Topic: Two Dock Boggs tunes

[banjochris]

Here are a couple of Dock Boggs songs as requested -- New Prisoner's Song and Drunkard's Lone Child -- the first is played up-picking style (with down brushes) out of gCGBD tuning in C (tuned low) -- the second is three-finger thumb lead in f#CGAD tuning.

Hope you like.

Chris

[Slack]

Really great Chris! - the recording quality sounds very good.  Is this a single or multi-track?

Also, only one tune made it (Drunkard's Lone Child) - so please post the other!

cheers,
slack

[banjochris]

D'oh! Here's the other tune. BTW both were recorded on a little 4-track machine on 3 tracks, vocal and banjo recorded together, then I overdubbed the guitar.
Chris

[Johnm]

Thanks for posting these tunes, Chris, they sound really good.  I especially like "Drunkard's Lone Child".  What a dark song, even compared to Dock's other songs in this tuning!  There is not a lot of hope in that song, and it's particularly spooky with the ghostly visitation from the mother beyond the grave.  I would really like to know where Dock got this song; it far surpasses the creepy sentimentality that a lot of the parlor songs featured.  Great job on the playing and singing.
All best,
Johnm

[uncle bud]

Really great. What a tune Drunkard's Lone Child is. Yikes.

[thehook]

wow!!!!!!!!!!!! that is great stuff. Dock was the reason I picked up a banjo and started singin. I am only 16 and can't really do much yet espically in the way of figuring out old Boggs tunes. How did you go about doing it? How old are you? How long have you been pickin and singin for? Lastly I know, I know I should learn by ear but could you tab this out I think it repeats itself mostly so it shouldn't be to hard. It would make a kid really happy. Oh ya, what do you mean by tuned low? Like an octave below normal for all strings because I can't even tune by ear yet and use a chromatic tuner.
thanks
GREAT SONGS!!!!!!!!!!

[Bill Roggensack]

Chris - your playing and singing sound great! Doc Boggs would probably approve. I'm with JohnM and Uncle Bud - "Drunkard's Lone Child" is some peice of work. I have heard "New Prisoner's Song" (on the Revenant recording), but DLC was new to me. Thanks for posting these two items.

[Mike Billo]

   Great stuff, Chris. Congratulations. Are these two tunings, ones that you figured out from listening to Dock Boggs, or are they ones you adapted for your own performance?
   I've spent many frustrating hours trying to figure out his tunings and at one point, was convinced that he's mostly in open G, but playing in other keys in that tuning. Then,  I was of the opinion that his tuning changes for nearly every song.
   Now I realize, I have no clue. HA!
   Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Mike
   

[frankie]

Nice job, Chris - you've got a great touch on the banjo.

[banjochris]

Just got back from Christmas and New Year's in Hawaii (I won a trip, how's that for luck?) and I'll reply to a couple of posts in one go here.

Are these two tunings, ones that you figured out from listening to Dock Boggs, or are they ones you adapted for your own performance?....? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Those are Dock Boggs' tunings. If you want the tunings for all his pieces, there's a website called www.longtimecoming.com that has them all, and a bunch of information besides that.

Dock was the reason I picked up a banjo and started singin. I am only 16 and can't really do much yet espically in the way of figuring out old Boggs tunes. How did you go about doing it? How old are you? How long have you been pickin and singin for? Lastly I know, I know I should learn by ear but could you tab this out I think it repeats itself mostly so it shouldn't be to hard. It would make a kid really happy. Oh ya, what do you mean by tuned low?

First, I'm 32 and have been playing guitar since I was 17 (banjo a little less than that). The trick to learning is to listen as much as you can and get tips from other people that know how to do it. Tab can help some, but I find tab particularly unhelpful for learning most banjo tunes. I'd be glad to try to tab those two tunes out, though, and see if it will help. It may take me a few days, though. I would highly recommend you purchase the tape/DVD "Shady Grove" from Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop as it has the only known footage of Boggs playing, so you can see what he's doing; also check out that site I mentioned above. As far as tuning low, I mean that if the banjo was at what's considered "concert pitch," the tuning for "New Prisoner's Song" would be gCGBD. But Boggs (and me, usually) tunes a step low or so to match his voice, meaning the real tuning is something like fB-flatFAC.
Chris

[thehook]

thanks for your time sir.

[Wayne]

Chris.....I downloaded a whole load of back porch tunes the other day and was listening to them last night.....'Drunkard's Lone Child' came on and I thought for a minute a Dock Bogg's track had somehow sneaked onto the playlist.....I 'm very familiar with Boggs' version of it for Folkways in the 60's, and you had it down voice and all...superb.

[banjochris]

Thanks for the kind words, Wayne. I was kind of proud of that one my ownself.
Chris

[37 Gibson]

That's very nice...I continue to be amazed by the quality of the music that gets posted here.

[Pan]

Thank You Chris

I really enjoyed your songs!

Yours

Pan