Canol Road chords by Stan Rogers

Am       Em      G          D
Well you could see it in his eyes as they strained against the night
     Am          Em      C
And the bone-white-knuckled grip upon the road
     G       D      Em        C
Sixty-five miles into town, and a winter’s thirst to drown
   G        Am         D
A winter still with two months left to go

   Am        Em    G         D
His eyes are too far open, his grin too hard and sore
   Am       Em        C
His shoulders too far high to bring relief
     G       D    Em       C
But the Kopper King is hot, even if the band is not
     G          Am         D
And it sure beats shooting whiskey-jacks and trees

     Am         Em       G        D
Then he laughs and says “It didn’t get me this time, not tonight
   Am       Em       C
I wasn’t screaming when I hit the door.”
     G         D        Em      C
But his hands on the tabletop, will their shaking never stop
    G        Am       D
Those hands sweep the bottles to the floor

      Am         Em      G        D
Now he’s a bear in a blood-red mackinaw with hungry dogs at bay
    Am       Em       C
And springtime thunder in his sudden roar
   G         D        Em     C
With one wrong word he burns, and the table’s overturned
      G         Am        D
When he’s finished there’s a dead man on the floor

      G         Am           D
Well they watched for him in Carmacks, Haines, and Carcross
   G           Am        D
With Teslin blocked there’s nowhere else to go
    Am        Em          C
But he hit the four-wheel-drive in Johnson’s Crossing
      G        Am       D
Now he’s thirty-eight miles up the Canol road
    G        Am       D
He’s thirty-eight miles up the Canol road
    G        Am      D
In the Salmon Range at forty-eight below

      Am       Em       G        D
Well it’s God’s own neon green above the mountains here tonight
      Am       Em        C
Throwing brittle coloured shadows on the snow
    G       D         Em       C
It’s four more hours til dawn, and the gas is almost gone
     G      Am       D
And that bitter Yukon wind begins to blow

       Am      Em       G       D
Now you can see it in his eyes as they glitter in the light
     Am         Em       C
And the bone-white rime of frost around his brow
   G        D      Em        C
Too late the dawn has come, that Yukon winter has won
     G        Am     D
And he’s got his cure for cabin fever now

      G         Am           D
Well they watched for him in Carmacks, Haines, and Carcross
   G           Am        D
With Teslin blocked there’s nowhere else to go
    Am        Em          C
But he hit the four-wheel-drive in Johnson’s Crossing
      G        Am       D
Now he’s thirty-eight miles up the Canol road
    G        Am       D
He’s thirty-eight miles up the Canol road
    G        Am      D
In the Salmon Range at forty-eight below