Misc Traditional – Darling Nelly Gray (Guitar)

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Darling Nelly Gray is an old anti-slavery song from 1857 Words and Music by Benjamin Hanby [Verse 1]
          D                       G
There's a low green valley on the old Kentucky shore,

           D                        A7
There I've whiled many happy hours away

  D                            G
A-sitting and a-singing by the little cottage door,

      D        A7            D
Where lived my darling Nelly Gray.
[Chorus]
       C                          D
Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,

                                  A7
And I'll never see my darling any more,

    D                             G
I'm sitting by the river, and I'm weeping all the day,

           D             A7            D
For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore.
[Verse 2]
         D                                      G
When the moon had climbed the mountain, and the stars were shining too,

         D                     A7
Then I'd take my darling Nelly Gray,

    D                               G
And we'd float down the river in my little red canoe,

         D      A7             D
While my banjo sweetly I would play.
[Chorus]
       C                          D
Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,

                                  A7
And I'll never see my darling any more,

    D                             G
I'm sitting by the river, and I'm weeping all the day,

           D             A7            D
For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore.
[Verse 3]
    D                                   G
One night I went to see her, but "She's gone!" the neighbors say,

    D                            A7
The white man bound her with his chain,

          D                           G
They have taken her to Georgia for to wear her life away,

       D            A7             D
As she toils in the cotton and the cane.
[Chorus]
       C                          D
Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,

                                  A7
And I'll never see my darling any more,

    D                             G
I'm sitting by the river, and I'm weeping all the day,

           D             A7            D
For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore.
[Verse 4]
     D                          G
My canoe is under water, and my banjo is unstrung,

    D                   A7
I'm tired of living any more,

   D                               G
My eyes shall look downward and my song shall be unsung,

        D           A7           D
While I stay on the old Kentucky shore.
[Chorus]
       C                          D
Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,

                                  A7
And I'll never see my darling any more,

    D                             G
I'm sitting by the river, and I'm weeping all the day,

           D             A7            D
For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore.
(softly) [Verse 5]
   D                               G
My eyes are getting blinded, and I cannot see the way,

              D                        A7
Hark! there's somebody knocking at the door,

      D                             G
Oh! I hear the angels calling and I see my Nelly Gray,

    D           A7           D
Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.
[Chorus]
       C                          D
Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,

                                  A7
And I'll never see my darling any more,

    D                             G
I'm sitting by the river, and I'm weeping all the day,

           D             A7            D       G
For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore.

           D             A7            D     A7 D
For you've gone from the old Kentucky shore