Lakes Of Pontchartrain chords by Paul Brady

The Lakes of Pontchartrain - traditional American, most well known recording by Paul Brady

Standard tuning, I play this with a simple strumming pattern


    G   D      Em  C
It was on one bright March morning
  G   D     G
I bid New Orleans adieu
   G    D    Em   C
And I took the road to Jackson town,
  G    D   C
My fortune to renew
 G     D    Em C
I cursed all foreign money
  G   D    C
No credit could I gain
   G     D     Em   C
Which filled my heart with longing for
  G    D    G
The lakes of Pontchartrain

  G     D     Em    C
I stepped on board of a railroad car
  G    D    G
Beneath the morning sun
    G    D    Em  C
And I rode the rods till evening
    G    D   C
And I laid me down again
   G    D     Em    C
All strangers there, no friends to me,
    G      D    C
'Til a dark girl towards me came,
    G    D      Em  C
And I fell in love with a Creole girl
    G    D   G
By the lakes of Pontchartrain


  G    D   Em   C
I said 'My pretty Creole girl,
  G   D     G
My money here's no good.
     G        D  Em  C
And if it weren't for the alligators
     G     D   C
I would sleep out in the wood'
     G   D     Em  C
'You're welcome here, kind stranger,
   G    D   C
Our house is very plain.
    G   D    Em    C
And we never turned a stranger out
    G    D   G
On the lakes of Pontchartrain'


  G    D    Em   C
She took me into her mammy's house
   G   D     G
And treated me right well.
  G   D   Em  C
The hair upon her shoulders
  G     D    C
In jet black ringlets fell.
  G   D    Em  C
To try to paint her beauty,
   G     D   C
I'm sure would be in vain,
  G    D   Em   C
So handsome was my Creole girl
    G    D    G
By the lakes of Pontchartrain

  G     D    Em  C
I asked her would she marry me,
   G        D   G
She said 'This could never be'.
  G    D  Em  C
For she had got a lover
   G   D   C
And he was far at sea.
   G     D     Em   C
She said that she would wait for him
  G     D    C
And true she would remain,
   G    D     Em   C
'Til he returned to his Creole girl
    G     D   G
On the lakes of Pontchartrain


  G    D    Em   C
So fare thee well, my Creole girl
  G     D    G
I never may see you more
     G     D    Em  C
But I'll never forget your kindness
    G    D    C
In the cottage by the shore
    G  D   Em  C
And at each social gathering
  G   D     C
A flowing glass I'll drain
     G    D      Em   C
And I'll drink a health to my Creole girl
    G    D    G
By the lakes of Pontchartrain