The Highwayman chords by Loreena Mckennitt

Chords with lyrics

Capo on 3rd (how I play it)

Intro: A minorAm Am7Am7 C majorC G+G A minorAm

Strumming pattern for intro: A minorAm || Am7Am7 | C majorC ||| G+G ||| A minorAm |||

Verse:

A minorAm                 C majorC    G+G   A minorAm
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
A minorAm                  C majorC    G+G   A minorAm
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
DmDm       G+G     C majorC     G+G
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
    DmDm   G+G    C majorC
And the highwayman came riding,
G+G
Riding, riding,
  A minorAm   C majorC    G+G     DmDm
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

    A minorAm                  C majorC    G+G      A minorAm
He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
  A minorAm            C majorC      G+G     A minorAm
A augmentedA coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
   DmDm     G+G   C majorC      G+G
They fitted with nary a wrinkle; his boots were up to the thigh
    DmDm     G+G    C majorC
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
  G+G
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
  A minorAm   C majorC   G+G      DmDm
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

A minorAm                C majorC       G+G  A minorAm
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark innyard,
A minorAm                        C majorC    G+G     A minorAm
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
  DmDm    G+G      C majorC      G+G
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there?
    DmDm     G+G      C majorC
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
G+G
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
A minorAm     C majorC    G+G      DmDm
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

   A minorAm               C majorC    G+G    A minorAm
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,
  A minorAm                   C majorC    G+G    A minorAm
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
  DmDm   G+G    C majorC      G+G
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
   DmDm   G+G     C majorC
Then look for me by the moonlight,
G+G
Watch for me by the moonlight,
   A minorAm   C majorC      G+G         DmDm
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way.

  A minorAm                C majorC      G+G     A minorAm
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand
     A minorAm                  C majorC     G+G   A minorAm
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
    DmDm    G+G   C majorC      G+G
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
    DmDm     G+G      C majorC
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
G+G
(Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight!)
     A minorAm      C majorC      G+G        DmDm
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

INTRO X2

  A minorAm               C majorC    G+G    A minorAm
He did not come at the dawning; he did not come at noon,
  A minorAm             C majorC    G+G      A minorAm
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
     DmDm     G+G    C majorC    G+G
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
 DmDm    G+G     C majorC
A augmentedA red-coat troop came marching,
G+G
Marching, marching
   A minorAm    C majorC    G+G      DmDm
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

   A minorAm                 C majorC     G+G
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
     A minorAm                    C majorC      G+G
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed
DmDm     G+G      C majorC       G+G
Two of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their side!
     DmDm    G+G   C majorC
There was death at every window
  G+G
And hell at one dark window;
  A minorAm     C majorC         G+G
For Bess could see, through the casement,
  DmDm
The road that he would ride.

     A minorAm               C majorC   G+G     A minorAm
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
     A minorAm                 C majorC    G+G     A minorAm
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
   DmDm    G+G        C majorC
"now keep good watch!" And they kissed her.
  G+G
She heard the dead man say
DmDm    G+G     C majorC
"Look for me by the moonlight
G+G
Watch for me by the moonlight
   A minorAm   C majorC     G+G         DmDm
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way!"

  A minorAm                 C majorC   G+G     A minorAm
She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!
  A minorAm                   C majorC    G+G    A minorAm
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
   DmDm      G+G        C majorC        G+G
They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years!
   DmDm     G+G     C majorC
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
G+G
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
  A minorAm     C majorC   G+G
The tip of one finger touched it!
  DmDm
The trigger at least was hers!

INTRO X2

A minorAm                   C majorC    G+G      A minorAm
Totelot-totelot! Had they heard it? The horse's hooves rang clear
A minorAm                      C majorC       G+G    A minorAm
Totelot-totelot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
DmDm    G+G     C majorC     G+G
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
  DmDm   G+G    C majorC
The highwayman came riding,
G+G
Riding, riding!
  A minorAm    C majorC        G+G
The red-coats looked to their priming!
   DmDm
She stood up straight and still!

A minorAm                 C majorC      G+G    A minorAm
Totelot in the frosty silence! Totelot, in the echoing night!
A minorAm               C majorC    G+G    A minorAm
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
   DmDm    G+G     C majorC      G+G
Her eyes grew wide for a moment! She drew one last deep breath,
     DmDm   G+G      C majorC
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
  G+G
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
A minorAm      C majorC       G+G       DmDm
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death.

INTRO x2

  A minorAm                 C majorC    G+G    A minorAm
He turned; he spurred to the west; he did not know she stood
A minorAm                       C majorC    G+G    A minorAm
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
  DmDm    G+G    C majorC       G+G
Not till the dawn he heard it; his face grew grey to hear
  DmDm    G+G     C majorC
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,

  G+G
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
  A minorAm       C majorC      G+G       A minorAm
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

A minorAm               C majorC      G+G      A minorAm
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky
A minorAm                       C majorC   G+G     A minorAm
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
   DmDm      G+G      C majorC           G+G
Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
      DmDm   G+G      C majorC
When they shot him down on the highway,
   G+G
Down like a dog on the highway,
    A minorAm     C majorC      G+G         DmDm
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.

INTRO X4

   A minorAm                   C majorC    G+G   A minorAm
Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
     A minorAm                 C majorC    G+G   A minorAm
When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,
     DmDm    G+G     C majorC     G+G
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
 DmDm   G+G    C majorC
A augmentedA highwayman comes riding,
G+G
Riding, riding,
 A minorAm     C majorC   G+G     DmDm
A augmentedA highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

INTRO X4