The Ties That Bind chords

G and I needed a record that I felt E had a very, very strong Em identity.
_ _ _ G _ _ _ .
_ D _ _ _ _ C _ _ _ .
Em _ _ _ G _ _ _ _ _ .
_ C _ _ _ _ _ Em _ .
I come G from down in the valley.
_ D.
Where Mr.
Wynne, you're C young.
_ _ Em.
They bring you up to G do.
_ C Like your G daddy done.
_ C Me and Mary, we met in high G school.
When she was D just Em seventeen.
_ _ Am We'd ride a red mountain.
_ Down C to where the D fields were C green _ _ _ _ .
G We'd F#m go down to D the river.
_ E And into the river A we'd dive.
F#m Oh, down to D the river E we'd ride.
_ _ D _ _ .
F#m _ Then I got Mary A pregnant.
_ A man, that was D all she wrote.
And for F#m my nineteenth A birthday.
I got a union card and a wedding coat.
We D went down to the courthouse.
A And the judge put it all F#m to rest.
_ No wedding day smiles.
No walk down the aisle.
No flowers, no wedding Em dress.
That night we E had to go.
C _ _ .
Dm I started the narrative writing.
where I would inhabit G a character.
D _ Em Down deep, down deep.
With a C very specific narrative D story.
I would sing in that voice, you know, the C character.
and it wasn't necessarily Em me.
it was partly me and partly G other people.
So of course the D river was, that was my touchstone.
Em for all of that writing that came later.
where you simply G step into a character's shoes.
and D try to get C your listeners to walk in G those shoes for a while _ .
The river was C the key to the record, you know.
and that was G a throwback, as I've said, D to older Em folk music.
and an older voice, Am it was a very adult voice.
that was a political voice in the G sense that it was.
dealing with the Carter recession.
C and its effects on, I guess, working people.
Em Got E a Em job working G construction.
For D the Johnstown C Company.
_ Em _ _ Lately there ain't been G much work.
On C the county _ G economy.
_ D Of C all those things that seem so important.
G _ They vanished D right into Em the air.
_ _ Am Act like I don't remember.
_ G Very act like she don't C care.
_ Em I remember us G driving in my brother's car.
D Her body tainted way down at C the Em reservoir.
_ E At night on those banks G I'd lie awake.
Or C close just to feel G each breath she'd take.
How C those memories come back to haunt G me.
Yeah, they haunt D me like Em a curse.
There's Am a dream alive that don't come true.
G Or is it something C worse.
That sends Em me down to C the river _ .
D Though I know the river G is dry.
D Sends Em me down to the D river _ tonight.
_ _ _ C _ _ .
F I think the E I come from G down in the valley, you know.
Then you're laying D claim to _ _ _ E that D character's Em experience.
G# And you're trying to do right by C it as a songwriter.
D And you're taking the risk of Em singing in that voice.
_ But that's the writer's job.
Your job is to D faithfully imagine _ the world.
And others' lives in E a way that respects Em them.
Sort D of honors them and records them.
C _ .
In D your own Em way, _ somewhat G faithfully _ .
_ _ D _ _ _ _ Em _ _ .
_ _ _ _ _ _ C _ _ .
G _ _ D _ _ _ _ C _ _ .
_ _ _ _ Em _ _ _ _ .
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .