Hi Kip, these may not be right because I couldn’t ever find an official lyric sheet. But the first word you’re looking for is Cairo (a town south of St Louis that locals pronounce Cay-row).
The other words you’re looking for are ”the Julia Belle Swain” which was a steamboat that John Hartford used to write about in a lot of his songs.
Thanks Chris ... challenging crooked song to play and so far impossible for me to sing. As with most things I'm hoping to solve with time and practice. Great lyric. I had dismissed John Hartford for years based soley on appearance and banjo ... what a mistake that was. Thanks again!
Kip, as always you’re just killing it. You seem really calm and relaxed as you’re playing. That practice of mindfulness has really paid off and it’s awesome to see. I think it’s time for you to graduate to your metronome clicking half as much (so just on beats 1 and 3 instead of 1, 2, 3, 4). Try and maintain your sense of flow as you play. If that seems easy, have it click half as much again so that it is only beating on the first beat of every measure. This can be a GREAT way to work on both your own internal sense of flow and mindfulness/relaxation.
Great reminder and lesson. To a relative newbie to flatpicking - can I still say that after 3 years - I find that tension is one of the single biggest hurdles to overcome. It is essential to just about everything including speed, flow and even tone. I don't know if it is ever entirely overcome, as it requires constant mindfulness and attention. I suppose the key is to get to a point where you're not thinking about it but to someone like me who gets out of bed in the morning tense, I need to always think about it. The one string ... single note stream ... that Bryan Sutton preaches helps immensely and I have devoted a lot of time to that exercise and in my mind it really helps. I would recommend that all of your students do that for a bit everytime they pick up the guitar as a warm up and reminder to stay loose.
Looking forward to the rest of the Billy in the Lowground lessons and may post one soon.
Beautiful ... I first heard this on a Bryan Sutton record and it really knocked me out. I was not aware it was a John Hartford tune. Thanks for always broadening the horizon.
Hey Kip, absolutely. It’s on John Hartford’s Aereo-Plain record, which is one of the all time great bluegrass/new grass records. You should check it out!
Happy to see this and the concept of incomplete/partial chords mixed with a slightly altered tuning and the vibe it sends. Really cool rock'n stuff. Rygar has me baffled but I can see this helping with that if that makes any sense. Thx for putting this one on here.
Indeed. By putting different extensions into a chord or leaving out certain notes (often, but not always, a third) you can evoke different feelings and colors. The search for interesting chord voicings is a wonderful rabbit hole to go down!
Chris - way cool ... way outside of my time zone but I'm having a lot of fun messing around with this. I can play the "A" part and sort of play a hybrid mix of the easier version and more difficult version of the "B" part .... at about quarter speed LOL but I don't feel comfortable enough to put up a video. You nailed this song when you wrote it and your hands are like watching magic. I'm hoping and really looking forward to your next record with Julian.
Thanks for doing this. I'm sure you can't imagine how cool it is to see you play and teach Rygar. I've watched you all play this on videos and in person but this is way cool. Being a founding member of the pessimist club I have serious doubts about being able to play it but I'm psyched try.
Thanks Chris - fluidity is music to my ears - sometimes yes and sometimes no but I'm starting to fewel more comfortable. Beats, bars and structure the old bug-a-boo so thankfully I'm a one man bedroom band : )
I haven't submitted anything in a while so here is Red Haired Boy just to let you know I'm still having fun trying to flatpick for no other reason than that. I get too anxious playing whle making a video - kind of odd for a 60 year old dude. I threw in the TR lick and it blew up but there it is ... I'll keep banging away at it ... still playing in slo-mo comparatively speaking. Happy New Year to you and yours!
Kip, you learned all of it - good on ya! Your fluency and fluidity are noticeably better since the last video you put up so you are continuing to make great progress, which is awesome. The only thing to keep an eye on is making sure that you don’t lose the beat/bar structure. Over the entire video this only happened a few times, but most notably at 0:19 (also at 1:33). Check in with that and make sure you know how it should go, but otherwise you’re really doing great!
Thanks Chris - fluidity is music to my ears - sometimes yes and sometimes no but I'm starting to fewel more comfortable. Beats, bars and structure the old bug-a-boo so thankfully I'm a one man bedroom band : )
BTW - and probably not the best place to say this but since that has never stopped me before .... Saturday morning trying to ignore the frantic notion that there were things I needed to do and time was running out my wife yells from the living room, hey Kip isn't that ... and sure enough on TV ... The CBS This Morning Show ... Punch Brothers were performng a wonderful set that really put Christmas into perspective for me. Really great so thank you!
