**Key:** D Minor **Time:** 6/8 **Tempo:** ~70 BPM ### Verse 1 No lordly hall first knew his name, no banner marked his birth, He found his place where soldiers stood and proved his honest worth. When arrows fell like winter rain and steel rang through the air, They looked beside them in the line and always found him there. ### Chorus Raise a verse, raise it high, Let every voice be strong. Though liars write the history, The faithful write the song. --- ### Verse 2 A minstrel fell among the slain where broken weapons lay, He seized the shattered lute to win another living day. Each battle left another mark, each march another string, Till man and battered wood alike were known as Steelstring. ### Chorus Raise a verse, raise it high, Let every voice be strong. Though liars write the history, The faithful write the song. --- ### Verse 3 He marched beside a holy soul whose faith no fear could shake, Who healed the weak and led the line for honour's sacred sake. Yet falsehood smiles with honest lips and walks in trusted guise, Often the deepest treachery is hidden from our eyes. --- ### Verse 4 Before the dawn the good man fell by one he trusted near, And whispered lies ran through the camp before the morning clear. The loyal bore the murder's blame by every forged decree, While truth lay cold beside the dead, forgotten where it lay. ### Chorus Raise a verse, raise it high, Let every voice be strong. Though liars write the history, The faithful write the song. --- ### Verse 5 No gallows claimed the soldier then, no dungeon forged of stone, They cast him where no sun would rise, to darkness all alone. No bugle stirred the silent years, no friendly voice drew near, He kept his watch with silent songs that none but he could hear. --- ### Verse 6 At last the prison broke apart, its ancient bindings failed, He stepped beneath another sky where stranger winds prevailed. The roads were strange beneath his feet, the years beyond his own, Yet one old oath still lit the path he walked through lands unknown. --- ### Final Verse Now Steelstring walks another road where fresh companions stand, Yet still he bears the selfsame oath he never laid aside. Until the traitor answers for the blood that stained the plain, The song remains unfinished still until the oath is done. --- ### Final Chorus Raise a verse, raise it high, Let every voice be strong. Though liars write the history, The faithful write the song.