Dave Alvin/Tom Russell
(Blue Horn Toad Music, bmi, and Frontera Music, ascap, administered by Bug Music)
This song is normally done in A with Capo 2 so that is how I'll show it although
when I do this song I do it in C no Capo
Capo 2
Intro A D A D A D A D
A D
I'm just tryin' to make a livin'
A D
I'm an old man at thirty-nine
A D
With two kids and an ex-wife
E
Who moved up to Riverside
A D
I'm workin' down on the border
A D
Drivin' back roads every night
A D
Mountains east of El Cajon
E A
North of the Tecate line.
D E
Where the California summer sun
A D
Will burn right through your soul
A D
But in the winter you can freeze to death
E A D A D
In the California snow.
A D
I catch the ones I'm able to
A D
And watch the others slip away
A D
I know some by their faces
E
And I even know some by name
A D
I guess they think that we're all
A D
Movie stars and millionaires
A D
I guess that they still believe
E A
That dreams come true up here.
D E A D
But I bet the weather's warmer down in Mexico
A D E A D A D
And no one ever tells them 'bout the California snow.
A D
Last winter I found a man and wife
A D
Just about daybreak
A D
Layin' in a frozen ditch
E
South of the interstate
A D
I wrapped 'em both in blankets
A D
But she'd already died
A D
The next day we sent him back alone
E
Across the borderline.
A E
I don't know where they came from
A D
Or where they planned to go
A D
But we carried her all night long
E A D A D
Through the California snow.
A D
Sometimes when I'm alone out here
A D
I get to thinkin' about my life
A D
Maybe I should go to Riverside
E
And try to fix things with my wife
A D
Or maybe just get in my truck
A D
And drive as far as I can go
A D
Away from all the ghosts that haunt
E A
The California snow.
D E
Where the California summer sun
A D
Can burn right to your soul
A D
And in the winter you can freeze to death
E A D A D
In the California snow.
A D
And in the winter you can freeze to death
E A D A D A D A D (end on A)
In the California snow.
