Uncle Lloyd
By Darrell Scott


Capo 2

       G                                          F        C    
He was not my father’s brother but he wished that he could be
        Am               Em                 Dsus2      C 
Told us kids to call him uncle and we would be his family
         G                                             F      C    
He had a wife and kids in Fresno, the youngest one was twenty-four
        Am               Em                     Dsus2       C 
Dad had brought him into our house, they didn’t want him anymore
             G                                        F      C    
He helped us work the family business building fences in the sun
            Am            Em              Dsus2           C 
Worked just like a man of twenty ‘til the working day was done
       G                                                    F      C    
He and Dad would spend their evening sitting in lawn chairs in the yard 
             Am               Em                   Dsus2           C 
Where they’d drink a toast to Seagram’s, Seagram’s never went down hard


Chorus:
          Em                         G
Won’t you wake up Uncle Lloyd, got a lot of work today
          Em              C                 G    
We’ll get Don to make the coffee, load that truck and be on your way 
       Am                                  G                  C 
Friday night you can drive to Vegas, maybe this time you will win
      Am             Em                  Dsus2         C          
Buy a trailer by the river and you won’t have to work again


Steel solo

       G                                        F      C
He was sleeping in the workroom with a mattress on the floor
         Am                Em          Dsus2              C 
When one night I heard him crying as I passed outside his door
           G                                    F            C    
He cried, "Rita, girl I love you, Rita, Darling please don’t go
           Am               Em                Dsus2        C 
I’ve tried hard to make you happy | I’ve done everything I know"
       G                                         F       C    
Then I heard the bottle open, the tipping up and putting down
          Am              Em             Dsus2          C 
Heard the rustling of the covers then he did not make a sound
             G                                     F      C    
I thought of thirty years of Rita standing sternly by his side 
        Am               Em                Dsus2     C 
All the years of hanging in there, all the emptiness inside


      G                                              F     C 
And I thought of how their children have children of their own
          Am           Em             Dsus2     C  
And how a man at fifty-seven winds up living so alone


Chorus