Alice got cancer just like everybody here

Seems everyone I know is gettin' cancer every year

And we can't afford no insurance, I been 10 years unemployed

So she didn't get no chemo so our lives was destroyed

And nothin' ever changes, the cemetery gets more full

And over there in Huntsville, even NASA's shut down too

Another Joker in the White House, said a change was comin' round

But I'm workin' at The Wal Mart and Mary Alice, in the ground

And all them politicians, they’re all lyin' sacks of ****

They say better days upon us but it’s sucking left hind tit

And the preacher on the TV says it ain't too late for me

But I bet he drives a Cadillac and I'm broke with some hungry mouths to feed

2X

And I wish I'z still an outlaw, was a better way of life

I could clothe and feed my family

Still have time to love my pretty wife

And if you say I'm being punished. Ain’t got better things to do?

Turnin' mountains into oceans Puttin' people on the moon

Turnin' mountains into oceans Puttin' people on moon OUT over D slide to Emhe moon

Dump Music (BMI)

Piano - David Barbe

CARL PERKINS' CADILLAC

Notes: I'm not sure of the names of some of these chords, but I can correct them if I'm wrong.

The F#/G thing is the chord when you move your finger to the 2nd fret of the low E

while

playing .

Same thing with the B/C. The C chord is the one that you make while pressing the 3rd

of

the high E and B strings...

Also, this song is tuned down a whole step, as are most of their songs...

Life ain't nothin' but a blendin' up all the ups and downs

Damn it, Elvis, don't you know?

You made your mama so proud.

Before you ever made that record, before there ever was a Sun

Before you ever lost that Cadillac, the Carl Perkins one.

Mr. Phillips found ol' Johnny Cash when he was high

high before he ever took those pills

and he's still too proud to die.

Mr. Phillips never said anything behind nobody's back

like damn it Elvis, don't he know?

He ain't no Johnny Cash

Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call sir

I just wish Mr. Phillips did all of y'all, bout as good as you deserved

He did just what he said he's gonna do

and the money came in sacks.

New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac

I got friends in Nashville, or at least they're folks I know

Nashville is where you go to see if what they said is so

Carl drove his brand new Cadillac to Nashville and he went downtown

This time they promised him a Grammy

He turned his Cadillac around

Mr. Phillips never blew enough hot air to need a little gold plated paperweight

He promised him a Cadillac and put the wind in Carl's face

He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks

New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac

Dammit Elvis, I swear son I think it's time you came around

Making money you can't spend ain't what being dead's about

You gave me all but one good reason not to do all the things you did

Now Cadillacs are fiberglass, if you were me you'd call it quits

12 String Electric Hagstrom Guitar - Jason Isbell

THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA

(I think I found this one on panicfreaks.org. If you need credit for it, please let us know.

Not sure if I am calling these Em chords by the right name so here is how I finger them,

to high: Em/G- 020033 E/Bm7- 020032

[/] 2X

George A. was at the [E/Bm7] movies in December '4 1

They announced it in the [E/Bm7] lobby what had just gone on

He drove up from [E/Bm7] Birmingham back to the family's farm

Thought he' get him de[/]ferment

There was much work to be done

He was a family man, [E/Bm7] even in those days

But Uncle Sam de[E/Bm7]cided he was needed any way

In the South Pa[E/Bm7]cific over half a world away

He believed in God and [E/Bm7] Country, things was just that way

Just that way -

When I was just a kid I spent every weekend

On the farm that he grew up on so I guess so did I

And we'd stay up watching movies on the black and white TV

We watched "The Sands of Iwo Jima" starring John Wayne

[/] 2X

Every year in [/] June George .

goes to reunion

Of the men that he [E/Bm7] served with

And their wives and kids and grandkids

My Great Uncle used to [E/Bm7] take me and I'd watch them recollect

about some things I [E/Bm7] couldn't comprehend

And I thought about that movie, asked if it was that way

He just shook his head and smiled at me in such a loving way

As he thought about some friends he will never see again

He said "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima"

[/] 4X

Most of those men are [E/Bm7] gone now but he goes still every year

And George A's still doing [E/Bm7] fine, especially for his years

He's still living on that [E/Bm7] homestead

in the house that he was born in

And I sure wish I could [E/Bm7] go see him today

He never drove a new car though he could easily afford it

He'd just buy one for the family and take what ever no one wanted

He said a shiny car didn't mean much after all the things he'd seen

George A. never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima repeat 1X

Banjos - Mike Cooley / Fender Rhodes - David Barbe / Harmonica - Mike Cooley

DANKO / MANUEL

Let the night air cool you off.

