[burningice]

Give me a good running list of country tabs.
Are most of them just flat out chords? Most of the ones that I see when Im looking them up are just a series of Am and G, C and G... do most country songs keep it simple? And, if not, give me a few good "detailed" skill needed country tabs.. Ive got a friend who is obsessed with country, Im not all that much of a critic towards it myself, Just wanted to find a few good ones to try out.
(More recent than old if possible!)

Thanks

[dadfad]

A lot of country stuff is very simple, especially mainstream-country. Most "recent" country tunes are band-oriented. There's more acoustic and solo-acoustic if you look towards the older stuff. If you're looking for challenging stuff, Doc Watson and Merle Travis have some good ones. Some of it sounds better with a band but a lot of it works great for solo or duet. There are some real fingerstyle masters in country from the past. (And I don't mean Bluegrass, where speed-picking seems to be the biggest goal, over musicality and technique. I'm not a big Bluegrass fan myself, I think of it as not much more than "Country-shred." But to each his own.) Anyway, most of the better country-based stuff isn't that recent. Think of it in the same way as comparing older classic-rock to more modern rock stuff quality-wise. That's what I mean.

[TheJosh]

i didnt know doc picked with merle travis....sweet

i know he picked with melre watson..RIP

[TheSwedishScream]

I'm a country rock artist...and what the other dude said pretty much goes. Country is a lot more about lyrics than the music (imho)...The newer stuff to me, is not TRUE country, but nevertheless still good music.


btw, I listened to your myspace...sounds pretty good...but some FEELING into your voice though

[dadfad]

i didnt know doc picked with merle travis....sweet

i know he picked with melre watson..RIP

I didn't mean playing together, Josh. I just meant as individual artists. Yeah, Doc and his (late) son Merle did a lot of nice stuff together.

[burningice]

Thanks for the recommend, Ill be sure to check them out. I think youre right with what you say. Thats why its been so hard to find anything. ha, I need to go look up Johnny Cash now. Thanks again dadfad, I think the main reason I start these topics is to wait for your input

[dadfad]

Thanks! There are some decent older ones. "Deep River Blues" by Doc Watson is a nice one. Challenging but not ridiculously so. Some nice straightforward fingerstyle with decent chord voicing changes. Merle Travis has quite a few, a number of them instrumentals like "Saturday Night Shuffle" and "Cannonball Rag" (both pretty challenging) or with vocals like his version of "John Henry" or "Nine Pound Hammer." My favorite Merle-tune is probably "Start Even" (which as far as I know is the only tune he ever actually recorded as an acoustic-solo piece.) A really nice tune, as well as a true study of just what can be done with a 12-bar in E.

You can always take an old country tune and just "do it right." I have an arrangement of the old Stephen Foster tune (is that an oldie or what?) "Hard Times Come Again No More," that I do as a pretty decent fingerstyle acoustic-solo piece (which I've also done playing out as a duet with my daughter, both of us playing acoustic guitar and singing harmonized vocals in it) in an old-time style. That's just an example. When you see a tune and you like it but think you can take it somewhere else where you want it to be, just do it!

[Stratatat]

One of my guitar friends always says " There are no minors (chords) in country" and this next song is called "Three chords in a dustcloud". No matter what I play I always ask him if he's gonna take it for a ride in the country.

[bottom_string]

Country is about the simplest genre to play on guitar. Especially the older stuff, some of the newer stuff can get more complicated, especially Keith Urban. I really like his music.

-B_S

[ninjato]

Wynonna Judd

Rosanne Cash

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Nancy Griffith

Brad Paisley

Randy Travis

Dolly Parton

come to mind

All great easy strumming songs.

