Rawhide - John Duffey version

I've been thinking about this tune for a while and worked out some of John Duffey's version from the Country Gentlemen's Smithsonian Folkways live CD "On the Road (And More)", which I recommend to all bluegrass fans.

I tabbed out his first break from that, and played it slowly - I'm doing it about 105 bpm here, Duffey plays it at about 165bpm. Monroe played this up to about 190bpm. Those speeds are the true technical challenge of this tune and I'll try to work up to them and post a fast version some day. Working on tunes like this really helps when you have to play breaks in fast banjo tunes like Shuckin the Corn.

Here's the tab.



And look, here's me playing it now at a reasonable speed with the Buncombe String Band (July 2010)

John Duffey, Redwood Hill and triplets

Here's a nice little triplet workout. Redwood Hill is a very pretty tune. Written by Gordon Lightfoot, the Country Gentlemen made it bluegrass. Eddie Adcock's banjo part in the first part of the break is beautiful, as is John Duffey's 2nd half. I have two recordings of this, and on each they do much the same break twice in the song - and why not when it sounds this good. On the "Live in Japan" album, Duffey goes triplet crazy towards the end of the second break. Notice how he uses hammer-ons, especially in the first triplet in measure 6, to keep his pickstrokes orderly. That particular passage is difficult for my right hand, and I think most people who aren't John Duffey would need to work that up slowly to nail it like he does at 220bpm.

In measure 10 I shift up to A position (fourth fret) because I think that's how it sounds like he did it, but you may find a better way.

Walking in Jerusalem - just like John Duffey

Speaking of awesome pickers, what about John Duffey. People talk about his great vocal range, but what most impresses me about his work is the tone and taste of his mandolin playing.

Here's his intro to "Walking In Jerusalem" from when he was with The Country Gentlemen in the 60's. Ricky Skaggs uses almost the exact same licks in his Boone Creek version of the same tune. Maybe they both got it from Bill Monroe, of course, I don't know because the version I have by Bill, he doesn't even bother to get out his mandolin (Anthology).

Anyway, here's the tab, the tune is in A.



Here's a YouTube of me trying to play it:


Just a note to say I finally figured out where Duffey got the idea from: it's basically the second half of Monroe's break from Uncle Pen - wouldn't you know it.