Tilt your head back and try to cough.

Don't say nothing 'bout the things you never saw.

Let the night air cool you off.

I ain't living like I should.

A little rest might do me good.

Got to sinking in the place where I once stood.

Now I ain't living like I should.

Can you hear that singing? Sounds like gold.

Maybe I can only hear it in my head.

Fifteen years ago we owned that road

now it's rolling over us instead.

Richard Manuel is dead.

God forbid you call their bluff.

Like the nightmares ain't enough.

Remember when we used to think that we were tough?

God forbid you call their bluff.

First they make you out to be

the only pirate on the sea.

Then they say Danko would have sounded just like me.

"Is that the man you want to be?"

Can you hear that song? It sounds like gold.

Maybe I could make it bigger overseas.

Fifteen years ago we owned this road

now it only gives us somewhere else to leave.

Something else you can't believe.

Can you hear that singing? Sounds like gold.

Maybe I can hear poor Richard from the grave

singin' where to reap and when to sow

when you've found another home you have to leave.

Something else you can't believe.

Mellophones and Fender Rhodes - Jason Isbell

BOYS FROM ALABAMA

(chords submitted by William Montgomery)

Intro –

Well, they caught you smoking grass and the judge threw the book

I can see a little opportunism in your look

You can take it from me, boy

You can take it from a crook

I got friends on the inside and friends on the outside

They'll sneak up beside you so keep on their good side

I can see you standing there, staring down at your shoes

Thinking about your Mom and Dad and wondering what to do

Well you best look inside yourself, boy, we're all watching you

We got friends in jail who will see you through

Boy, don't forget, no matter what you do

Don't piss off the Boys from Alabama

You know they won't let it slide

They might find your body in the Tennessee River

or they might not find you at all

There'll be no place to run and hide

and your family ain't safe at all

Don't piss off the Boys from Alabama

We're keeping an eye on you

Keeping an eye on you

Don't piss off the Boys from Alabama

Better take it like a man

Ain't nobody gonna stick anything up your ass

If you remember who your friends are

We got good help down in Franklin County

They'll hunt you like a dog

You can take your fall or lose it all

The choice is up to you

(to outro) walk up to (, , ,

)

I wouldn't piss off the Boys from Alabama if I was you

Wurlitzer - Jason Isbell / B3 - David Barbe / Banjo - Mike Cooley / Auto Parts - The

Line Chain Gang

COTTONSEED

(Thanks to Alec Riedl for sending this one).

Tune down full step and drop E string to C

Intro

Dm C Dm hammer the high e (actually d) string for accents

throughout

I came to tell my story to all these young and eager minds

To look in their unspoiled faces and their curious bright eyes

Stories of corruption, crime and killing, yes it's true

Greed and fixed elections, guns and drugs and whores and booze

It's been a while since I put on a suit of my own clothes

And even longer since I cast my shadow on a church house door

They say every sin is deadly but I believe they may be wrong

I'm guilty of all seven and I don't feel too bad at all

I used to have a wad of hundred dollar bills in the back pocket of my

suit

I had a .45 underneath my coat and another one in my boot

I drove a big ole Cadillac, bought a new one anytime I pleased

And I put more lawmen in the ground than Alabama put cottonseed

I spent a few years on vacation, sanctioned by the state I mentioned

But a man like me don't do no time too hard to come back from

The meanest of the mean, I see you lock away and toss the key

But they're all just loud mouth punks to me, I've scraped meaner off

my shoe

Somewhere, I ain't saying, there's a hole that holds a judge

The last one that I dug myself

And I must admit I was sad to lay him in it, but I did the best I

could

Once his Honor grows a conscience, well folks, that there just ain't

no good

There's a pretty girl out there said "Daddy, you stay cool tonight

All I need from you is to come home and be here by my side

Say what you gotta say to shut their Bibles and their mouths

If they was to tie a noose, they'd have to lay their Bibles down"

