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Traditional acoustic guitar styles
I'm trying to use audio in conjunction with tabs I've done to better explain playing traditional fingerstyle guitar.
Song Info
Genre
Charts
Peak #142
Peak in subgenre #42
Author
W. Walker
Uploaded
October 28, 2005
Track Files
MP3
MP3 3.9 MB • 128 kbps • 0:00
Story behind the song
A pre-war country-blues tune used as part of an alternating-bass fingerstyle guitar lesson.
Lyrics
[Copy To Notepad Using Couier-New 10-Font]
SOUTH CAROLINA RAG
by Willie Walker
Columbia Records
Atlanta Dec. 6, 1930
Intro:
(Hey, pretty boy, I'll tell you... That's the way to do.)
Asked to drink water, she brought gasoline.
Now listen to me, ya doin' me mighty mean.
I'll tell ya, that's no way to do.
Talk about your girl, boy, you ought to see mine
Ain't so pretty, but she sure do dress fine.
........, That's the way to do.
Talk about your gal, oughta see mine.
She's the sweetest gal in town.
I'll tell ya, that's the way to do.
Hey, hey... Pretty thing.
Hey... Pretty thing.
I'll tell you, that's the way to do.
Music man, ain't it grand?
Play that thing, boy, as long as you can.
I'll tell ya, that's the way to do.
(Instrumental Verse)x2
Begged for water, she brings gasoline
Now let me tell you, ain't that mean?
I'll tell ya, that's no way to do.
Hey, hey... Pretty thing, boy.
(Finish verse with instrumental only)
Talk about your brown, you oughta see mine.
Ain't so pretty, but she's th' sweetest in town.
I'll tell ya, now that's the way to do.
Hey, hey, music man
I'll tell ya that sure is grand
I'll tell ya now, that's the way to do.
When ya beg for water, they bring gasoline
Let me tell ya, that ain't doin' me mean.
(Finish verse with instrumental only)
Hey, hey... Pretty thing
Hey, hey...
I'll tell ya, that's no way to do.
See ya talk about your'n, but you oughta see mine.
Ain't so pretty but she sure do dress fine
Now let me tell you, that ain't no way to do.
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WILLIE WALKER
Willie Walker was born around 1900 in South Carolina. The exact date is not known because, as was common in those days among poor rural Blacks, very few records were kept. He was born blind from inherited congenital syphilis and began to play at an early age. Accounts indicate that by 1911 he was already an accomplished guitarist. My old friend and mentor, bluesman John Jackson, met Walker several times when he himself was first learning to play the guitar when Walker would come to visit John's father, an old friend of Walker's and a guitarist himself, at the Jackson's family farm in rural Virginia. The first time I ever heard of Walker was from John, who thought very highly of him and his skill as a guitarist, comparing him to the legendary fingerstyle master Blind Blake. Since then I have read and heard that the Reverend Gary Davis thought Walker to be much more skilled than himself (a very rare complement from Davis, as those who have known him would admit!) Josh White Sr. was Walker's "leader-boy" for awhile (Blind musicians in that day often had "leader-boys" who would help them around in exchange for learning their craft. Congenital syphilitic blindness was common in those pre-antibiotic days in the poor Black communities.). White has commented that Walker was better than Blake. It has been said that he is the favorite pre-war bluesman of Rolling Stones' bassist Bill Wyman, a country-blues afficianado and collector.
Walker was not a big believer in recorded music, believing it to be merely a passing fad that would never replace live performance. He only recorded four sides in his lifetime, for Columbia Records in Atlanta in 1930. Only two, "South Carolina Rag" and "Betty and Dupree" (the fore-runner of "Franky and Johnny") were ever released. It was the start of the Great Depression and records were not selling well, especially "race-records" made for a generally poor Black market. The original masters were destroyed. The two un-released tunes were said to have possibly been titled "Cincinnati Flow Rag" and "Make Believe Stomp." All that is left of Walker's music are several copies of the original 78s, which were re-copied reel-to-reel and re-released in the mid-60s by Yazoo on their LP "East Coast Blues, 1926-1935 (Yazoo 1013)" and since re-released on CD by Yazoo and on several other compilation CDs as we
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