BUDDY EMMONS INTRO, "NIGHT LIFE," RAY PRICE 1963 version

Classic Buddy Emmons pedal steel intro arranged for guitar by Karl Straub.


(MORE)

LEON RHODES GUITAR SOLO TRANSCRIPTION from "MY WINDOW FACES THE SOUTH," WILLIE WITH THE TROUBADOURS

Here's a cool artifact-- Willie Nelson sings Bob Wills's "My Window Faces the South" with the Texas Troubadours. That's about as Texas as you can get. Check out Leon Rhodes burning throughout--- lots of fast eighth-note runs and nice chord stabs behind the vocal, then a real workout of a solo. Another great opportunity to watch the technique of a master.

I have this solo transcribed below-- click on "MORE" to get to it, and you can click on the music to enlarge.

Most of the time with Ernest Tubb you get Leon's version of the Billy Byrd style. Tubb was very generous in giving space to his sidemen to stretch out, though, and here's a fascinating example of Leon in a lickety-split western swing setting. He starts down in an open G position, with Jimmy Bryant-esque fiddle-tune runs (throwing in a cool whole-tone lick!) and works his way up three octaves. "Window" is a great tune for improvising, because you get eight bars of G before the chords start moving into "rhythm changes" territory. When this happens, the chords move mighty fast, and Leon shifts into arpeggio mode. This is a common technique in this kind of music.

Check the tablature carefully-- some of these position choices had me scratching my head at first, but I watched the video and tried to play the notes exactly where Leon did, and eventually it made sense. In fact, in several cases, Leon's choice of fingerings and positions made it easier to play these lines.

IMPORTANT TIP ABOUT PLAYING FAST! Whenever I study the work of fast players, I almost always find interesting fingerings, use of positions, shifting techniques, etc. I think most fast players have spent a lot of time finding out efficient ways to move around the fingerboard. Players trying to play faster often focus too much on the right hand, not realizing that you have to plan out your left-hand moves on the fingerboard so that you know where you can go. If you're burning down the road in your hot rod, you can't pull over to ask directions.

Check Leon's right hand picking angle too-- keeping wrist relaxed, and experimenting with the angle of pick to string is important, but it won't help you if you don't know where the notes are. Good luck!

(MORE)

"CRAZY" instrumental

Here's a live version of Willie Nelson's "Crazy," with my band Chicken Fried Swing. This was the first gig, in baking heat outside at a Del Ray festival in 2008. Matt Tebo is on drums, Jerry Del Rosso is on bass, and Ira Gitlin plays some tasteful lines on a Gretsch.
http://www.karlstraubmusic.com/Crazy.mp3

and an August 08 version with Honky Tonk Heart at JV's.
www.karlstraubmusic.com/crazyjvaug08.mp3
Howard Parker played a tasteful western swing solo with a lot of chord stuff, and Bob Adamcik was on rhythm guitar, Jimmy Gapinski on drums, stretching out a little more than usual. Ira Gitlin showed up, straight from another gig, and sat in. He played some nice stuff here, including some chromatic double stop ideas that I'll have to steal when I get a chance. I think we played better than usual because we wanted to impress Ira. I'm in a "Django with slapback" mode (does that make it a Les Paul mode?) with a little Roy Buchanan on the second break.

I've been working on this tune for a while, playing it initially with Honky Tonk Heart, then with my Karl Straub Combo. The Chicken Fried Swing version here is my favorite of the ones that got recorded-- it's still not everything I'm trying to do with the tune, but it's getting there. I take the first break, in a trashy Django/western swing mode, with a Roy Buchanan harmonic thing here and there. Ira takes the middle chorus, very nice; then I come back in for the "crazy" chorus. Here's where I crank up the raunch. I like what I'm doing here, but I hope to get better at integrating jazz and trash for a more interesting blend. Stay tuned! If you come a live gig of any of the above-mentioned bands, you can watch me developing this approach.
The Honky Tonk Heart version I put up here after writing my comments above-- I thought it had some interesting different approaches, so it should be heard. Maybe for the fanatics I'll keep putting more versions up-- we'll see.

(MORE)