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Dave Van Ronk Tunings

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simplelines:
Hello.

I've been listening to Dave Van Ronk a lot more than I had been lately, so I've been paying attention to more things. One of the main things is all of the different tunings and capo positions he used throughout his career. The following is a list of tunings he used and the highest capo position I've seen or heard him play some of them. I've compiled it from multiple sources: all 3 of the tab books Mel Bay released, the instructional DVD, the 2 live performance DVD's, videos and comments on Youtube, message boards and bootleg audio.

Feel free to contribute.



Standard

Another Time and Place (capo 4)
Antelope Rag
Ballad of the IRT
Buckdancer's Choice
Buddy Bolden's Blues (capo 4)
Candyman
Cocaine Blues
Come Back Baby (capo 2)
Don't You Leave Me Here (capo 2)
Down South Blues (capo 3)
Dry Land Blues
Freight Train
Garden State Stomp
Gaslight Rag
God Bless the Child (capo 2)
He Was a Friend of Mine (capo 2)
Hesitation Blues (capo 6)
Jelly, Jelly (capo 2)
Mack the Knife (capo 7/9)
Mamie's Blues (capo 3)
Maple Leaf Rag
Mean World Blues
Midnight Hour Blues (capo 2)
One Kind Favor
One Meatball
Rocks and Gravel (capo 7)
Saturday Night Shuffle
Somebody Else, Not Me
Sometime (capo 4)
Spike Driver's Moan (capo 4)
St. James Infirmary
St. Louis Tickle
Stackerlee
Sugar Babe
Swinging on a Star
That Will Never Happen No More (capo 4)
Willie the Weeper (capo 4)
Wilson Rag
Yas, Yas, Yas (capo 3)
You've Been a Good Old Wagon (capo 3)



Drop D

Blood Red Moon
Buckets of Rain (capo 6)
Did You Hear John Hurt? (capo 2)
The Entertainer (capo 2)
Frankie's Blues
Green, Green Rocky Road (capo 2/4)
Kansas City Blues (capo 2)
Left Bank Blues
Losers (capo 2)
Old Blue (capo 4)
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out (capo 2)
Song to Woody (capo 2)
Sportin' Life Blues (capo 2)
Sunday Street (capo 2)



Drop C (CGDGBE)

Keep It Clean (capo 1)



Open D (DADF#AD)

Bad Dream Blues (capo 4)



Open C (CGCGCE)

Head Inspector
River (I'm not entirely sure about the tuning of this, but it is in a low C tuning)



Various

Jesus Met the Woman at the Well (CGDGBD) (capo 2)



That's all for now.

dspilkia:
He did a cover of the Joni Mitchell song Urge For Going.  I have always loved his arrangement and wonder if the tuning he used on it is not one of the tunings you have listed.  I forget which album he recorded this on.

Bob B:
"Urge for going" was recorded on an album simply titled Van Ronk.  It was released by Polydor.

Bob

Laura:
I'm going to add "Old Blue" from his album "Somebody else, not me" in Drop D, capo 4th.

simplelines:

--- Quote from: Laura on August 01, 2012, 03:48:13 PM ---I'm going to add "Old Blue" from his album "Somebody else, not me" in Drop D, capo 4th.

--- End quote ---

Thank you.

I just reorganized the list and added that.


For anyone curious...

In May, the following DVR albums were rereleased as digital-only downloads at Amazon.com, iTunes, among others:

(1964) Dave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug Stompers
(1964) Just Dave Van Ronk
(1966) No Dirty Names
(1968) Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters
(1971) Van Ronk
(1973) Songs for Ageing Children

This is great news since most of the vinyl rips around the web sound pretty rough.

Most of his discography is available in non-LP/vinyl form now.

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