Chords for Brandi Carlile — 'The Mother'

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I've got a little daughter.
Her name is Evangeline Ruth Carlisle.
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [N] I've also got a wife, Catherine Carlisle, _ who I married in the great state of Massachusetts. _ _ _ _
_ _ And I'm proud to stand up here in front of you and tell you about my family and our right to exist in the world today. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Catherine and I got married just outside of Plymouth in a place called Wareham.
_ _ _ _ _ _ Anyway, becoming a mother has been the most incredible, the most enlightening,
horrible and inconvenient thing to ever happen to me. _ _ _
It's really important that you understand both sides to that story.
Give it some thought.
That's all I'm saying.
_ So I wrote this song and I'm hoping that you guys wouldn't mind a little solo acoustic folk singer number here for me to play you a song.
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _
_ It's about [Eb] what it's like to be a mother in this day and age.
Both sides of the story.
It's called The Mother. _ _
_ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Welcome to the end of being alone inside your mind. _
[Db] You're tethered to another and you [Ab] worry all the time.
_ You [Eb] always knew the melody, but you [Ab] never heard it rhyme.
[Bbm] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] She's fair and she is quiet.
Lord, she doesn't look like me.
She [Db] made me love the morning.
[Ab] She's a holiday at sea.
The New York streets are as busy as they always used to [Bbm] be.
_ _ [Ab] But I am the mother [Eb] of _ Evangeline.
[Abm] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ The first things that she took from me were selfishness and sleep.
_ She broke [Db] a thousand heirlooms.
I was never meant to keep. _
[Eb] She filled my life with color, [Ab] canceled plans and trashed my car.
_ But none of that was ever who we are.
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] Outside of my windows are the mountains and the snow.
I [Db] hold you while you're sleeping and [Ab] I wish that I could go.
_ [Eb] All my rowdy friends are out [Ab]
accomplishing their [Bbm] dreams.
[Ab] But I am the mother of [Eb] _ Evangeline. _ _ _
And they've still got [Eb] their morning paper and their coffee and [Ab] their time.
And they [Eb] still enjoy their evenings with the skeptics and the [Ab] wine.
Oh, but [C] all the wonders I have seen, I will see [Bb] a second [Bbm] time.
[Ab] From inside of the ages through your [Eb] eyes.
_ _ _ [Eb] And you are not some accident [Ab] where no one thought it through.
The [Db] world that stood against us made us [Ab] mean to fight for you.
[Eb] And when we chose your name, we knew that [Bb] you'd fight the power [Bbm] too.
_ _ [Eb] _ _
[Bbm] _ _ _ _ [Ab] You're nothing short of magical and beautiful to me.
I'll [Db] never hit the big time without [Ab] you. _ _
_ So [Ebm] they can keep their treasure and [Bb] their ties to the [Bbm] machine.
_ [Ab] Cause I am the mother of _ [Eb] Evangeline.
[Fm] _ _ _
_ And they [Db] can keep their [Ab] treasure and their ties [Bbm] to the machine.
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
[Bbm] _ _ [Ab] _ I am the mother of [Eb] _ Evangeline.
[Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Db] _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _
[Ab] _ _ _ _ _ [Db] _ _ _
[Bbm] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _