• Re: REQ: Doc Watson Tuning on "Deep River Blues"

    From Bob Conkling@picknconk@gmail.com to rec.music.folk on Fri Apr 7 09:14:45 2023
    From Newsgroup: rec.music.folk

    On Tuesday, August 4, 1998 at 3:00:00rC>AM UTC-4, Wayne Kelly wrote:
    Rick Ruskin wrote
    Doc was most difinitely in standard tuning.

    Rick Ruskin
    On Sat, 25 Jul 1998 13:59:05 -0400, "Steve & Caren Comeau"
    wrote:

    I'm figuring out Doc Watson's "Deep River Blues" by ear and I've worked
    out
    an arrangement where I capo on the 4th fret and start with a first
    position
    C5 chord. However, I hear Doc play bass runs that go below the G# on the >>capoed low E string.

    A friend of mine taught me this song in the key of E with no capo. The following seems (to my ear) to be right.
    The initial chord is a first position B7 but shifted all the way up to the 7th fret, which makes it an E7. Play this chord with the open 6th (E)
    string as the primary bass string. The second chord is the same chord form
    as the first one (i.e., a B7 form) but shifted down one fret to the 6th string (making it an Eb7) and play the 5th string as the primary bass
    string.
    From there he goes back to the first E7 chord then drops down to first position A7, A, E and B7 chords.
    So, it goes like this:
    (E7) Let it rain (Eb7) let it pour (E7) let it rain a (A7) whole lot (A)
    more 'cause
    (E) I've got them deep river (B7) blues.
    For all the years I knew and played with Doc, this is the first I ever heard of DRB in open E We always played standard tuning...I'm surprised to see this..
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