I ain't here to save no souls and even if I could

I could never save enough to put back half the ones I took

So if they rest in torment you can't say it's cause of me

They'd long been bought and paid for like that fool's in Tennessee

THE BUFORD STICK (The Legend of Sheriff Buford Pusser)

Play this 3x, then add C and G chords at the end.

(C and G chords are repeated right before the verse).

Now Sheriff Buford Pusser's gotten too big for his britches

With his book reviews and movie deals

Down at the car lot making public appearances

For breaking up our homes and stills

I know he likes to brag how he wrestled a bear

But I knew him from the funeral home

Ask him for a warrant, he'll say "I keep it in my shoe"

That son of a bitch has got to go

That son of a bitch has got to go

Now they lined up around the block to see that movie

And crying for his ambushed wife

Marveling about about shot eight times and stabbed seven

Some folks can't take a hint

They say he didn't take no crap from the State Line Gang

What the hell they talking bout?

I'm just a hard workingman with a family to feed

And he made my daughter cry

Said he made my daughter cry

"Watch out for Buford!" is what they keep on telling me

But to me he's just another crooked lawman up in Tennessee

He gets a new hot car to keep us on our toes

And that ridiculous stick where the press corp. goes

And some big time Hollywood actors playing him on the big screen

"Watch out for Buford! He's shutting down our stills and whores"

But it ain't like he's all that different from what was there before

It wouldn't take my man long to do the job

Just a partially sawed through steering rod

And I wouldn't have to worry about the good Sheriff anymore

Now the funeral's got'em lined up for twenty blocks

No one liked that SOB when he's alive

But the ruckus he began keeps a spreadin' like a wildfire

Not sure if I'm gonna survive

Hit an embankment doing 120 on a straight-away

The Lord works in mysterious ways

They'll probably make another movie, glorifying what he done

But I'll never have to hear them say

I'll never have to hear them say

Watch out for Buford

o221oo

32oo33

A xo22oo These variations of the chords,

D xxo23o seem to sound the best ... have FUN!

Well before I could walk, I had a wrench in my hand

I was my Mama's little angel and my Daddy's second chance

He went end over end the first year he went pro

And he lost part of his eyesight and he couldn't race no more

But he never lost his touch when he got under a hood

He knew how to make them run and he knew one day he would

See his name in victory lane and engraved on that cup

Just like all them other crazy fools with racing in their blood

He would put me on his lap when he'd drive and I'd take the wheel

He'd say "What do you think about that son? How does she feel?

You just wait till them little legs get long enough to reach the gas

Once you put her on the floor one time there ain't no turning back"

Every Saturday, he'd take me out to the garage

He'd take an empty bucket and fill it full of engine parts

He's sit me down and pour em out in front of me on the floor

I'd have to tell him what each one was and what each one was for

We'd jump in his old car and go down to the race that night

He'd tell me what each driver was doing wrong and what each one did right

He could always pick the winner before they ever took a curve

But before I turned 18 Daddy said "Now pretty soon

You'll be old enough to race but I'm gonna leave it up to you

I taught you all about it, taught you everything I know

You gotta have a car to do it and you gotta work and buy your own"

(walk down)

The first one I bought was a Mustang #2

Nobody kept'em any longer than they kept a pair of shoes

They started showing up at every used car lot in town

A V-8 on a go-cart, easy terms, no money down

Me and Daddy and my uncle took her home and we tore her down

Checked her out real good, cleaned her up and bored her out

Took out all the seats, pulled the carpet off the floor

Knocked out all the glass and welded up the doors

Well the first time that I raced my qualifying was a shame

I started out way in the back and came back about the same

I pulled her in the pit, couldn't look my Daddy in the eye

He said "If you quit now son, it's gonna haunt you all your life"

