Topic: Charlie McCoy's "Last Time Blues"

[Johnm]

Hi all,
In Charlie McCoy's "Last Time Blues", which he played as a slide piece in Vestapol, he employed a neat voicing for his IV7 and V7 chord that I've not heard anyone else use in that tuning.  When he goes to his IV chord, he drops out his bass altogether and voices the chord on the top three strings, like so:  X-X-X-5-5-3, a really nice close-voiced version of the IV7 chord in Vestapol.  He uses the same fingering two frets higher for his V7 chord.  Sometimes, behind the IV chord, he comes on and off the first string, from open to the third fret, getting a neat effect by moving from the unison with the fifth fret of the second string up to the seventh of the chord located at the third fret.  He uses a two-string version of the voicing up at the twelfth and tenth frets of the second and first strings, respectively, behind his I chord, too.
"Last Time Blues" can be found on the old Yazoo "Jackson Blues" anthology, and also on last year's JSP box set, "When The Levee Breaks, Mississippi Blues".
All best,
Johnm

[uncle bud]

A great tune, John. Another one I'm surprised I don't hear more people play (or anyone play) since it's a nice slide tune that appears on a bunch of slide compilations as I recall.

I will have to check this with an actual guitar because I could be way off-base, but the sound of the voicing for this IV7 chord after listening to Last Time Blues reminds me of the Mississippi Sheiks, in particular the guitar in the intro to Stop and Listen. Which would be strange, since that's in dropped D, not Vestapol. But that's what my brain is telling me I hear this morning...

[Johnm]

Hi, Andrew,
No, your ears aren't playing tricks on you.  That is great hearing on your part.  Walter Vinson's voicing of the IV7 chord in "Stop and Listen" is precisely the same one Charlie McCoy used in "Last Time Blues", altered to work in dropped-D tuning, of course.  It lives at 4-3-1 on the top three strings in dropped-D. 
The earliest place I've heard this particular voicing of the IV7 chord is in Lemon's music. He loved to use it in A, up the neck, as in "Rabbit's Foot".  For Lemon, that IV7 chord, D7 for him, is located at 8-10-11 on the first three strings and can be gotten into handily by pivoting off of the ring finger (fingering the second string) of an A chord out of the D shape up at 9-10-9 of the first three strings.  In this pivoting move, the ring finger holds its ground, the index finger pulls back from the ninth fret of the third string to the 8th fret of the first string, and the little finger comes forward to the eleventh fret of the third string.  It's a funny move when you first do it, but the key is not to lift the ring finger in the shift between the two shapes.  If you lift your hand off of the fingerboard altogether in the transition between the shapes it is next to impossible to find the D7 shape in musical time.
Bo Carter later used Lemon's move to great effect in many of his G6 tuning songs like "I Want You To Know" and the solo to "Arrangement For Me Blues".
All best,
Johnm   

[waxwing]

Doesn't Tommy Johnson use a similar move at the very end of the tag on Canned Heat Blues, altho' I don't think he strikes the third string, so I've never covered the 4th fret.

As I do throuout the song, I play the mini-barre form of the D chord with my middle finger on the 2nd string, 3rd fret and just lift the index from the barre back to the first string and back. I can pretty easily add the ring on the 3rd string 4th fret. Cool!

All for now.
John C.

[Johnm]

That's a nice alternate fingering, John C., good for you!
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
It occurred to me that if you wanted to do a Vestapol version of the Walter Vinson dropped-D lick that Andrew alluded to from "Stop and Listen", simply precede the IV7 voicing Charlie McCoy used:  X-X-X-5-5-3 with this I chord, converted to suit Vestapol:   0-0-0-3-5-4.  You won't find too many other people fighting you for this lick!
All best,
Johnm