INTRO: Am  D  C  G
 
                   C        G      Am                  D
Aunt Mattie bent a thousand times, down the long black rows
     G                C     G         Am     C           D
Then battled with the angry weeds, so little seeds could grow
     Bm             C                    G                 C
Come summer, Mattie pulled the snow from cruel and cutting bolls
        G                C               Am               D  
She was patient pale and slender and was only eight years old
 
 
G                  C        G        Am                  D
Round 'n round the spinning wheel, beneath Aunt Mattie's boot
      G                   C      G         Am       C       D
She recalled the soil and cotton seeds and summer's hopeful shoots
    Bm               C                    G               C
Two winters spun out summer's threads, in rich and creamy folds
        G             C                 Am         D         G
And she had a bolt of cotton cloth when she turned ten years old
 
 
CHORUS:
C              D                   G               Em
If we bend and plant the seeds and tame the wicked weeds
      C               D               G            Em
If we let the sun and rain assist and simplify our needs
      C             D                Em             A7
If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl
      C               D               C    G6     G  
We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world
 
 
           C    G        Am               D
Indigo and lavender made up Aunt Mattie's sky
  G             C         G         Am       C      D
Remembering her childhood days, she made the rustic dye
       Bm              C                 G                  C
In the hour before the day would end, it fed young Mattie's dream
         G          C    G        Am         D        G
She made indigo and lavender when she turned just fourteen
 
 
CHORUS:
C              D                   G               Em
If we bend and plant the seeds and tame the wicked weeds
      C               D               G            Em
If we let the sun and rain assist and simplify our needs
      C             D                Em             A7
If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl
      C               D               C    G6     G  
We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world
 
 
INSTRUMENTAL;  (same as Verse)
 
 
     G      C       G               Am                  D
Aunt Mattie bends a thousand times, down each patchwork row
    G                  C         G          Am     C      D
And piece by piece and stitch by stitch, in fading candle glow
    Bm            C             G                 C
The valley of the shadow cannot call her from her seams
      G             C          G         Am      D    G
Until finishing her lifetime's work, she dies at seventeen
 
 
CHORUS:
        C              D                   G               Em
Oh, and if we bend and plant the seeds and tame the wicked weeds
      C               D               G            Em
If we let the sun and rain assist and simplify our needs
      C             D                Em             A7
If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl
      C               D               C    G6     G  
We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world