Nutbush City Limits | Chords + Lyrics
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 Chords: Learn the progressions
Should you play along with the original recording, you might find it nicer to tune up a few Hz to around 444. My free online guitar tuner can help you with this.
The chords are the same throughout with only a few small tweaks. The main riff uses the extensions 6 and dom7, to find out exactly how you’ll need TAB.
Here’s a link to that part of the lesson: Nutbush City Limits – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Once you’ve got that down, just reading the chords like this will be enough:
||: A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A :|| x4
Apart from this riff, you go to C, which is a bIIIx chord, and G which is a bVIIx. You could also see this as being chords I and V from the key of Am, which means we have a modal interchange.
Having understood the riff using the TAB, this chord chart is all you need.

Nutbush City Limit Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
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 Limit is a great encore for the working band!
Tina Turner mainly sang covers but in the case of Nutbush City Limits, she wrote it.
Released in 1973 as a single off the album of the same name by Ike and Tina Turner, it charted in the top 20 in over ten countries.
In 1990, she rereleased it as a solo artist on the album Simply the Best (1991) as well as a single with The Best as a B-side.
This album, by the way, is an incredible representation of Tina Turner’s impressive catalogue, you’ll also find What’s Love Got to Do with It, I Can’t Stand the Rain, Let’s Stay Together, Private Dancer, We Don’t Need Another Hero, River Deep – Mountain High, Steamy Windows, It Takes Two, and Addicted To Love. No wonder it sold 7 million copies!
I’ve found that Nutbush City Limits is an excellent alternative to Proud Mary as an Encore for a Motown/Soul band.
Nutbush City Limits Chords | Related Pages
Nutbush City Limits | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Nutbush City Limits by Tina Turner using TAB and chord analysis.
| A A6 A A6 A | A7 A6 A A6 A |
A church house, gin house…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Tina Turner tunes
Tina Turner was discovered by Ike, joined his band, and even married him. Together they achieved great success with many hits.
Off stage, Ike was an abusive husband, when they divorced Tina would embark on a remarkable solo career and Ike would end up the most hated man in America.
Tina Turner on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Nutbush City Limits’ chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.