The Field Behind the Plow

A.K.A. Field Behind the Plow
By Stan Rogers
Rise Up Singing chapter: Farm and Prairie
Chords:
I'll have to complete this tomorrow, since I'm on the road today (visiting the Monterey Aquarium and then driving down to Santa Barbara, if you were curious).

Ok, here we go:
Verses: G - DC G / C D Am D / G - DC G / Am D G -
Bridges: D - / C - G / - D - / - - / C - G / - D - C -

Watch the field behind the plow turn to straight, dark rows
Feel the trickle in your clothes, blow the dust cake from your nose
Hear the tractor's steady roar, oh you can't stop now
There's a quarter section more or less to go

And it figures that the rain keeps its own sweet time
You can watch it come for miles, but you guess you've got a while
So ease the throttle out a hair, every rod's a gain
And there's victory in every quarter mile

Bridge 1:
Poor old Kuzyk down the road
The heartache, hail and hoppers brought him down
He gave it up and went to town
And Emmet Pierce the other day
Took a heart attack and died at forty-two
You could see it coming on 'cause he worked as hard as you

In an hour, maybe more, you'll be wet clear through
The air is cooler now, pull your hat brim further down
And watch the field behind the plough turn to straight, dark rows
Put another season's promise in the ground

Bridge 2:
And if the harvest's any good
The money just might cover all the loans
You've mortgaged all you own
Buy the kids a winter coat
Take the wife back East for Christmas if you can
All summer she hangs on when you're so tied to the land

For the good times come and go, but at least there's rain
So this won't be barren ground when September rolls around
So watch the field behind the plow turn to straight, dark rows
Put another season's promise in the ground

Farewell to Tarwathie

A.K.A. Fareweel tae Tarwaithie

The Scotsman who wrote this was George Scroggie, but he was only responsible for these words in poem form. The tune, let's say it's traditional.

D - G D / / /

Farewell to Tarwathie, adieu Mormond Hill
And the dear land of Crimond, I bid you farewell
I'm bound out for Greenland and ready to sail
In hopes to find riches in hunting the whale

Farewell to my comrades, for a while we must part
And likewise the dear lass who first won my heart
The cold coast of Greenland my love will not chill
And the longer my absence, more loving she'll feel

Our ship is well rigged and she's ready to sail
The crew they are anxious to follow the whale
Where the icebergs do fall and the stormy winds blow
Where the land and the ocean is covered with snow

The cold coast of Greenland is barren and bare
No seed-time nor harvest is ever known there
And the birds here sing sweetly in mountain and dale
But there's no bird in Greenland to sing to the whale

There is no habitation for a man to live there
And the king of that country is the fierce Greenland bear
And there'll be no temptation to tarry long there
With our ship's bumper full we will homeward repair

Billy (Bob Dylan cover)

By Bob Dylan From the movie Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

This is a song I've been playing for years, and so the lyrics have definitely morphed a little in my memory, but it should also be said that Bob Dylan himself sings several different versions of the lyrics around, so it's not like there's one right way, even for him. I've just typed them out here from memory, so I expect they'll match what I sing in the video.

There's a weird chord - let's call it C6 - but don't worry, it's not hard, and it's beautiful. Moving to it from the G chord, you keep you fingers where they are (which is the 3rd fret) on the very top and very bottom strings, and add 2nd string 1st fret with your index and 4th string 2nd fret with your middle finger. From there it's easy to move back to a G again, since your pinky and ring finger still stay where they are on the 3rd fret of the 1st and 6th strings:
C6?
E string — — X
B string X — —
G string — — —
D string — X —
A string — — —
E string — — X

G C6 G C6 / G C6 G C6 / C - G - / D C G -

There's* guns across the river aiming at you
Lawmen on your trail, they'd like to catch you
Bounty hunters too, they'd like to get you
Billy they don't like you to be so free

Staying up all night on the veranda
Playing cards till dawn in the hacienda
Up to Boot Hill they'd like to send you
Billy, don't you turn your back on me

Fooling around with some sweet señorita
Into her dark hallway she will lead you
In the shadow of the mesa she will greet you
Billy you're so far away from home

They say Pat Garrett's got your number
So sleep with one eye open when you slumber
Every little sound just might be thunder
Thunder from the barrel of his gun

So hang on to your woman if you've got one
Remember in El Paso once you shot one
Down in Santa Fe one time you bought one
Billy you've been running for so long

The businessmen from Taos want you to go down
They've hired Pat Garrett to force you to slow down
Billy don't it make you feel so lowdown
To be hunted by the man who was your friend

There's* mirrors inside the minds of crazy faces
Bullet holes and rifles in their cases
Always one more notch and four more aces
Billy and you're playing all alone

*"There are"

Pancho and Lefty (Bonus)

By Townes Van Zandt
Verse chords:
D - A - / G - D A / G - D G / Bm GA A* G Bm -
Chorus chords:
G - D G / Bm GA A* G Bm - (same chords as the last two lines of each verse)

Lyrics:
Living on the road my friend was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron and your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy, but her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye and sank into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit boys, his horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants for all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know on the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words - Ah, but that's the way it goes

All the federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him hang around out of kindness, I suppose

Now Lefty he can't sing the blues all night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south, it ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low, Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go, there ain't nobody knows

And all the federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose

The poets tell how Pancho fell and Lefty's livin' in a cheap motel
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold and so the story ends we're told
Now Pancho needs your prayers, it's true, but save a few for Lefty too
He just did what he had to do... and now he's growing old

And all the federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose

A few old grey federales say they could have had him any day
They only let him go so wrong out of kindness, I suppose

Puff the Magic Dragon Guitar Chords Lesson

For uknavynige. Thanks for asking.

Chords:
G D(Bm) C G / C G A D / G D C G / C GEm AD GD

The Bm in brackets means you play either a D or a Bm. They both sound fine.

The final D in this progression is to anticipate, or set you up for, the beginning of the next verse, so on the very last line of the whole song ("in a land called Honaleeeeee...") you should drop it: C GEm AD G

If the video isn't too helpful, try following this layout. Here's how the chorus goes:

[G]Puff the magic [D]dragon [C]lived by the [G]sea
And [C]frolicked in the [G]autumn mist in a [A]land called Hona[D]lee
[G]Puff the magic [D]dragon [C]lived by the [G]sea
And [C]frolicked in the [G]autumn [Em]mist in a [A]land called [D]Hona[G]lee...[D]

And again, in the last line of the entire song, just drop that final D, so you end on G, which is your tonic.

2 Songs on Mandolin

Oh, Mary Don't You Weep on Mandolin

This is only the first verse and chorus. Here's the full song on guitar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAukf_lh0b4
Rise Up Singing chapter: Freedom, p.63

Chords: D A / - D / G D / DA D ://

If I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood
Pharaoh's army got drownded
Oh, Mary don't you weep

Chorus:
Oh, Mary don't you weep, don't you mourn
Oh, Mary don't you weep, don't you mourn
Pharaoh's army got drownded
Oh, Mary don't you weep