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