Of course, I recognized him immediately but didn’t say a word. Prine very unassumingly walked into my music store and made a beeline towards the most expensive guitar I had at that time – a 1957 Martin D-28. Prine was the type of songwriter who could look at any individual or situation and sum it up in 15 seconds or less, dissecting everything about it with the skill and precision of a brain surgeon, throw in a little wit and humor, and then transform it all into a song that would make the hair on the back of your neck stand at attention.įortunately, I had the honor of briefly meeting him once, back in late 2011. He was certainly one of the greatest songwriters to ever live, but unless you knew him and his music, or maybe had the honor to meet him in person, you probably wouldn’t have known that. John Prine‘s very untimely death due to complications from COVID-19. I’ve been giving serious thought about what to post in the wake of Mr. So keep coming back for more (if you want), and remember, “Life is too short to play a lousy guitar!” Beginning with this little piece below, I hope to start changing my perspective for the better. I have a lot to give thanks for, and for some time now I haven’t been doing that. I have my kids, I have great friends, I own my home, and I have a thriving business. Bottom line is this: I’m alive and right now I’m healthy. For me, his death kind of put things in perspective … and I needed that. But John Prine’s recent death gave me back a bit of the motivation I’ve been sorely lacking. For me, I have to be motivated to write, and for the last couple of years that kind of motivation for me has been hard to come by. Next month, we will continue our tribute to Johnny’s incredible, multifaceted playing style.Note: I haven’t posted anything in a while, and there have been some personal reasons for it. The reminder of this rhythm part is built around shapes and phrases similar to those introduced in FIGURE 1. In bar 4, the A7 shape on the top three strings moves down one fret, to Adim7, before returning to A7 (another classic blues move). Notice the unusual chord voicings for A9 and A6 in bars 2 and 3. FIGURE 2 is a 12-bar passage inspired by the verse section from the aforementioned “Forever Lonely.” In bar 3, sixths double-stops descend the D and B strings while a high A pedal tone is sustained on top (a classic Robert Johnson–style turnaround move). In bar 2, a Delta-style voicing of D7/F# is approached by “walking up” chromatically from the open low E note to F# at the second fret. The figure begins with ascending double-stops, sixths apart, that are sounded on the G and high E strings.įlatpick the notes on the G string and fingerpick the high E-string notes with either the middle or ring finger, allowing all of the notes to ring together as long as possible. The examples here are played in the key of A, and FIGURE 1 represents a typical opening four-bar phrase that starts on the five chord, E7, then moves to the four chord, D7 before resolving to the one chord, or tonic, A7. The lower strings are generally attacked with the flatpick, and the higher strings are picked with the middle and ring fingers, with the pinkie occasionally used too. The best way to emulate his sound when not using a thumb pick is to employ hybrid picking, using a both a flatpick and the bare fingers to pick the strings, either together or in opposition. Johnny always played with a thumb pick, which is very uncommon for the great majority of blues and blues-rock players. The examples in this column are intended to demonstrate this style. The latter album features a fantastic slow blues, “Forever Lonely,” and on this track, Johnny demonstrates his mastery of fingerpicked Delta-style blues.
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