[TheJosh]

Thanks! There are some decent older ones. "Deep River Blues" by Doc Watson is a nice one. Challenging but not ridiculously so. Some nice straightforward fingerstyle with decent chord voicing changes. Merle Travis has quite a few, a number of them instrumentals like "Saturday Night Shuffle" and "Cannonball Rag" (both pretty challenging) or with vocals like his version of "John Henry" or "Nine Pound Hammer." My favorite Merle-tune is probably "Start Even" (which as far as I know is the only tune he ever actually recorded as an acoustic-solo piece.) A really nice tune, as well as a true study of just what can be done with a 12-bar in E.

You can always take an old country tune and just "do it right." I have an arrangement of the old Stephen Foster tune (is that an oldie or what?) "Hard Times Come Again No More," that I do as a pretty decent fingerstyle acoustic-solo piece (which I've also done playing out as a duet with my daughter, both of us playing acoustic guitar and singing harmonized vocals in it) in an old-time style. That's just an example. When you see a tune and you like it but think you can take it somewhere else where you want it to be, just do it!

im trying to teach myself deep river blues (ok maybe i peeked as some tabs...) and its pretty hard there, bro- i'm now really trying to get into some really pickin'- like not just playing random stuff under an alternating bass but like really get into some gnarly gnarly pickin'- like not taking it and altering to make it easier but really getting up in there

thanks for the myspace comment bro- some of those recordings are sketch and im not sure which ones i sing on- check out this on pv www.purevolume.com/thejosh for more of a country-blues singer-songwriter thing im working on

stephan foster is ballin- james taylor w/ yo-yo ma, edar meyer and some fiddler do a sweet version of hard times come again no more

[dadfad]

Thanks! There are some decent older ones. "Deep River Blues" by Doc Watson is a nice one. Challenging but not ridiculously so. Some nice straightforward fingerstyle with decent chord voicing changes. Merle Travis has quite a few, a number of them instrumentals like "Saturday Night Shuffle" and "Cannonball Rag" (both pretty challenging) or with vocals like his version of "John Henry" or "Nine Pound Hammer." My favorite Merle-tune is probably "Start Even" (which as far as I know is the only tune he ever actually recorded as an acoustic-solo piece.) A really nice tune, as well as a true study of just what can be done with a 12-bar in E.

You can always take an old country tune and just "do it right." I have an arrangement of the old Stephen Foster tune (is that an oldie or what?) "Hard Times Come Again No More," that I do as a pretty decent fingerstyle acoustic-solo piece (which I've also done playing out as a duet with my daughter, both of us playing acoustic guitar and singing harmonized vocals in it) in an old-time style. That's just an example. When you see a tune and you like it but think you can take it somewhere else where you want it to be, just do it!

im trying to teach myself deep river blues (ok maybe i peeked as some tabs...) and its pretty hard there, bro- i'm now really trying to get into some really pickin'- like not just playing random stuff under an alternating bass but like really get into some gnarly gnarly pickin'- like not taking it and altering to make it easier but really getting up in there

thanks for the myspace comment bro- some of those recordings are sketch and im not sure which ones i sing on- check out this on pv www.purevolume.com/thejosh for more of a country-blues singer-songwriter thing im working on

stephan foster is ballin- james taylor w/ yo-yo ma, edar meyer and some fiddler do a sweet version of hard times come again no more

Josh, Deep River Blues, while not exactly easy, can be made a lot easier with a few little things that give you the most "effficiency of movement" in a few places while making the chord changes. For example the "theme/opening" kind of part where you move between that 7th-fret E7--A7dim--E7#9 with just a simple one-finger change doing each one. When I was learning the tune I was thinking more in terms of individul "chords" as opposed to more of a "flowing thing." A guy from southern Ohio who played it flawlessly (having learned it from Doc himself) kind of gave me a few little tips that sort of "opened it up" for me after that. Nice tune, and as long as you include several of Doc's "must-be-in-there" figures, it has a lot of room in it for improv.

