Chords for Emmylou Harris' Induction into The Country Music Hall of Fame

[D] _ _ _ [C] _ [D] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Emi was born a red dirt girl on [Abm] April 2, 1947, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Though she didn't
particularly identify with country music, she heard plenty of it.
Emi Lou took piano
lessons, played saxophone in the school marching band, and learned to play a few folk and country
songs on a K guitar. _
_ Years later, in the early 70s, she met Graham Parsons.
_ _ In short order,
he became the mentor, _ collaborator, and trusted friend who would help her understand the true
power, poetry, purity, and perhaps the political righteousness of country music as the voice
of, by, and for the people.
[Eb] I really learned [Ab] a _ _ [C] lot, really [Fm] learned a lot.
_ [Gb] Love is like a [Db] stone, _ [Ab] burns you [Eb] any time. _ _ _ _
[Abm] Love her. _ _ _ _ _
_ [Gb] _ Love [Db] _ _ [Eb] her.
[Abm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Heartbroken over the loss of her [Eb] friend, [Ab] Emi Lou addressed her grief by resolving to hold
fast to all Graham had taught her.
She would continue to make the kind of music they had
made together, but she would make it uniquely her own.
_ _ I don't want to hear a love song. _ _ _ _ _ _
[Db] I got on this airplane just to [Ab] fly.
_ _ _ _ _ And I know [Eb] there's
a light below, _ _ _ but all it can show me is the prairie and [Ab] the sky. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Rock [Db] my soul _ _ _ in the [Ab] bosom
of Abraham.
_ _ I would hold [Eb] my _ life _ in His [Ab] saving _ grace.
_ I would walk [Db] up _ _ _ _ _ from [Ab] Boulder to Birmingham _ _
if I thought [Eb] I could see, I could see [Ab] your face. _ _ _
Sitting backstage and _ _ [Db]
my _ _ [Bb] daddy's family [Abm] is from _ northwest Arkansas, and _ so this all sounds
real familiar to me, and it's just such an honor.
I think I've never been so nervous [Ab] before.
_ I'd walk [Db] _ _
_ _ _ from Boulder [Ab] to Birmingham _ _ if I thought [Eb] I could see, _ _ see [Ab] your _ face. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _
_ _ _ I love you, Emi Lou. _
_ _ _ _ _ Congratulations. _
_ _ _ Over four decades, Emi Lou's oceanic creativity would find expression in many forms.
She thought
of herself as a collector of songs, but not so much as a songwriter.
Emi Lou began to focus
more attention on her songwriting with the albums Red Dirt Girl and Stumble into Grace.
_ Emi Lou sought help from dear friend Guy Clark and composed an elegy for her father.
Shortly after Emi's dad, Bucky, passed away, she called me and asked if I would _ help her
write this song for her father, and _ I was already a big fan of his.
I mean, _ there is
nothing that stands up straighter than a Marine Corps fighter pilot, _ _ _ and I was kind of a slouching
old field hippie. _ _ _
_ So I was basically the cheerleader for this [C] song.
_ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _
[G] Well, I did my best. _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ [F] _ Hang the drums [G]
slowly [Am] [C] and play the pipes lowly, [G] to dusk be returning, _ [C] from dusk we begin. _ _
_ [F] _ Hang the drums _ [C] slowly, I'll speak of things holy, _ above and below me, [G] _ world [C] without _ end. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [F] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [N] Thank you very much. _ _ _ _
_ We could put the entire focus of this ceremony on one Emi Lou Harris album, _ one Emi Lou Harris
band, or one Emi Lou Harris decade.
_ _ As a torch-bearing commander of country rock, a catalyst for
the new traditionalist movement, and as a champion of left-field alternative country, her music
and her impact are engraved on a zillion [Gb] hearts.
He _ will [B] not [Gb] heed the [B] voice [E] of a _ stranger, _ _ for [B] he will _ lead us all to [Gb] despair. _
_ _ _ _ _ [Ebm] Our [B] Lord _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [B] _ Jesus, [E] our _ Savior, _ _ please [B] help us reach that [Gb] _
[B] concrete sofa.
_ _ We've named ourselves, [E] Oh Brother, We're Out [B] There.
_ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ [A] _ She takes the best parts of our [D] music, _ expounds on them, [A] and makes them better.
It is with much pride [E] _ _ _ _ that I welcome Emi Lou into the circle of [N] inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. _ _ _
They don't let just anybody in here. _ _ _ _
Folks, I know that whenever someone gets an honor,
and certainly this is a great honor or an award, _ _ _ people, and I believe sincerely, say,
oh well, I share this with so and so and so and so and so and so. _
You know, I feel like that guy in the Verizon wireless commercial, you know, that's got this _ sea of people
_ behind them, but truly, you move to the right, you move to the left, you move forward.
There they are.
They've been there since the beginning.
They're with me still.
_ And you're going to be with me up in bronze on the wall.
I just want to end by _ quoting one of the great women of country music, in fact, one of the great women of the world.
She was a real class act, and we were really fortunate to have her in the country fold.
Her name was Sarah Cannon, and we knew her and loved her as Minnie Pearl.
And she said it best, I'm so proud [G] to be here.
Thank you very [D] much. _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _