Feb162024

The Dillards – Darlin Boys Chords on Piano & Ukulele

ChordsE B A C#m

KeyKeyCapo

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[Intro]
E

[Verse 1]
E
Well up on the middle
of the mountain side
Where the red and the
                B
 Gray Squirrels play
        A
And the sound of a fiddle
          E
when the old man died
Would've carried his
       C#m
soul awa-aay

[Verse 2]
B    E
 And some boys hammered
on the steel all day

And some put a furrow
        B
 in the ground
    A
But nobody did it
          E
like the darlin' boys
When the fiddle and
               C#m
the bow came do-own
         A
When the fiddle and
     B        E
 the bow came down

[Chorus]
       B
Oh the darlin' boys,
they all dressed funny

An the darlin' boys,
they talked real slow

But nobody didn it
like the darlin' boys
        A
When it came to
the old ban-jooo
        E
When it came to
     B      E
the old banjo

[Instrument]
E    B    A    E
   C#m    A  B  E

[Verse 3]
     E
Well down in the middle
 of a one horse town
Where the people
          B
 stand up high
     A
They pay by the gallon,
          E
 when the boys came down
Cause the little town
     C#m
 was dry-yyy

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[Verse 4]
B        E
 For the darlin' boys,
they trapped on the river

And darlin' boys made
              B
 shine in the night
A
Nobody did it like
      E
the darlin' boys

When the time of the
          C#m
 moon was ri-iight
         A
When the time of
     B        E
the moon was right

[Chorus]
         B
Well the darlin' boys,
they all dressed funny

An the darlin' boys,
 they talked real slow

But nobody didn it
like the darlin' boys
        A
When it came to the
 old ban-jooo
        E
When it came to
    B      E
the old banjo

[Chorus]
         B
Well the darlin' boys,
 they all dressed funny

An the darlin' boys,
 they talked real slow

But nobody didn it
like the darlin' boys
        A
When it came to
the old ban-jooo
        E
When it came to
     B      E
the old banjo

[Outro]
E    B   A  E
 C#m    A  B  E

E   B  A  E
 C#m    A  B  E

Watch: Darlin' Boys

From The Dillards - Topic on YouTube. Play along with the chords above.

How to play Darlin Boys: key, chords and progression

These are Darlin Boys chords by The Dillards on Piano, Ukulele, Guitar, and Keyboard.

To play Darlin Boys by The Dillards, think in E major (four sharps: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯). It takes 4 chords: E, B, A and C#m.

The progression the song keeps returning to is E – B – A – E (I – V – IV – I in E major). In solfa, that is doh – soh – fah – doh. Learn these 4 changes first and most of the song falls into place.

Easier on guitar: put a capo on the 2nd fret and play the shapes D, A, G, Bm (75% of the chords become easy open shapes, against 50% without a capo). It sounds exactly the same.