Through The Trees Part 2

Tabbed by: Jeff Holland
Tuning: Standard
This is one of the most beautiful songs I know, both lyrically and compositionally.
Congrats to you for taking the time to learn it.
A few months ago, I sent Phil Elverum a letter asking him for help learning this song.
He responded giving me the chords. So I've gotten these chords directly from Phil. So
these chords come directly from Phil.
Here are all of the chords used throughout the song. (Note: gsome of the chord names are
more complex than what I've written. What I call C#m is actually C#madd9/G#, what I
call F#m7 is actually F#m7add11/C#, and what I call A is actually Asus2. I shortened them for brevity's sake.)

And just to clarify: At the point when he says "mountains and websites," play the
following little thing which I will call "part A," for lack of a better name.

Intro: (play x2, but on the last time don't play the lil E chord at the end)

Verse: (this isn't a traditionally structured song so I'm just gonna call the whole
thing a verse)
A C#m F#m7 G#m7 A
C#m                    F#m7
Misunderstood and disillusioned,
G#m7                         A                                 C#m
I go on describing this place and the way it feels to live and die
                                 F#m7
The “natural world” and whatever else it’s called
G#m                         A                         C#m
I drive in and out of town, seeing no edge, breathing sky
         B                        F#m7
And it’s hard to describe without seeming absurd
               E
I know there’s no other world:
             (part A)
Mountains and websites
C#m                  F#m7
Dark smoke fills the air,
              G#m7                            A
Some from the fire in my house, some from me driving around
C#m                       F#m7             G#m7
I could see the lights of town through the trees on the ridge
          A
On my way home in the dark
C#m                           F#m7
I meant all my songs not as a picture of the woods
              G#m7                       C#m
But just to remind myself that I briefly live
                                    F#m7
The gleaming stone, the moon in the sky at noon
            G#m7                      A
There is no other world and there has never been
C#m                   F#m7
I still walk, living, sleeping
            G#m7                              A
Life in the real world of clouds, clawing for meaning
C#m                              F#m7
Still when I see branches in the wind
               G#m7                            A
The tumultuous place where I live calls out, revealing
         C#m                  F#m7
“Can you see the river in the branches
                 G#m7
And know that it means you will die
                    A
And that pieces are churning?”
         C#m                     F#m7
“Can you find a wildness in your body
                     G#m7                         C#m
And walk through the store after work, holding it high?”
                     F#m7
I’ve held aloft some delusions
     B                           E
From now on, I will be perfectly clear:
G#m                               F#m
There’s no part of the world more meaningful
          E                        B
And raw impermanence echoes in the sky
C#m (x4)
C#m             F#m7               G#m7                   A
There is either no end or constant simultaneous end and beginning
C#m                  F#m7
A pile of trash, the fog on the hill
G#m                          C#m
Standing in the parking lot, squinting
************************************
| /   slide up
| \   slide down
| h   hammer-on
| p   pull-off
| ~   vibrato
| +   harmonic
| x   Mute note
| b   Bend
| pb  Pre-bend
| br  Bend release
| pbr Pre-bend release
| brb Bend release bend