Rider On An Orphan Train chords by Tom Russell

"Rider on an Orphan Train" by Tom Russell, off album "The Man from God Knows Where"

        C                G
Once I rode an orphan train
          G7             C
And my brother did the same
                         F
They split us up in Missouri
           C   G                C
James was five     and I was three

                       G
He got taken by some pair
         F                C
But for me they did not care
                           F
We were brave and did not cry
            C   G             C
When they made    us say goodbye

                            F
That was the last I saw of him
              C             G
Before some family took me in
         C             F
But I swore I'd run away
              C      G          C
And find my brother James someday

                         G
I went back when I was grown
             F               C
To find our old Children's Home
                            F
And I asked for to see my file
            C   G              C
Of when I was     an orphan child

                                     G
It's sad, they say, there's been a flood
              F                C
File washed away in Missouri mud
                            F
Sometimes life is a stone wall
            C     G                C
You either climb,    or else you fall

                           F
In every town, on every street
          C           G
All the faces that I meet
         C                    F
And I wonder, could this one be
             C    G                 C
My brother James      come back to me

                                 G
Though I don't know where he's gone
           G7                   C
I have searched my whole life long
                          F
Now I roam from town to town
                  C    G               C
But there's no orphan     lost-and-found

                                F
Sometimes I dream a pleasant sight
             C            G
My brother James and I unite
         C                F
Remembering our last goodbye
            C    G                C
No longer brave,    we start to cry

                            F
I hope he lives a life of ease
              C                   G
And all his days a soft, warm breeze
        C            F
May he sit upon a throne
              C    G            C
And may he never        sleep alone


                         G
Once I rode an orphan train
         G7              C
And my brother did the same
                          F
They split us up in Missouri
            C   G                C
James was five       and I was three