Kern River Chords

KeyD CapoNone TuningStandard Difficulty Plays384

Kern River by Merle Haggard is a moderately challenging guitar song played in the key of D. It uses the chords D, A, E, E7, C#m and E9. Use the transpose and diagram tools on this page to change the key, see each shape, or simplify the chords.

Transpose
D
Text
16
Speed
  			     D                      A
I'll never swim Kern River again.
A
It was there that I met her.
A                                E      E7
It was there that I lost my best friend.
          D
And now I live in the mountains.
  C#m                      D
I drifted up here with the wind.
          A
And I may drown in still water,
         E                      A
But I'll never swim Kern River again.
VERSE
       A
I grew up in an oil town,
       D                 A
But my gusher never came in.
           A
And the river was a boundary
A                               E    (E7) E9
Where my  darlin' and I used to swim.


A
One night in the moonlight
D                              A
The swiftness swept here life away.
A
And now I live on Lake Shasta and
A    E                      A
Lake Shasta is where I will stay.
A
There's  the South San Joaquin,
          D                          A
Where the seeds of the dust bowl are found.
A
And there's a place called Mount Whitney
A                                      E   (E7) E9
>From where the mighty Kern River comes down.
           A
Well, it's not  deep nor wide,
A          D                      A
But it's a mean piece of water my friend.
A
And I may cross on the highway,
         E                     A
But I'll never swim Kern River again


CHORUS
    	

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