Sweet Sunny South

Traditional

Key of G · Chords: I IV V

Verse 1

        G                                   D   D    Dsus4
Take me back to the place where I first saw the light
   G          G7          C
To that sweet sunny south take me home
      C7  G           C     G           D     Dsus4 D
Where the mockingbird sings me to sleep every night
   G       D         G
Oh why was I tempted to roam

Verse 2

I think with regret of the dear home I left
Of the warm hearts that sheltered me there
Of wife and of children of whom I’m bereft
Of the old place again do I sigh

Verse 3

        G                                        D   D Dsus4
Take me back to the place where the orange trees grow
   G          G7            C
To my plot in the evergreen shade
      C7  G            C           G     D           Dsus4 D
Where the flowers from the river’s green margins did grow
    G                  D             G
And spread their sweet scent through the glade

Verse 4

Take me back let me see what is left that I know
Could it be that the old house is gone
Dear friends from my childhood indeed must be few
And I must face death all alone

Verse 5

    G                                D     D    Dsus4
The path to our cottage they say has grown green
    G                  G7     C
And the place is quite lonely around
  C7   G        C          G           D    Dsus4 D
I know that the smiles and the forms I once knew
    G          D        G
Now lie ‘neath the cold mossy ground

Verse 6

But yet I return to the place of my birth
Where the children have played ‘round the door
Where they gathered wild blossoms that grew ‘round the path
Twill echo their footsteps no more

Verse 7

     G                                         D    D Dsus4
Take me back to the place where my little ones sleep
Where poor massa lies buried close by
O’er the graves of my loved ones I long for to weep
and rest there among them when I die