Topic: asking for supposedly simple tabs

[flakey foont]

Hello at Weenie Campbell! I'd found myself browsing this forum more and more during the last months and was always impressed by the excellence here. no insults or impropriate answers, sounds like there are only people here who really wanna get somewhere. But now my actual point:
I've been making music for years now, but that kind of music doesn't really have anything to do with the blues. But since my earliest teen-age days, I've loved the blues and it never let me go. So I've come to start playing guitar about a month ago, partly to enrich my musical vocabulary, but foremost to play straight an directly on an instrument
(I've been around almost exclusively with gear and electronics before).
I can play simple melodies from records alright,or national anthems or commercial jingles, but I just don't get these blues done!

There is a couple of simple songs that i'd like to start with, and any help in the form of tabs would be greatly appreciated.
Now here they are:

Charlie Patton: Mississippi Boweavil Blues
                     Jesus Is A Dying-Bed Maker

Blind Willie Johnson: God Don't Never Change
                              Bye And Bye, Going To See The King

Son House: Preachin' The Blues, Pt.1

Mississippi Fred McDowell: Fred's Rambling Blues
                                      Shake 'Em On Down
                                      Going Down The River (This one's around as "You Done Told Everybody", "I Walked All The Way From East St. Louis" and others that i can't remember by now)

I've been searching the web for tabs to these, but to no avail.

If you can think of something simple that you consider good for a start, just let me know. You can probably guess from my selection what style of blues i'm into.
Thanks in advanve.

[Rivers]

Tabs are a rarity around here flakey, and welcome.

Some clues. Patton's Bo Weevil is played, some say and I agree, lap style with a knife and an under-the-strings or false nut capo.

The Fred tunes you mention are in open D. If you're handy with a bottleneck get in the same tuning and play along. In open D avoid hitting the open 3rd string, damp it or fret 1 (sus 4) or fret 3 (um, modal-ish)

BWJ God Don't Ever... is in his family of open-D tuning songs. Pay attention to the bass which personally I think sets BWJ apart from the rest of us mere mortals. Actually it's just one of the things. Damping behind the slide is another.

Better still come to Port Townsend workshop next month and I'll demonstrate to the best of my ability.

[banjochris]

Also, for Fred McDowell, look on YouTube -- there's a clip of "Going Down to the River" from the American Folk Blues Festival that you should be able to find -- you can also (and should) buy the DVD that it's on. Watching some of the old players can really be an eye-opener.
Chris

[flakey foont]

Thanks Guys, this forum is one hell of a fine place. As of now, I'm not really into playing bottleneck. i really just picked up the guitar 5 or 6 weeks ago and want to get my fingers
to work smoothly freely first before artificially stiffening one up now. Still looking forward to using it, but i feel it's just too soon. But I've tried the tunings and they are real fun to play with.

[Rivers]

By the way there is some debate whether Blind Willie Johnson played with a knife, maybe lapstyle. After watching Mance Lipscombe play BWJ covers on DVD with a jack knife I think it's highly possible. Mance gets that heavy, slippery and eerie sound better than people seem to with a bottleneck. BWJ's independent bass note hits also sound vaguely lap style to me.

The only photo of BWJ shows him playing a Gibson upright style, this could have been misleading. Of all the BWJ admirers I personally think Mance had it down best, personally. Ry Cooder and Fred had great versions but Mance and his knife actually sound like Willie for extended passages.

Chris is right, check out the Fred vids on youtube, also recommend his very first Alan Lomax recordings available on Rounder.

[GhostRider]

Charlie Patton: Mississippi Boweavil Blues
                     Jesus Is A Dying-Bed Maker

Blind Willie Johnson: God Don't Never Change
                              Bye And Bye, Going To See The King

Son House: Preachin' The Blues, Pt.1

Mississippi Fred McDowell: Fred's Rambling Blues
                                      Shake 'Em On Down
                                      Going Down The River (This one's around as "You Done Told Everybody", "I Walked All The Way From East St. Louis" and others that i can't remember by now)

Howdy:

Stefan Grossman TAB'd out Son's "Preachin' the Blues" in his old book "Delta Blues Guitar", which you should be able to find somewhere. He also TAB'd out a couple of Fred McDowell tunes in the same book, along with a few Booker White numbers, for the slide fans.

Alex