The Border chords by Willie Nelson

Chords with lyrics

• Difficulty: Beginner

Key: A minorAm

🎸 Intro:

A minorAm  N.C.


🎸 Verse 1:
         A minorAm
I work on the border
A minorAm
I see what I see
         G+G
I work on the border
          A minorAm
And it’s working on me

🎸 Verse 2:
A minorAm
I lie awake at night
A minorAm
Knowing what I know
           G+G
There’s a price on my head
           A minorAm
Of every border patrol


🎸 Verse 3:
A minorAm
Where the smugglers do business
A minorAm
That’s where I make a stand
         G+G
I know this old desert
            A minorAm
Like the back of my hand


🎸 Verse 4:
A minorAm
I see greed in the bushes
A minorAm
I see snakes in the dark
             G+G
Some are friends of my brothers
              A minorAm
Can’t you hear them dogs bark

🎸 Chorus:
        FF
I come home to Maria
         C majorC
At the end of the day
           FF
In thе shape of a shadow
         G+G
Holding demons at bay
             A minorAm
‘It’s just a border’ thеy say


🎸 Verse 5:
A minorAm
It was Mexican soldiers
A minorAm
Out of a black Humvee
               G+G
With their guns to their shoulders
             A minorAm
Aimed at my partner and me


🎸 Verse 6:
A minorAm
As they drove away laughing
A minorAm
But the message was clear
           G+G
We don’t care about nothing
           A minorAm
But the money down here


🎸 Chorus:
        FF
I come home to Maria
         C majorC
In a bulletproof vest
               FF
With the weight of the whole wide world
          G+G
Barring down on my chest
           A minorAm
It’s just a border I guess


🎸 Bridge:
     E minorEm       A minorAm
From the shacks and the shantys
E minorEm         A minorAm
Come the hungry and poor
E minorEm           A minorAm
Some to drown at the crosses
FF
Some to suffer no more


🎸 Verse 7:
              A minorAm
Guess you heard about Campos
A minorAm
and Ramien
       G+G
Both of them friends of mine
     A minorAm
Both good men


🎸 Verse 8:
A minorAm
They did one thing right
A minorAm
And look what they got
      G+G
Federal prison
              A minorAm
Where they’re both going to rot


🎸 Chorus:
        FF
I come home to Maria
          G+G
Where else would I go
          FF
Cross the River to die by myself
        G+G
Down In old Mexico
             A minorAm
It’s just the border y’know


🎸 Outro:
A minorAm  G+G  A minorAm  G+G  A minorAm
G+G  A minorAm

The Border chords

“The Border” is a track from Willie Nelson’s 75th solo studio album. The song, written by Rodney Crowell and Allen Shamblin, tells the story of a border worker who is exhausted by his job and what he sees, feeling hopeless about many things as a result of that daily grind.