When navigating down the neck and you play this bit twice, I assume you then play a "B" section twice. For instance, say I'm picking this tune and I start out the tune by playing what you taught in the 1st lesson, and then play the second lesson "A" and "B" sections and then move on to this down the neck ... do I finish with this plus the "B" section? Or maybe you've got that in store for us next ... IDK just wondering.
Edit: Never mind - you're doing it in the rhythm track so that answers that.
Thanks for the unexpected Bonus. There is so much talk about pick grips and the angle that the pick hits the strings that I felt that this, the most basic and fundamental action of playing/flat picking the guitar wasn't worth worrying about, or so I thought. I went with the - whatever you're comfortable with formula for the past couple of years.
About 2 months ago, I started the process of experimenting with the way I grip my pick and found that any, ever so slight, adjustment with the grip totally threw me off my game and blew up my string accuracy. I'm getting a little better with the new grip which looks much like yours, and concede that pick grip does play a fundamental role in creating better tone and worth the effort.
EDIT: I should add that pick grip is one component to achieving better tone which may or may not excede the whatever feels comfortable theory. I have no idea as the more I play the more I realize I can't ... sometimes.
Chris -
You're gonna have to help me with a couple lyrics - I can't find them anywhere. For instance,
people come out in the Mississippi Valley - Western Kentucky ??????? in south St. Louis
and
Have a good ride on the ?????? Swango?
Thanks - I just can't seem to piece those together.
Kip
Hi Kip, these may not be right because I couldn’t ever find an official lyric sheet. But the first word you’re looking for is Cairo (a town south of St Louis that locals pronounce Cay-row).
The other words you’re looking for are ”the Julia Belle Swain” which was a steamboat that John Hartford used to write about in a lot of his songs.
You can take me back to a good old home I love
And the people that taught in that Mississippi Valley
Even on a Sunday morning you know that I'll be there
And we all come back for to be with you good neighbor
Live a good life in the Mississippi Valley
Down on the river you know that's where I want to be
And the night comes on like a blanket, chilly winds,
People come out in the Mississippi Valley
Western Kentucky, Cairo, over in South St. Louis
There's a baseball game at the Legion Post on Tuesday
Have a good ride on the Julia Belle Swain, go down to the river
And you know that's where I want to be
[CHORUS]
And the fields of corn and the banjo music
Catfish fry and a towboat payload
Pushing upstream against the stars
And a letter come back from a girl in Calhoun County
Here in the middle of the Mississippi Valley
I'm in love and you know that's where I want to be
And the fields of corn and the banjo music
Catfish fry and a towboat payload
Pushing upstream against the stars
And a letter come back from a girl in Calhoun County
Here in the middle of the Mississippi Valley
I'm in love and you know that's where I want to be
Thanks Chris ... challenging crooked song to play and so far impossible for me to sing. As with most things I'm hoping to solve with time and practice. Great lyric. I had dismissed John Hartford for years based soley on appearance and banjo ... what a mistake that was. Thanks again!
Everytime I look at this I just think wow.
Thanks kip!
cool
Hi Chris -
I should be cutting the grass but here I am picking on Billy in the Lowground. Always a work in progress.
Kip
Kip, as always you’re just killing it. You seem really calm and relaxed as you’re playing. That practice of mindfulness has really paid off and it’s awesome to see. I think it’s time for you to graduate to your metronome clicking half as much (so just on beats 1 and 3 instead of 1, 2, 3, 4). Try and maintain your sense of flow as you play. If that seems easy, have it click half as much again so that it is only beating on the first beat of every measure. This can be a GREAT way to work on both your own internal sense of flow and mindfulness/relaxation.
Chris -
Great reminder and lesson. To a relative newbie to flatpicking - can I still say that after 3 years - I find that tension is one of the single biggest hurdles to overcome. It is essential to just about everything including speed, flow and even tone. I don't know if it is ever entirely overcome, as it requires constant mindfulness and attention. I suppose the key is to get to a point where you're not thinking about it but to someone like me who gets out of bed in the morning tense, I need to always think about it. The one string ... single note stream ... that Bryan Sutton preaches helps immensely and I have devoted a lot of time to that exercise and in my mind it really helps. I would recommend that all of your students do that for a bit everytime they pick up the guitar as a warm up and reminder to stay loose.
Looking forward to the rest of the Billy in the Lowground lessons and may post one soon.
Kip
Beautiful ... I first heard this on a Bryan Sutton record and it really knocked me out. I was not aware it was a John Hartford tune. Thanks for always broadening the horizon.
