Roll on Colombia

Words and music Woody Guthrie

Released on Columbia River Collection (1988)

Capo fret 6

Intro:

The notes are picked out as the chords are strummed at the same time.

 F...        G...        C...          
|-----------|-----------|----------|
|-----------|-----------|----------|
|-----0h2---|-----------|----------|
|---3-----3-|-----------|----------|
|-----------|---2-1h2---|-3--------|
|-1---------|-3-------3-|----------|

(occasionally at the end of a verse woody adds a little hammer-on on the D-string, |--1h2--| along with the C-chord)


C                            G
Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through.
                            C
Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew.
                          F
Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue,
     G                       C
It's Roll on, Columbia, roll On!

    C        G       
    Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
    G        C       
    Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
                              F    
    Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
        G                       C
    So, Roll on, Columbia, roll on

Other great rivers add power to you,
Yakima, Snake, and the Klickitat, too,
Sandy, Willamette, and Hood River, too;
Roll on Columbia, roll On!

It's there on your banks that you fought many a fight,
Sheridan's boys in the block house at night,
They saw us in death, but never in flight;
Roll on, Columbia, Roll On!

Our loved ones we lost there at Coe's little store,
By fireball and rifle, a dozen or more,
We won by the Mary and soldiers she bore;
Roll on, Columbia, Roll On!

Remember the trial when the battle was won,
The wild Indian warriors to the tall timber run,
We hung every Indian with smoke in his gun;
Roll on, Columbia, Roll on!

Year after year we had tedious trials,
Fighting the rapids at Cascades and Dalles.
The Injuns rest peaceful on Memaloose Isle;
Roll on, Columbia, Roll On!

At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks,
The waters have risen and drownded the rocks,
Ship loads of plenty will steam in the docks,
Roll On, Columbia, Roll On!

On up the river at Grand Coulee Dam,
Mightiest thing ever built by a man,
We run the great factories for old Uncle Sam,
It's roll on, Colombia, Roll on.