Canol Road

Am  C  Am  C

[Verse]
               Am            Em           G                    D
Well you could see it in his eyes as they strained against the night
        Am                  Em            C
And the bone-white-knuckled grip upon the road
      G               D           Em                 C
Sixty-five miles into town, and a winter’s thirst to drown
  G                 Am                 D
A winter still with two months left to go

    Am               Em        G                 D
His eyes are too far open, his grin too hard and sore
    Am                Em              C
His shoulders too far high to bring relief
        G              D         Em             C
But the Kopper King is hot, even if the band is not
       G                   Am                D
And it sure beats shooting whiskey-jacks and trees

[Bridge]

Am  C  Am  C

[Verse]
        Am                   Em            G                D
Then he laughs and says, “It didn’t get me this time, not tonight
  Am               Em             C
I wasn’t screaming when I hit the door.”
        G                 D               Em            C
But his hands on the tabletop, will their shaking never stop
      G               Am             D
Those hands sweep the bottles to the floor

           Am                  Em            G              D
Now he’s a bear in a blood-red mackinaw with hungry dogs at bay
    Am                 Em            C
And springtime thunder in his sudden roar
     G                 D              Em          C
With one wrong word he burns, and the table’s overturned
          G                  Am              D
When he’s finished there’s a dead man on the floor

[Chorus]
           G                  Am                    D
Well, they watched for him in Carmacks, Haines, and Carcross
     G                      Am              D
With Teslin blocked there’s nowhere else to go
       Am                 Em                 C
But he hit the four-wheel-drive in Johnson’s Crossing
         G                  Am           D
Now he’s thirty-eight miles up the Canol road
     G                  Am           D
He’s thirty-eight miles up the Canol road
       G               Am            D
In the Salmon Range at forty-eight below

[Bridge]

Am  C  Am  C

[Verse]
           Am             Em              G                D
Well, it’s God’s own neon green above the mountains here tonight
         Am               Em             C
Throwing brittle coloured shadows on the snow
     G                   D             Em            C
It’s four more hours til dawn, and the gas is almost gone
         G            Am             D
And that bitter Yukon wind begins to blow

            Am            Em           G              D
Now you can see it in his eyes as they glitter in the light
        Am                 Em               C
And the bone-white rime of frost around his brow
    G                 D          Em               C
Too late the dawn has come, that Yukon winter has won
         G                Am          D
And he’s got his cure for cabin fever now

[Chorus]
          G                  Am                    D
Well they watched for him in Carmacks, Haines, and Carcross
     G                      Am              D
With Teslin blocked there’s nowhere else to go
         Am                 Em                 C
But they hit the four-wheel-drive in Johnson’s Crossing
          G                  Am           D
Found him thirty-eight miles up the Canol road
               G                  Am           D
They found him thirty-eight miles up the Canol road
       G               Am            D
In the Salmon Range at forty-eight below

[Outro]

               G                  Am           D
They found him thirty-eight miles up the Canol road