Now that you mention it, I sort of remember James Taylor doing that tune. Mine isn't a great deal like his. Mine's slightly more up-tempo and old-timey. The best version I've ever heard recorded was done as a duet by Jody Stecher and his wife Kate Brislin. If I'd heard that version earlier, I'd have just copied it! Not all that different stylistically than the one I arranged (except he did it a helluva lot better! )

[TheJosh]

Josh, Deep River Blues, while not exactly easy, can be made a lot easier with a few little things that give you the most "effficiency of movement" in a few places while making the chord changes. For example the "theme/opening" kind of part where you move between that 7th-fret E7--A7dim--E7#9 with just a simple one-finger change doing each one.

puedes explicarme
-could you clarify that? right no im just getting my picking down with that very first change from the 7th fret E to that Eflat thing he does....

[dadfad]

Josh, this is kind of rough. I'm doing it quickly and just from memory to sort of give you an idea of what I'm talking about. It's the opening-figure in the I-position. If you've ever heard more than one recording of Doc (or someone else) playing it, or seen him on video or TV doing it, you know (like most trad-fingerstylists) it's never exactly played the same way twice. Anyway...

CODE

Hold this 076707 like this 0MIROP and play this (all picked with just a strong thumb down and the index up-picking the 1 and 2 strings)...

--7----------7--------------------------
-----0----------------(0)--------------
--------7--------------7------------------ (oh, a number in (), like (0) means it's okay  
--------6--------------6------------------- or a matter of choice to sound that note too)
--7------------------------------------
------------------0--------------------

(Which you probably already do, or something very similar)

Now go to that A7dim (actually A7dimº9 maybe..? I'm no theory-Nazi. Anyway...) X05656 held XOIRMP (by lifting the middle finger off of the 5-string in the previous E7-chord and pulling it between your Index and Ring fingers to place it onto the 2-string as you slide the rest of that finger-shape a fret lower simultaneously which will now give you that X05656 (actually 005656 is the same chord) (but I digress.....) and play...

--6------------6-------------------------
-----5---(5)--(5)-----(5)----------------
----------6------------6-----------------
--5--------------------5-----------------
-----------------------------------------
-------------------0---------------------

Now sliding back up and moving that middle finger off the 2-string back onto the 5-string again into that starting A7 076707 chord once more play.....

--7---------------------
------------------------
------7-----------------
------6-----------------
--7---------------------
--0---------------------

and lift your Ring finger off of the 3-string 7th-fret and put it on the 2-string/7th-fret (other fingers starting to lift off the fret-board as you...

----------0---<(this open note giving you --------------------------
--7b8ub7--------time to quickly now move your hand ----2---0--------
----------------- down nearer the nut to play... -------------------
-------------------------------------------------------2---0--------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------

....or a similar figure that will have you into that next A IV-position at that end of the neck where you can do an A-figure.

NOTE: (added)

I'd like to say there is another common E7-shape that can be, and often is, used as the intro-chord. It's 0X6757, held OXMRIP. You play it and just omit hitting the 5-string as you alternate. You can then slide down a fret to that A7dim in a similar way, except now you'd leave the index-finger stationary on the 2-string and slide the other fingers down a fret to that 005656 also held OXMRIP (as was that E7), etc. Either way will work. Doc has used both (this last one maybe even more often than the example chord-shape I used above). Either works perfect and sound fine. I tend to use the first one (076707) because I play solo and I want as many notes of the lowest possible register in the mix or the lick can sound a bit too trebly (to my ears anyway). If you play with a band, you have a bass-man or rhythm guitar to take care of that. (The follow-up diminished chord also feels more comfotable to me too held as OOIRMP.) Just my general preference. As I said, either way works fine and Doc chords it both ways. Same with the little bent-note thing. There are several ways of doing it, each slightly different, as well as how you work into your IV-A figures when you move toward the nut. Never forget how ever-changing and improvisational these kinds of tunes are to the player as he is playing it.

Doc (and most people doing the tune) use a very chunky percussive semi-muted technique on the bass strings while playing the treble lines, similar to Merle Travis (who Doc patterned his own style after). So use the side of your right palm very near/on the bass-side of the bridge to get that same thunky-chunky percussive feel to it.