With Christmas coming on, I wanted to share the lyrics of this Jeff Talmadge song that I learned from his Blissville CD. I plan on playing it for the Scottish Society in Shreveport this Saturday. During the holidays, please remember our soldiers . . .

A Soldier’s Christmas by Jeff Talmadge: Chords and Lyrics

Verse 1:

The guns were silent and the night was still *C G

And we’d just come in from patrol C G

We never thought that we’d spend Christmas here Bm C

We thought that we’d be going home  C D (There is a walk down here)

Verse 2

We sang Christmas songs that we all knew C G

And we ate turkey from a tray C G

We never talk about not coming back Bm C

It’s best to treat it like any other day. C D

CHORUS:

And in between the clouds of smoke G C D G

There’s Christmas in the air G C D

It’s Christmas in this tent tonight G C D G

It’s Christmas everywhere.  C D G

(Final verse add)

Em C D G

Verse 3:

We took Basra just by driving through

And we took Baghdad in a day

The day the war was over was the day our war began

And they can’t tell us how long we will stay

Verse 4:

And there’s an empty bunk right next to mine

It’s where my buddy used to sleep

They’ll be sending somebody to take his place

They say he’ll be here sometime late next week

CHORUS:

Verse 5:

So we strung some lights from pole to pole

With ornaments of cartridges and shells

We clean our guns so when the morning comes

We’re not afraid to walk through hell

CHORUS:

*Note: Jeff finger picks it and as he often uses a D tuning, it may not be a true “C” chord, but an adaptation. If you hear the song and finger pick, you’ll know what I mean.