See it ain't about the money or even being #1

You gotta know when it's all over you did the best you could've done

And knowing that it's in you and you never let it out

Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have

Since then I've wrecked a bunch of cars and I've broke a bunch of bones

It's anybody's race out there and I've learned to run my own

I'd shove em in the wall and I'd hit em from behind

I'd let them know that I was there, I'd let them know that track was mine

It's been several years now since my Daddy passed away

But his picture's on my dash every time I go to race

I lost more than I won but I ain't gonna give up

Till they put me in the ground or Daddy's name's on that cup

(walk down)

NEVER GONNA CHANGE

Let this be a lesson to you girl: Don't come around where you know you don't belong.

They're riding on the avenue and probably coming after you and they all look mean and strong.

Mean and strong like liquor.

Mean and strong like fear.

Strong like the people from South Alabama and mean like the people from here.

Take it from me

We ain't never gonna change.

Daddy used to empty out his shotgun shells and fill 'em full of black-eyed peas.

He'd aim real low and tear out your ankles or rip right through your knees.

There ain't much traffic on the highway. There ain't much traffic on the lake.

The ATF and the ABI got everything they could take.

Take it from me… They didn't take it from me.

We ain't never gonna change.

We ain't doin' nothin' wrong.

We ain't never gonna change

so shut your mouth and play along.

I thought about going in the army. I thought about going overseas.

I wouldn't have trouble with a piss test; only problem is my bad left knee.

My brother got picked up at Parker's, got him a ride in a new Crown Vic.

They said that he was movin' on a federal level but they couldn't really make it stick.

Take it from me…

We ain't never gonna change.

We ain't doin' nothin' wrong.

We ain't never gonna change

so shut your mouth and play along.

You can throw me in the Colbert County jailhouse.

You can throw me off the Wilson Dam

but there ain't much difference in the man I wanna be and the man I really am.

We ain't never gonna change.

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN

This is a general idea of the main riff and stuff during the verses.

Play it with some feeling...

If I throw myself off Lookout Mountain

No more for my soul to keep

I wonder who will drive my car

I wonder if my Mom will weep

If I throw myself off Lookout Mountain

No more pain my soul to bare

No more worries about paying taxes

What to eat, what to wear

Who will end up with my records?

Who will end up with my tapes?

Who will pay my credit card bills?

Who's gonna pay for my mistakes?

Main riff repeats

[ the other chords in the instrumental break are F and G]

If I throw myself off Lookout Mountain who will ever hear my songs?

Who's gonna mow the cemetery when all of my family's gone?

Who will Mom and Daddy find to continue the family name?

Who will stand there taking credit, who will lay there passing blame?

Who will lay there passing blame?

Cat - Summer 1990.

Backing Vocals - David Barbe and Jason Isbell

GODDAMN LONELY LOVE

I got green and I got blues

Every day there’s a little less difference between the two

So I belly up and disappear

Well I ain’t really drowning cause I see the beach from here

I could take greyhound home

when I got there it’d be gone

along with everything that home is made up of

So I’ll take two of what your having

I’ll take all of what you got

to kill this goddamn lonely

goddamn lonely love

Sister listen to what your daddy says

Don’t be ashamed of things that hide behind your breast

Belly up and arch your back

Well I ain’t really fallin asleep I’m fadin to black

You can come to me by plane

but it wouldn’t be the same

as that old motel room in Texarkana was

So I’ll take two of what your having

I’ll take all of what you got

to kill this goddamn lonely

goddamn lonely love

Stop me if you heard this one before,

A man walks into a bar

And leaves before his ashes hit the floor

Stop me if I ever get that far

the suns a desperate star

that burns like every single one before

I could find another dream

one that keeps me warm and clean

but I aint dreamin any more girl I’m waking up

So I’ll take two of what your having

I’ll take everything shes got

to kill this goddamn lonely

goddamn lonely love

All I’ve got is this goddamn lonely goddamn lonely love

All I’ve got is this goddamn lonely goddamn lonely love

All I’ve got is this goddamn lonely goddamn lonely love