The Carter Family – John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man (Guitar)

Half-Step Down (Eb-Ab-Db-Gb-Bb-Eb)
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Recorded 1928 by the original Carter family, Maybelle, Sara and AP [Introduction] C F C F C F C G7 C [Verse 1]
     F           C
[tab]   F                      C
He carried two guns every day.

   F                 C
He shot a man on the West Virginia line,

               C         G7             C     G7  C    
And you oughta seen John Hardy getting away.
[Verse 2]
     F                    C
John Hardy, he got to the East Stone Bridge,

   F                        C
He thought that he would be free.

    F                    C
And up stepped a man and took him by the arm,

         C             G7        C     G7  C    
Saying, “Johnny, walk along with me !”
[Verse 3]
   F                          C
He sent for his poppy and his mommy, too,

   F               C
to come and go his bail.

    F                C
But money won't go a murdering case,

         C           G7            C     G7  C    
and they locked John Hardy back in jail.
[Verse 4]
     F               C
John Hardy, he had a pretty little girl,

     F                       C
that dress that she wore was blue,

   F                             C
as she came skipping through the old jail hall,

         C                G7      C     G7  C    
saying, “Poppy, I've been true to you!”
[Verse 5]
     F               C
John Hardy, he had another little girl,

     F                       C
that dress that she wore was red.

    F                          C
She followed John Hardy to his hanging ground,

        C              G7        C     G7  C    
saying “Poppy, I would rather be dead !”
[Verse 6]
     F                          C
I've been to the East, and I've been to the West ,

     F                     C
I've been this wide world around,

     F                          C
I've been to the river and I've been baptized,

            C     G7      C      G7  C    
and now I'm on my hanging ground.
[Verse 7]
     F                       C
John Hardy walked out on his scaffold high,

         F                         C
with his loving little wife by his side.

        F                        C
And the last word she heard poor Johnno say,

      C                G7           C     G7  C    
“I'll meet you in that sweet by-and-by. “
[Outro] C F C F C F C G7 C