California Snow chords by Dave Alvin

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)