Random

...

Indexed

The Story:

One Sunday night I was at the Elvis Room in Portsmouth, enjoying one of the more interesting shows that would sometimes come through that funky space. On these odd nights, occasionally a big name act would be featured - I suspect they were free and in the area playing bigger shows on the main weekend nights - and tonight a country player by the name of Wayne Hancock was on the stage.

After a solid two or so hours of hard-core old school country music, I was sitting at the main bar enjoying a cup of mud, and humming and tapping my fingers to the classic bare bones structure heard in much of country music. It occurred to me that it would be fun to write some words that fit the rhythms and attitudes of this style.

But what to write about? Well, since I don't have a dog, and my pickup truck still worked back then, the only option remaining was "my girl having done up and left me."

I had no paper, but luckily I had one of my calling cards in my pocket, and a pen. The verses and first chorus were written in little letters on the back of this card.

The Music:

Key: C

Tempo: medium slow

Guitar and sound: something honky on single notes but sweet on chords. Telecaster set to neck pickup I think. The rhythm guitar on the recording is Curt Bessette playing his Martin acoustic. The keyboard track is composed of my favorite parts of three tracks laid down by the inimitable Jim MacDougall.

Intro/ending:

d	u	d	u	d	d
F	F	F	F	Em	Dm
Em	Em	Em	Em	Dm	C
Dm	Dm	Dm	Dm	C	G
C

Main verse:

C - C - C - F - C - C - G - C (as per Curt singing and playing).

Refrain:

Walk down to F chord over first syllables of each line: C-B-A-F. F - F - F - F - C - C.
For the fourth line, switch that last C to C7, walk to D7, start the line with D7 and end it on G/G7 - setting up the walk into the next verse.

Instrumental verse/guitar solo:

Same as the chorus, but the first two walks into F are conventional: C-D-E-F. Where it ends on G, walk into F (G-F#-F) and repeat vocal chorus.

Ending:

While repeating the last two lines (I get so scared...), slow down a bit, and simply repeat intro.

SECOND (LEAD) GUITAR:

Intro/ending:

Main verse:

These harmonic inversions are played over the first walk up, and between the sung lyrics:

Refrain (the bend into D is played during the C-C#-D walk, and held for the duration of the D):

Instrumental verse/guitar solo:

Same as the chorus, but the first two walks into F are conventional: C-D-E-F. Where it ends on G, walk into F (G-F#-F) and repeat vocal chorus. The first comp section is basically two inverted arpeggios (F, C), the second is a spare working of the scale.

Ending:

While repeating the last two lines (I get so scared...), play as marked, slow down a bit, and repeat intro.