1901 A Canyon Odyssey

E C#m E C#m A E B
E C#m E C#m A B E

[Verse 1]
         E              C#m
Nineteen hundred and oh-one
        E                C#m
There beneath the August sun
         A           E            
A daring survey undertaken on the 
B
fly
     E           C#m
Colorado would request
           E           C#m
Divert the river water west
        A           B              
For the Uncompahgre Valley was too 
E
dry

[Verse 2]
             E             C#m
There’d been one attempt before
         E              C#m
And they needed to know more
          A               E       
Than what Bryant saw from base 
          B
camps on the rim
         E                    C#m
When the challenge whet their thirst
        E                 C#m
Two men planned to be the first
            A                  B  
To take the canyon floor route cut
               E
 from deep within

[Chorus]
E B A              E           
      There's only one way the 
      B
water flows
E B A           E              B
      Through a passage no one knows
        E               C#m
Heading down the canyon black
           E                C#m
They could never turn their back
        A               B    
Staring down the barrel of the 
       E
Gunnison

Continues after the ad
[Instr]
E C#m E C#m A E B
E C#m E C#m A B E

[Verse 3]
            E               C#m
The journey started as they planned
     E                    C#m
With support from a third man
              A              E    
Who hiked the old trail high above
             B
 the river’s hood
          E           C#m
’Til they came upon a narrow
       E                    C#m
At the jaws of the Falls of Sorrow
             A                  B 
With one way out, they took the 
            E
only way they could

[Verse 4]
       E             C#m
Diving deep into the churn
      E        C#m
Maybe never to return
               A            E     
The pair could only hope to 
           B
breathe the air again
          E                C#m
The angry river turned and tossed
        E                   C#m
And the two might have been lost
     A                 B    
Deep below the surface of the 
  E
Gunnison

[Chorus]
E B A              E           
      There's only one way the 
      B
water flows
E B A           E              B
      Through a passage no one knows
        E               C#m
Heading down the canyon black
           E                C#m
They could never turn their back
        A               B    
Staring down the barrel of the 
       E
Gunnison
     C#m
Gunnison...

[Lead Break]
C#m
F#7 F#m7
C#m
F#7 F#m7 G#
C#m
F#7 F#m7
C#m
F#7 F#m7 G#
A B E C#m
E C#m A B E

[Verse 5]
        E              C#m
Now the story has been told
              E                C#m
And while the river still runs cold
          A                E      
The water gets to where it once 
        B
had never been
       E              C#m
As for whether they escaped
             E                    
They made it out just bruised and 
C#m
scraped
            A              B      
The two men never would forget the
      E
 Gunnison

[Chorus]
E B A              E           
      There's only one way the 
      B
water flows
E B A           E              B
      Through a passage no one knows
        E               C#m
Heading down the canyon black
           E                C#m
They could never turn their back
        A               B    
Staring down the barrel of the 
       E
Gunnison
        A               B    
Staring down the barrel of the 
       E
Gunnison