John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man chords by The Carter Family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDVNRJ227lU

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
John Hardy was a desperate little man,
   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: