Chords + Lyrics | Nutbush City Limits
Intro
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :|| x3
| C | C | G | G |
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :||
Verse 1
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :|| x4
A church house, gin house. A school house, outhouse.
On Highway Number Nineteen. The people keep the city clean.
| C | C | G | G |
They call it Nutbush, oh, Nutbush.
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :||
Call it Nutbush city limits.
Verse 2
Twenty-five was the speed limit. Motorcycle not allowed in it.
You go to store on Fridays. You go to church on Sundays.
They call it Nutbush, that little ol’ town, oh, Nutbush.
They call it Nutbush city limits.
Verse 3
You go to field on weekdays. And have a picnic on Labor Day.
You go to town on Saturdays. But go to church ev’ry Sunday.
They call it Nutbush, oh, Nutbush.
They call it Nutbush city limits.
Solo
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :|| x4
| C | C | G | G |
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :||
Verse 4
No whiskey for sale. You get caught, no bail.
Saltpork and molasses. Is all you get in jail.
They call it Nutbush, oh, Nutbush.
Yeah, they call it Nutbush city. Nutbush city limits
Outro
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :||
Little old town in Tennessee.
It’s called a quiet, little old community.
A one-horse town. You have to watch what you’re puttin’ down.
In old Nutbush. They call it Nutbush.
Nutbush City Limits Backing Track | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Nutbush City Limits. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, horns, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar sharp to 441Hz. In the backing track, I’ve done this job for you by detuning it to 440Hz. You won’t hear the difference, but you may feel it as you play along.
Chord Progression – What’s Going On?
The chord progression remains consistent throughout, with only minor variations. The main riff features 6 and dom7 extensions, to play it accurately, you’ll need TAB, find it further down this guitar lesson.
Once you’ve mastered the riff, reading the chords like this will be enough:
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :|| x4
Beyond the riff, the song moves to C (bIIIx) and G (bVIIx). You could also interpret these as I and V in Am, meaning there’s a modal interchange at play.
Once you’ve worked through the riff using the TAB, this chord chart is all you’ll need.
Nutbush City Limit Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Nutbush City Limit chord chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: Nutbush City Limit iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Nutbush City Limits | TAB
The chords are the same throughout, with only a few small tweaks. The intro repeats the A chords three times rather than four, and the outro stays on the A chords to fade.
Using TAB, the riff played over the A chords is a nice variation on Chuck Berry’s classic Honky Tonk riff. When Ike plays it in Nutbush, it looks like this:
For the C and G chords, you could adapt this riff to suit these chords as well, or just play them straight—perhaps varying the chord shapes.
Nutbush City Limits Chords: Continue Learning
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