...and the next night you'd go and play the gig, and I'd say, 'Got it NOW! Hey, you wanna play that song?' And it was different again - Jerry Ricks, Port Townsend 97
New vistas have been opened for me (once again) in the Land of the Wonderfully and Hopelessly Arcane. Thanks for your links and suggestions...I could easily spend the rest of the night (it's approaching midnight in New England) following the threads about instruments and sound. I will plunge back in tomorrow.
But to answer another of your questions: No, I have very rarely heard guitar players talk about sound...and I've hung out with a bunch of them, and for a very long time. Practically everybody I have played with has but one play-out guitar -- generally a Martin D-Something-Or-Other -- and maybe a few vintage wall-hangers -- invariably left at home. I don't believe I've ever seen anyone else show up for a musical evening with TWO guitars...much less the three or four (not to mention the two or three banjos) that I always seem to be schlepping in as completely indispensable to proper song settings for even a short set.
Heh, heh. Well, Doc, I guess you've just never hung out with any country blues guitarists. Heck, I've even been in heated discussions about whether slot heads had better tone than paddle heads.-G-
Obviously tone is much more of a concern for those playing solo. Anyone playing in a group, especially with a banjo or mando as it seems most of your friends are accustomed to, is probably more interested in volume than tone. That's what those big dreds are all about.
All for now. John C.
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"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it." George Bernard Shaw
“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.” Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Ok, I can take as well as give I've been working on this monster for a couple years & this is the closest I've come to getting it . . . those licks are simple but tricky & do have somewhat of a sequence . . . Tommy's version sounds like something God dreamt, it's beyond beautiful. In 'E'. Thanks to banjochris for the lyric transcription . . . relistening tells me that I followed Johnson's accent a bit much . . . oh well, it'll come out in the wash!
Hey man, nice playing and good singing and a very good sound, it's as it should be. One of Tommy's best songs.
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I met a woman she was a pigmeat some Big fat mouth, I followed her home She pulled a gun and broke my jaw Didnt leave me hard on, I didnt get sore
Compared to Tommy's version you're rushing it slightly. I's suggest a slower tempo so you would have the time to emphasis certain words, like Tommy shows, and to put more emotion in it. I'm also missing a bit Tommy's powerful vibrato which he even demonstrates in the falsetto sections. Nevertheless a fine performance that shows you've been working on it. Carl
Some good points made there mate but still it was an excellent performance and you would have to admit, trying to get close to Tommys vibrato, feel and falsetto is an awesome task, that man had a very unique and subtle sound. I have seen your videos often so I know you know what you are talking about, I like the little twist you give to Blake's tunes, I daresay I will listen to this mp3 demo again.
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I met a woman she was a pigmeat some Big fat mouth, I followed her home She pulled a gun and broke my jaw Didnt leave me hard on, I didnt get sore
Hey CF, I really like it. Way to rescue a song destroyed by surface noise and Paramount recording techniques. Pacing and vibrato weren't an issue for me, though can understand how slowing things down might be worth a shot. Still, you sound perfectly relaxed and natural, so it doesn't sound rushed. Really nice falsetto, IMO, again very natural sounding. You still flatpicking? Every thought of hybrid picking? Only reason I ask is having seen Craig Ventresco recently, I wonder whether some country blues players used that technique. Some of them sound like they're flatpicking at times, but not always, and not even always within the same tune (i.e. a tune may sound mostly flatpicked, then all of a sudden two notes seem struck together etc). Not Tommy, but I could see it for Blind Lemon in certain tunes.
Anyway, I think this is great, I'm gonna steal it. Always loved playing Tommy Johnson.
LOL the only recording technique those Paramount boys knew was to buy several strong bottles and get themselves and the musicians very drunk, the grog may have a lot to do with it, despite the terrible technology they used you do get much of the atmosphere seeping out, we know Tommy Johnson loved a drink and that must affect how he plays and sings and I am glad because I love the reults.
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I met a woman she was a pigmeat some Big fat mouth, I followed her home She pulled a gun and broke my jaw Didnt leave me hard on, I didnt get sore
Yep UB, still flatpicking . . . but finally playing with a thumbpick too which has been a gas. Felt completely alien at first, that big hunk o' plastic on my thumb, but it started feeling good pretty quickly . . . learning some BB Fuller with the thumbpick . . . still, I ain't as proficient with it as I am with the flatpick . . . I'm not familiar with 'hybrid picking', what is it? . . . Slidin Delta by Tommy J is just such a wonderful tune, the feel & the patience in the playing, I can't say enough about it. 'Lonesome Home Blues' (the second one) is another mesmerizing song . . . Johnson was certainly tapping into something no one else was, very deep music.
I still can't handle a thumbpick and bare fingers, it's either nare skin all the way or thumbpick and two fingerpicks, I find I have more control if all digits are away from the strings. I like the result with thumbpicks especially if on a resonator because of the volume and extra definition, I predict you will probably be trying the fingerpicks and liking it. As for hybrid picking it is fingers and flat pick but for the usual country blues I don't like it at all, there's less strength there but hybrid picking is great for electric guitar playing I wouldn't recommend for country blues fingerpicking. It was till I saw Ari Eisinger playing very complex Blind Blake stuff that I realised that maybe, just maybe it is possible for me to try, it has solved many sonic problems particular to my guitars performance, before I tried the guitar was just to damn quiet, now it is a beast.
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I met a woman she was a pigmeat some Big fat mouth, I followed her home She pulled a gun and broke my jaw Didnt leave me hard on, I didnt get sore
I have since begun fingerpicking in earnest, bare fingered or thumb and forefinger pick . . . I play this fingerpicked now, thanks for the good words. I got a Zoom H4N & am starting to work on a Tommy Johnsons cover EP