Alison Krauss & Union Station – Bonita And Bill Butler (Guitar)

    B7
e|----------|
B|----------|
G|--2-------|
D|--1-------|
A|--2-------|
E|--0-------|

On the G chord, do this as well.
e|-3------3---|
B|-3------2---|
G|-0------0---|
D|-0------0---|
A|-2------2---|
E|-3----2h3---|

Em                                  D             A
I grew up in the scantling yards of Wheeling West Virginia

   C             D                   Em
A wheelhouse cub looking for an open door

Em                                   D          A
In the packet ways a Sweeney wed the keel of my Bonita

     C                   D               Em
Just two months from her timbers til she moored

Em                                      D         A
I paid the fare in billet on her maiden voyage to Vicksburg

C                             D             Em
And talked my way to hand the tiller on the course

Em                                            D          A
In her planks I carved a notch and sealed the vow "Be my Bonita"

C                    D                Em
And her dowry was my life between the shores

      Em                D             C                 G
I was born with roguing ways, and she steered me like a woman

         C                                     B7
From the port calls and the bawds that lead me stray

    Em            D              C              G
The calliope serenades, made the old towns come running

        C                                    B7
And the boys would gamble shards to pull her chains

              C                   D               Em
The striker's boast would fain me loss, about the wrecks the shoals were

A
keeping

            C                   D              Em
And how the old girl's got poor Billy's ransom saved

       Em                     D                A
On the lake at Bistineau, she set the wharf at Dixie

       C                 D             Em
With a thousand bales of cotton on her main

       Em                          D              A
As the great raft disappeared, the watermark went sinking

            C                   D              Em
And she was stuck right hard, a listing on the bank

         Em                       D             A
With the furnace still a blaze, I stood my last upon her

     C                    D                 Em
Then climbed the prow and took a landsman's trade

   Em                            D              A
"A derelict now Milady" said the watch log I've concorded

          C              D                   Em
"Have the bosun sound us eight bells for the change"

     Em                D             C                 G
I was born with roguing ways, and she steered me like a woman

         C                                     B7
From the port calls and the bawds that lead me stray

    Em            D              C              G
The calliope serenades, made the old towns come running

 C                                    B7
And the boys would gamble shards to pull her chains

            Em            D             C               G
And I would take to wider walks, so the gin I stopped a drinking

   C                               B7
At three scores aloft this crooked frame

              C                   D               Em
The striker's boast would fain me loss, about the wrecks the shoals were

A
keeping

            C                   D              Em
And how the old girl's got poor Billy's ransom saved