Mary Chapin Carpenter – Family Hands (Guitar)

Key
-
Versions (2)

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Chords

[Verse 1]
G              G7                    C
Last Sunday we got in the car and we drove

       D             D7              G
To the town you were raised in, your boyhood home

G                   G7       C          Am
The trees were just turning, up on the ridge

D                 D7          G
And this was your valley when you were a kid

G                  G7                 C            Am
You showed me the rail-road that your daddy worked on

      D              D7               G
As we neared the old house where your granny lives on

      G              G7                  C                Am
She's nearing ninety years now, with her daughters by her side

    D                      D7                G
Who tend the places in the heart where loneliness can hide
[Chorus]
Em             D             C        D        G
Raised by the women who are stronger than you know

Em                    D           Am               D7
A patchwork quilt of memory only women could have sewn

    G                        G7               G6              C
The threads were stitched by family hands, protected from the moth

        Am             D           Am      D7      G
By your mother and her mother, the weavers of your cloth
[Verse 2]
G                 G7            C
Your grandmother owned a gun in 1932

       D                 D7                       G
When times were bad just everywhere, you said she used it too

G                         G7           C                   Am
And the life and times of everyone are traced inside their palms

     D             D7                         G
Her skin may be so weathered, but her grip is still so strong

      G              G7               C            Am
And I see your eyes belong to her and to your mama too

    D         D7                      G
A slice of Virginia sky, the clearest shade of blue
[Chorus]
Em             D             C        D        G
Raised by the women who are stronger than you know

Em                    D           Am               D7
A patchwork quilt of memory only women could have sewn

    G                        G7               G6              C
The threads were stitched by family hands, protected from the moth

        Am             D           Am      D7      G
By your mother and her mother, the weavers of your cloth
[Verse 3]
G                        G7               C
And a rich man you might never be, they'd love you just the same

       D                 D7           G
They've handed down so much to you besides your Christian name

G                         G7                C             Am
And the spoken word won't heal you like the laying on of hands

    D            D7                  G
Belonging to the ones who raised you to a man
[Chorus]
Em             D             C        D        G
Raised by the women who are stronger than you know

Em                    D           Am               D7
A patchwork quilt of memory only women could have sewn

    G                        G7               G6              C
The threads were stitched by family hands, protected from the moth

        Am             D           Am      D7      G
By your mother and her mother, the weavers of your cloth