Chords for Police Dog Blues, Arthur Blake, performed by Scott Ainslie

In this graveyard I first heard Clay out, we were friends for 35 years after he died around 2002.
We had a gig scheduled, the _ _ name Johnny, he was diagnosed with liver cancer between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And this is solid organ cancers they usually don't find until things are really bad.
Because there are no nerve endings in your solid organs, so they don't know what's sick until things start to go really haywire.
So Johnny was dead by mid-January, but he played New Year's Eve, he wasn't feeling that well, but we had a gig scheduled on the 4th of January.
And it's [E] not far from his home, and he was going to play one [Bb] set and I was going to play another. _
And we were both looking forward to seeing each other, but it snowed about 3 inches that night.
And in South Virginia, [Gm] everything closed.
[Bb] All the bread went off the grocery store shelves, it was flat over.
And it was gone by 7 o'clock the next morning, but no gig.
So we rescheduled it for 10 days, and _ those 10 days were critical to John, because it became really clear that he wasn't going to make the gig. _ _ _ _
_ So the promoter called me, and she said, Scott, I don't think John's going to be able to play the gig, and I said, I know, I don't think he'll be there. _
She said, what would it take, I was contracted to play one set, what would it take for you to play both sets?
And I said, pay John his fee.
_ _ _ _ _ Now, in the music business, you don't show up, you don't get paid.
I mean, it just never happens.
And she thought two seconds, and said, right, good.
So I got to go on stage that evening, Friday night, and let the audience know that unfortunately John was really ill.
He'd been diagnosed with liver cancer, and they couldn't make the concert that evening, but they could be happy to know that half of their ticket money was going to go to him.
To support him when he needed it, and that I was going to play a whole bunch of music, we were going to celebrate his impact on my life and theirs.
And we had a concert.
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
And I had to be 400 [Bb] miles away and not be able to go to his funeral. _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [D] But this is another song that I learned from him, this is Blind Blake 2.
It's about [Bb] a dog who gets in the way of love. _
_ [B] Your imagination is going wild.
_ Just_
[D] _ _ _ _ _ Which is usually the cat, but hey. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ [A] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ Said all my life, well, I've been a traveling man.
_ _ [G] Said all my life, I've been [D] a traveling man. _ _ _ _
[Gb] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
I shipped my trunk [G] down, down to [D] Tennessee. _ _
I [G] shipped my trunk down [D] to Tennessee. _
_ [E] It's hard to tell [D] about a man like me.
_ It's hard to tell. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ I met a girl and I couldn't get her off my mind.
_ _ [G] I met a girl and I couldn't get her [D] off my mind.
_ She [Em] passed [D] me a open black-eyed pie. _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I'm afraid to bother around her house at night.
_ _ [G] I'm afraid to bother around her [D] house at night.
_ _ _ [A] Each [Bm] dog is crazy and [D] wants to bite.
_ _ _ Now his name is [G] Rambler and when he gets a chance.
_ His name is Rambler and when he [D] gets a chance.
_ _ He leaves his mark on everybody's pants.
_ He's [A] a dog. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
I guess I'll travel, I guess I'll let her be. _ _
I [G] guess I'll travel, I guess I'll let her be. _
_ [C] He marches, sets that [D] police dog on me. _