Hey Kip, absolutely. It’s on John Hartford’s Aereo-Plain record, which is one of the all time great bluegrass/new grass records. You should check it out!
Chris -
Happy to see this and the concept of incomplete/partial chords mixed with a slightly altered tuning and the vibe it sends. Really cool rock'n stuff. Rygar has me baffled but I can see this helping with that if that makes any sense. Thx for putting this one on here.
Kip
Indeed. By putting different extensions into a chord or leaving out certain notes (often, but not always, a third) you can evoke different feelings and colors. The search for interesting chord voicings is a wonderful rabbit hole to go down!
Chris - way cool ... way outside of my time zone but I'm having a lot of fun messing around with this. I can play the "A" part and sort of play a hybrid mix of the easier version and more difficult version of the "B" part .... at about quarter speed LOL but I don't feel comfortable enough to put up a video. You nailed this song when you wrote it and your hands are like watching magic. I'm hoping and really looking forward to your next record with Julian.
Thanks Kip! Keep working on it and you'll definitely get it, just as you've gotten so many other things so far!
Although the subtle details are probably down the road for me someday, it is a great example of why you need to remain relaxed, loose and fluid. : )
Hey Chris -
Thanks for doing this. I'm sure you can't imagine how cool it is to see you play and teach Rygar. I've watched you all play this on videos and in person but this is way cool. Being a founding member of the pessimist club I have serious doubts about being able to play it but I'm psyched try.
Way to go man.
Kip
Thanks Chris - fluidity is music to my ears - sometimes yes and sometimes no but I'm starting to fewel more comfortable. Beats, bars and structure the old bug-a-boo so thankfully I'm a one man bedroom band : )
Hi Chris -
I haven't submitted anything in a while so here is Red Haired Boy just to let you know I'm still having fun trying to flatpick for no other reason than that. I get too anxious playing whle making a video - kind of odd for a 60 year old dude. I threw in the TR lick and it blew up but there it is ... I'll keep banging away at it ... still playing in slo-mo comparatively speaking. Happy New Year to you and yours!
Kip, you learned all of it - good on ya! Your fluency and fluidity are noticeably better since the last video you put up so you are continuing to make great progress, which is awesome. The only thing to keep an eye on is making sure that you don’t lose the beat/bar structure. Over the entire video this only happened a few times, but most notably at 0:19 (also at 1:33). Check in with that and make sure you know how it should go, but otherwise you’re really doing great!
Thanks Chris - fluidity is music to my ears - sometimes yes and sometimes no but I'm starting to fewel more comfortable. Beats, bars and structure the old bug-a-boo so thankfully I'm a one man bedroom band : )
BTW - and probably not the best place to say this but since that has never stopped me before .... Saturday morning trying to ignore the frantic notion that there were things I needed to do and time was running out my wife yells from the living room, hey Kip isn't that ... and sure enough on TV ... The CBS This Morning Show ... Punch Brothers were performng a wonderful set that really put Christmas into perspective for me. Really great so thank you!
Merry Christmas!
Yes it is - it was just a momentary hiccup.
Chris,
When navigating down the neck and you play this bit twice, I assume you then play a "B" section twice. For instance, say I'm picking this tune and I start out the tune by playing what you taught in the 1st lesson, and then play the second lesson "A" and "B" sections and then move on to this down the neck ... do I finish with this plus the "B" section? Or maybe you've got that in store for us next ... IDK just wondering.
Edit: Never mind - you're doing it in the rhythm track so that answers that.
Kip
Hey Kip, sorry if that wasn't clear! Yes, the form is AABB.
Thanks for the unexpected Bonus. There is so much talk about pick grips and the angle that the pick hits the strings that I felt that this, the most basic and fundamental action of playing/flat picking the guitar wasn't worth worrying about, or so I thought. I went with the - whatever you're comfortable with formula for the past couple of years.
About 2 months ago, I started the process of experimenting with the way I grip my pick and found that any, ever so slight, adjustment with the grip totally threw me off my game and blew up my string accuracy. I'm getting a little better with the new grip which looks much like yours, and concede that pick grip does play a fundamental role in creating better tone and worth the effort.
EDIT: I should add that pick grip is one component to achieving better tone which may or may not excede the whatever feels comfortable theory. I have no idea as the more I play the more I realize I can't ... sometimes.
James - come on man I can't even get my stubble to look that good - I'm just trying to learn the tune over here. Great job!
Thanks Chris ... I hope to learn this tune and look forward to working on it.
Yay Mom and thanks for the extended rhythm track ... awesome!
beautiful ... what a treat to not only see you play it but to teach it ... unbelievable man.