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