Topic: Miller's Breakdown

[Slack]

OK, Johnm cleverly gave me enough time to find a guitar.

I'm sticking with A standard for Central Ave Blues... one step up.

I agree with Dave on I Get Evil Dropped D, one step up.

Ms Juke Band - I'm tempted to go with the pitch -- Bflat, but would make more sense for piano at C, so agree with Dave again. 

No idea on guitarist.

[David Kaatz]

Without playing it again, I'm inclined to think that A shape is the likely answer for Central Ave Blues too.

Dave

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I'm not intending on supplying the answers here imminently, so there is time for more folks to post their answers if they're so inclined.
All best,
Johnm

[mr mando]

Don't have a guitar at hand, but guessing from what I hear:

Central Ave Blues: A pos. std. tuning (agree with Slack)
I Get Evil: Dropped D (agree with Slack and davek)
Skippy Whippy: G pos. std. tuning (capoed up)

[Prof Scratchy]

I agree with mr mando's answers for all three.

[Old Man Ned]

In agreement with A standard for Central Ave blues though to be honest on first hearing I was considering C (don't know why now I've listened again).

For I Get Evil I was hearing this in E and thinking standard but listening after reading Mr Mando's post, I too think it's dropped D capoed up 2 frets.

The Skippy Whippy boogie pattern I was hearing in Bb flat.  Hadn't occurred to me that it cold be G capoed up 3 frets, but yeah, that sounds good to me.  Haven't got a Scooby who the guitar player is.  I think of plenty of guitar players it's not 

[blueshome]

A, Dropped D, Spanish

[banjochris]

Agree with Phil on this one.

[frankie]

I agree with Phil & Chris...  and jpeters609 nailed the guitarist - Blind Roosevelt Graves!

[Gumbo]

Quick listen through and I'd hazard

A position standard
E standard
something not standard :p

[Johnm]

Hi all,
It seems like people who wished to respond to the puzzlers probably have done so by now, so here are the answers.  It's great to have so many people participating.
   * Will Day's "Central Avenue Blues" was played out of A standard as Slack had it early on and everybody pretty much ended up agreeing.  It is a really fine example of an early "Texas A blues".  It has some neat touches--going to the bVI chord, F, in the sixth bar, and sliding up to the J. T. Smith D7 chord, 4-5-3-5 on the top four strings, in the tenth bar.  Cool clarinet, too.
   * Gabriel Brown's "I Get Evil When My Love Comes Down" was played out of dropped-D tuning, as many of you had it.  Dropped-D can best be distinguished from E standard by a couple of sound characteristics:
     1) Dropped-D puts the third of the I chord on the first string.  E can do that as well, if the player is using a D shape moved up two frets, but more often, E position puts the I note on the first string. 
     2) When dropped-D goes to the IV7 chord, very often you hear the movement that Gabriel Brown used here:  the F# third of the I chord on the first string resolves down one half step into F, the seventh of the IV7 chord, G7, and the open fifth string in the D chord walks up to the second fret B, which is the third of the G7 chord.  It's a very distinctive dropped-D sound, and it can be heard in a host of dropped-D tunes of the "Big Road Blues"/Stop and Listen" family.
     3) The V chord in D, A or A7, sounds nothing like the V7 chord in E, B7.
Gabriel Brown made more extensive use of dropped-D tuning than any other early Country Blues guitarist, and unlike some of the Texas players, only used it to play in D, never in A, on his recordings where he used that tuning.
   * For "Skippy Whippy", Jeff gets credit for the first naming of the guitarist, Roosevelt Graves, who did play his guitar part for "Skippy Whippy" in Spanish tuning, as Phil, Chris and Frank had it.  A couple of aural giveaways of Roosevelt Graves' use of Spanish tuning:
     1) His V7 chord has that drony, "no third" sound that the V7 chord characteristically has in Spanish, fingered at 0-2-1-0 on the top four strings, and voiced Root-V-bVII-Root.
     2) Roosevelt Graves liked to use a barred IV chord, barring the top four or five strings at the fifth fret (relative to his capo placement).  You can hear the I chord move up, voicing intact, into the IV chord.  It is much more difficult, and as a result less commonly done, to move a I chord up the neck, shape intact, to get a IV chord in standard tuning.
Roosevelt Graves always had such a beautiful tone, and I think there is a very good chance that he flat-picked everything on his recordings.  All of his recorded numbers were played out of Spanish tuning, and it is unfortunate, from a listening point of view, that a very high percentage of his recordings are really whupped, and hard to hear.  For guitarists there is an additional frustration, perhaps, that he was so often paired with really strong, florid pianists, and the recording technology of the time wasn't able to capture both the piano and the guitar with any kind of dynamic parity.  Oh well, straining to hear is probably good for us.
Thanks to everyone who participated.  There were a very high percentage of correct answers and congratulations to Phil for being the earliest poster to get all three songs spot on, and to Chris and Frank for getting them as well.  I'll look for another good puzzler to post soon.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I would very much appreciate some help finishing the tagline to the fifth verse of Will Day's "Central Avenue Blues".  You can listen to it at:  http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=10188.msg93654#msg93654 .  Thanks for your help.
All best,
Johnm

[Slack]

I beat the train to the [         ] and I [              ] down

I hear: I beat the train to the corner...

no idea on the second one,  mighty tough!

[Johnm]

I think you're right on that first space, Slack.  I'm now hearing

   I beat the train to the corner and I flagged the [copper?] down

I'm pretty sure "corner" and "flagged" are right, not certain what exactly was flagged down, though.

All best,
Johnm

[Slack]

Phonetically it sounds like 'tussler' ... which could make sense in the context as well.

There are some interesting urban definitions of 'tussle'!