Milltowns

           F             C
You were a legend when I met you
     F                 C
Introduced by a mutual friend
  F                C          Dm
I laughed when you called me “Grasshopper”
         Am                  F
Though I didn’t know what it meant

[Verse]
                       C
We stayed up all night drinking
F                     C
Most of it is still a blur
               F        C              Dm
But I remember picking along while you sang every song
   Am                F
By Mississippi John Hurt

[Verse]
        F              C
And the way you got so serious
         F                        C
When you told me you invented the blues
         F              C           Dm
Then you smiled in that way I could never tell
       Am                         F
If you didn’t really think it was true

[Chorus]
        F                     C
Now I’m driving through these milltowns
                   F
Down empty moonlit streets
                            G                 C
Where the vacant storefront windows look like missing teeth
          F            G
They disappear into my rearview
     C              F
All along the rural route
           C
I pray for all that can’t be rescued
      F               C
After everything goes south

[Verse]
     F                C
On a split bill up in Portland
      F                   C
I was getting ready to go on
           F            C         Dm
You said, “Grasshopper, you sing ‘Birches’
          Am                 F
I’ve been singing it for too long”

[Verse]
     F                C
So, I sang it like I’d written it
     F                C
Though I wished you hadn’t asked
           F            C         Dm
I couldn’t shake that feeling
          Am                 F
Like something had been passed

[Verse]
     F                C
You watched from behind the curtain
     F                C
And I never will forget
           F            C         Dm
How your pulling on that bourbon
          Am                 F
Looked like Russian Roulette

[Chorus]
        F                     C
Now I’m driving through these milltowns
                   F
Down empty moonlit streets
                            G                 C
Where the vacant storefront windows look like missing teeth
          F            G
They disappear into my rearview
     C              F
All along the rural route
           C
I pray for all that can’t be rescued
      F               C
After everything goes south