California Snow chords by Dave Alvin

Chords with lyrics

Dave Alvin/Tom Russell
(Blue Horn Toad Music, bmi, and Frontera Music, ascap, administered by Bug Music)
This song is normally done in A augmentedA with Capo 2 so that is how I'll show it although
when I do this song I do it in C majorC no Capo

Capo 2

Intro A augmentedA D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD

     A augmentedA        D MajorD
I'm just tryin' to make a livin'
    A augmentedA         D MajorD
I'm an old man at thirty-nine
   A augmentedA        D MajorD
With two kids and an ex-wife
  E MajorE
Who moved up to Riverside
  A augmentedA          D MajorD
I'm workin' down on the border
    A augmentedA        D MajorD
Drivin' back roads every night
A augmentedA         D MajorD
Mountains east of El Cajon
E MajorE          A augmentedA
North of the Tecate line.
     D MajorD     E MajorE
Where the California summer sun
   A augmentedA            D MajorD
Will burn right through your soul
  A augmentedA           D MajorD
But in the winter you can freeze to death
    E MajorE     A augmentedA   D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD
In the California snow.

A augmentedA          D MajorD
I catch the ones I'm able to
       A augmentedA      D MajorD
And watch the others slip away
A augmentedA          D MajorD
I know some by their faces
   E MajorE
And I even know some by name
 A augmentedA           D MajorD
I guess they think that we're all
    A augmentedA        D MajorD
Movie stars and millionaires
 A augmentedA        D MajorD
I guess that they still believe
   E MajorE          A augmentedA
That dreams come true up here.

   D MajorD         E MajorE    A augmentedA     D MajorD
But I bet the weather's warmer down in Mexico
A augmentedA        D MajorD          E MajorE     A augmentedA   D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD
And no one ever tells them 'bout the California snow.

A augmentedA           D MajorD
Last winter I found a man and wife
A augmentedA       D MajorD
Just about daybreak
A augmentedA      D MajorD
Layin' in a frozen ditch
E MajorE
South of the interstate
A augmentedA           D MajorD
I wrapped 'em both in blankets
  A augmentedA       D MajorD
But she'd already died
  A augmentedA          D MajorD
The next day we sent him back alone
E MajorE
Across the borderline.

 A augmentedA           E MajorE
I don't know where they came from
  A augmentedA           D MajorD
Or where they planned to go
A augmentedA         D MajorD
But we carried her all night long
      E MajorE     A augmentedA   D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD
Through the California snow.

A augmentedA         D MajorD
Sometimes when I'm alone out here
     A augmentedA         D MajorD
I get to thinkin' about my life
A augmentedA          D MajorD
Maybe I should go to Riverside
      E MajorE
And try to fix things with my wife
  A augmentedA         D MajorD
Or maybe just get in my truck
       A augmentedA      D MajorD
And drive as far as I can go
A augmentedA         D MajorD
Away from all the ghosts that haunt
  E MajorE     A augmentedA
The California snow.

     D MajorD     E MajorE
Where the California summer sun
  A augmentedA         D MajorD
Can burn right to your soul
A augmentedA             D MajorD
And in the winter you can freeze to death
    E MajorE     A augmentedA   D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD
In the California snow.

A augmentedA             D MajorD
And in the winter you can freeze to death
    E MajorE     A augmentedA   D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD A augmentedA D MajorD (end on A augmentedA)