Stephen Foster Song Chords
Songs by America's first professional songwriter (1826–1864), long in the public domain and still sung everywhere. Open any song for its chords over lyrics, fretboard diagrams, key, tempo, and verified source attribution.
Foster's harmony sits kindly under beginner fingers — Oh! Susanna is three chords at a trot.
Stephen Foster songs with chords
Parlor songs and minstrel tunes
Stephen Foster (1826–1864) is known as the father of American music. Camptown Races was one of his minstrel songs; from the early 1850s he turned mostly to parlor music, which amateur singers and pianists performed at home. Oh! Susanna dates from 1848 and Camptown Races from 1850. My Old Kentucky Home followed in 1853, and in 1854 came Hard Times Come Again No More and Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, written for his wife Jane. Beautiful Dreamer was published in 1864, after his death. His lyrics have often been altered by publishers and performers, and some of the original wording is considered offensive today.
On guitar the harmony stays plain. Camptown Races and Oh! Susanna need only G, C and D7. Beautiful Dreamer and Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair add A7, and Hard Times Come Again No More and My Old Kentucky Home add Em, so each of those four asks for one new shape beyond the basic three.
Give Camptown Races and Oh! Susanna a bouncing bass-and-brush strum, thumb on the root and a quick sweep across the top strings. Let Hard Times Come Again No More and Beautiful Dreamer ring in a slow rolling arpeggio. A capo at the 2nd fret lifts the G shapes to A for a higher voice.
Why these songs are free to play
Every entry is strictly public-domain or traditional, source-attributed, and charted as chords — so you can learn, play, and share without any copyright worry.