Chords for Steve Earle - Dixieland

_ _ [E] _ _ _ I write a [N] lot of songs about war.
I mean, I've written a lot of songs about the [B] Civil
War over the years.
And if you, the funny thing about the Civil [C#] War is if you ask, that's
what they have to do.
People at [B] Star Wars have to convince regular [C] people that they
have a reason, especially when you have an all-volunteer army.
They have to convince
us that we have a reason to go and fight [G#] their war.
And they've been very successful at it
over the [D] generations.
[F#] In the Civil War, I stole this character that speaks to you in this song from a book [F] called
The Killer Angels by Mark Olsharoff.
And it's a book about the Battle of [D] Gettysburg.
And
[A#m] it's fiction, but it's based on [B] people that really lived and really fought that battle.
[F#] And the character that's talking to you in this [B] song is a composite character.
His name's
Bustle Kilrain.
And he's based on, like, three people, [A#] two of which, all three fought with
the 20th [B] Maine at Gettysburg.
And two of the three [G#] died fighting with the 20th Maine.
And they were all from [A#m] Ireland.
This is, the 20th Maine was the [F#] unit at the end of the
line on top of Little Round [C] Top on the second day at [F#] Gettysburg.
If it hadn't been for them,
all you motherfuckers would [B] talk like me.
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ [F#] _ And there's a [C] part in the book where Bustle Kilrain is talking to his commanding officer,
who was Joshua Chamberlain, who did actually, was a real person.
And Chamberlain was an
abolitionist.
He was [A#] against slavery.
And he believed that he was fighting to free the
slaves.
And Kilrain told him that he believed he was fighting class war, because he reckoned
that the system he saw [B] in place in the southern United States was the same system that he
fought against in Ireland and [D#] ran away to escape.
But, you know, it amazes me the, no, I don't believe that the Civil War [G#] was fought about
state rights.
I think it was about [F#] slavery, because I think it was about how slavery affected
economics at the time.
And I think all [G#] wars are fought about money, when it gets right
down to it.
[E] _
_ [F#] I never existed.
[D#] I may be the Pingo ship sneaking on the [F#] bluegrass record.
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I am Kilrain and I'm a fighting man.
And I'm going down in flair.
And the Brits say hang
me for a penny.
So we'll take a movie over [B] there.
Across the ocean in the Irie, and by [G] this pebble float.
And the captain's better [D] as
a railroad man [B] than the menace at the boat.
[A] So I joined up with the 20th [G] Maine, like I
said, a [E] friend, I'm a fighting man.
[A] Marching south in the pouring rain, we're all going
[E] down to Dixieland. _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ I am [A] Kilrain, the 20th Maine, and I'm fighting [G] for Chamberlain.
Cause it's your right of witness [A] when the Chinese king like a banshee on the wing.
When the smoke cleared out, forget his birth.
He knew [G] Mother well.
Many a [D] good boy died
this year, and [B] he slept just like death.
[A] I am Kilrain, the 20th Maine, I march to hell
and back.
Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, we're all going down to Dixieland. _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _
_ [Am] _ _ [B] _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
I am Kilrain, the 20th Maine, and I'm a damn [G] old gentleman.
And who's on there?
What?
[B] There's a father's name instead of a working man.
We came from the farms in the city streets,
100 [G] foreign lands.
And we shed our blood in the [D] battles, even though [B] we're all in the
same place.
_ [Am] I am Kilrain, the 20th [G] Maine, and I'm [A] a fighting man.
And [Am] I'll be back this
weekend.
We're all [Dm] going down to [E] Dixieland. _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _