Only Our Rivers Run Free Chords

KeyC CapoNone TuningStandard Difficulty Plays802

Only Our Rivers Run Free by Christy Moore is a moderately challenging guitar song played in the key of C. It uses the chords C, G, F, Am and Em. Use the transpose and diagram tools on this page to change the key, see each shape, or simplify the chords.

Transpose
C
Text
16
Speed
  			 C                       G             C
    When apples still grow in November,
                F                     C                     G
    when blossoms still bloom on each tree,
               F                                        C
    when leaves are still green in December,
            G                                   Am
    it's then that our land will be free.
        F                               C                F                                   Em
    I wander her hills and valleys and still through my sorrow I see,
        F                                           C          G                           Am
    a land that has never known freedom, only her rivers run free.

        F                 G                  C
    I drink to the death of her manhood,
                 F                     C                  G
    those men who would rather have died
                 F                                     C
    than to live in the cold chains of bondage
           G                                          Am
    to bring back their rights were denied.
         F                                            C
    Where are you now, when we need you,
               F                                            Em
    what burns where the flame used to be?
                   F                                         C              G                           Am
    Are you gone like the snows of last winter, will only our rivers run free?

                 F        G                    C                F               C                     G
    How sweet is life but we're crying, how mellow the wine that were dry,
              F                                    C                G                              Am
    how fragrant the rose but it’s dying, how gentle the wind, but it sighs.
                F                                  C                  F                                 Em
    What good is youth when it’s ageing, what joy is in eyes that can see?
                           F                                    C
    when there’s sorrow in sunshine and flowers,
             G                          Am
    and only our rivers run free. 
    	

Chord diagrams

Guitar tuner

--
Start the tuner and play a string

Reference tones

Standard tuning, lowest to highest. Click a string to play it; the string the mic hears is highlighted.

Click Start tuner and allow microphone access. The needle centers and turns green when a string is in tune (within 5 cents).
No microphone? You can still tap any string above to hear its exact reference pitch.

Metronome

100 BPM Andante