Hi all,
I had assumed for decades that Henry Townsend's early solo numbers were all played in cross-note tuning, with the exception of "Don't Love That Woman", which banjochris noted in the "Adventures in Spanish" thread was played in Spanish tuning. In listening to Henry's four tunes from his first session just now I noticed that three of the songs, "Henry's Worry Blues", "Mistreated Blues" and "Poor Man Blues" were played in cross-note, but that the fourth, "Long Ago", was played in E position in standard tuning. You can hear him hitting a rasty brushed IV note in the bass behind his singing from beginning to end in the song. Near the front end of the song, he brushes a triplet slide into this position on the second and third strings, fourth fret third string and third fret on the second string, and you can hear him hitting the open fourth string on the follow-through of the brush. It sounds an octave below the note he's sliding into on the second string, which makes it the flat VII note of the key he's playing in. Taken in combination with bass runs he plays in his opening and concluding solos, it's pretty clear he played "Long Ago" in standard tuning.
This goes some way towards clearing up something that had always puzzled me: in his post-rediscovery years, Henry Townsend played pretty much everything out of E position in standard tuning, yet seemed able to get much of the sound that he achieved in his early cross-note pieces. Of course, cross-note and E in standard tuning are quite similar, but the fact that Henry had playing in E position in standard tuning from early on in his career makes his facility in that position in his later life somewhat less mysterious.
All best,
Johnm
