G Gmaj7 G
It's knowing that your door is always open
Gmaj7 Am
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag
D G Gmaj7 G Gmaj7
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
G Gmaj7
And it's knowing I'm not shackled
G Gmaj7
by for-gotten words and bonds
G Gmaj7 Am
And the ink stains that have dried if on some line
D
That keeps you in the back-roads by the rivers of my memory
D G Gmaj7 G Gmaj7
that keeps you ever gentle on my mind
G Gmaj7
It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
G Gmaj7 Am
Planted on the columns now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
D G Gmaj7 G Gmaj7
Because they thought we fit together walking
G Gmaj7 G
It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing
Gmaj7 G Gmaj7 Am
Or for-giving when I walk along some railroad track and find
D
That you are moving on the back-roads by the rivers of my memory
Am D G Gmaj7 G Gmaj7 G
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind
G Gmaj7 G
Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
G Gmaj7 Am
And the junkyards and the highways come be-tween us
And some other woman's cryin' to her mother
D G
Cause she turned and I was gone
G Gmaj7 G
I still might run in silence, tears of joy might stain my face
Gmaj7 G Am
And the summer sun might burn me 'til I'm blind
D
But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the backroads
Am D G Gmaj7 G Gmaj7
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind
G Gmaj7 G
I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin'
Gmaj7 G Am
Cracklin' cauldron in some train yard
D
My beard a roughening coal pile,
Am D G G Gmaj7 G Gmaj7
And a dirty hat pulled low a-cross my face
G Gmaj7 G
Through cupped hands 'round the tin can
Gmaj7 G Am
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
D
That you're waiting from the backroads by the rivers of my memories
Am D G
Ever smilin' ever gentle on my mind
