D*


[Verse 1]
D                 G
He was born in Virginia,
       D         G
In the Shenadoah Valley,
       D                  G                Em  A
Right about the time that this country got free,
         D                G
When his father died they left,
          D             G
Packed it up and headed west,
       D                  G             Em  A
To the hills that put the east in Tennessee,
      D
Say Ho.


[Interlude]
D*


[Verse 2]
D                G
A man has got to make his mark,
        D              G
And the second British war did start,
D                  G                Em  A
He was bored so he joined and went along,
        D            G
Took an arrow in the hip,
              D                    G
A ball in the shoulder but he ever quit,
       D                      G                   Em  A
Still full of fight when they finally dragged him home,
      D
Say ho.


[Interlude]
D*


[Chorus 1]
        F#m                    Bm
Reading Homer to some Cherokee maidens,
        F#m                          Bm
And you know how Tennessee is in the fall,
   F#m                               Bm
If you're not gonna make your dreams epic,
    Em                          Asus4
Why bother to dream anything at all?


[Verse 3]
   D               G
He met a man named Andy Jack,
        D          G
Who put him on the Nashville map,
    D              G                   Em  A
But even then that town could piss you off,
            D                G
You partied hard and ran the state,
        D                G
Found a girl to take his name,
         D                       G              Em  A
And they still don't know why he up and left it all,
      D
Say Ho.


[Interlude]
D*


[Chorus 2]
      F#m                      Bm
Never trust nobody when you're drinking,
F#m                      Bm
Lest you get insulted or rolled,
F#m                                  Bm
Drink too much you'll pickle up your instinct,
    Em                             Asus4
And then you can’t trust anyone at all.


[Verse 4]
     D               G
Half mystic and half showman,
     D             G
Half poet and half sage,
    D                   G            Em  A
And way too stubborn to ever admit defeat,
         D            G
Although Texas was no state,
      D             G
San Jacinto was the place,
     D           G           Em  A
That destiny was ready to be seized,
      D
Say Ho.


[Interlude]
D*


[Verse 5]
     D          G
Well Texas he created you,
    D                  G
And three times he did save you too,
    D                 G               Em  A
And tried to help you make it on your own,
               D        G
You joined the union anyway,
         D                     G
And when he thought you should stay,
    D                   G                Em  A
You turned your back on him and sent him home.


[Chorus 3]
         F#m                          Bm
Is there anyone still left so full of honor,
F#m                          Bm
You can trust everything you heard?
   F#m                         Bm
In Texas anywhere that you may wander,
    Em                                Asus4
Sam Houston was the man that kept his word.