This is in standard tuning, employing E and E minor aspects of the maqam mode. You will see the E-minor forms on the fourth through first strings (0-X-9-9-8-7), also the E-5 (0-7-9-9-0-0). This is an artful use of standard tuning, a technique learned from the old blues heads who carefully set pieces in such a way that open strings worked in their favor. New wine in old barrels....

Glad to hear this…best wishes…s.

There are some tabs available on developing the skills in your picking hand and Pay Day at my Patreon page in the Mississippi John Hurt collection. Https://Patreon.com/ScottAinslie, low paywall for my survival and to keep the work widely available: $5 min./month. No commitment required. Month by month…

Thank you, Mario. I'm so glad you like it. What a marvelous song it is!

We are on your island now, heading to the west, then Donegal, and finally Comber east southeast of Belfast for a 90th birthday party!

Wow, hopefully you have an umbrella, raincoat and suntan lotion! Enjoy.

I am pleased to hear about your family’s affection for your black neighbors. And my comments referring to white power structures and records not being kept on black births and deaths is not inaccurate in the least. The racism in the South was different from the racism in the North. More violence, more bloodshed, more legal and social restrictions were endemic across the south, and the security of black lives was much more tenuous, but black and white neighbors often had to and did work together and care for each other. The worst racism being reserved for blacks they did not know, not the blacks they did. In the northern cities and urban centers, the ghettoization of blacks prevented blacks and whites from having experience of each other in a cooperative setting, making the isolation of the races virtually complete. This is part of the reason elderly blacks chose to return to the south.

I'm so glad!

Thank you. I have always sung well, but blues asks more than that. I built this voice over forty years. There are things to be learned. It is not a talent, but work. I’ll wager you can sing well, too! All the best, s.

That is fine news. Bring some friends! We’ve never played the room before. Good friends there though. Join us…s.

Music theory, like all theory, follows practice. We make sounds we like, find moving or interesting. We may then identify them or not. If you do identify what you are playing (what note is the root, third, fifth? &c.), then you can often reuse that understanding and those shapes/constellations in other contexts. A certain increase in freedom comes with each increase in understanding. 0:05

Possible 😊

I do offer a few Skype lessons each week to individual students. You’ll find information about that at CattailMusic.com under instructor/private lessons…[email protected]

Cool beans…thanks, s.

I realized that was the sound when I was demonstrating various rhythms without pitch for a class. We work from gross to fine. Separating out the left and right hands can be immensely useful. Thanks for writing.

I don't know who that is, but I assume he's a handsome dude...right?

@@scottainslie totally, will gaines was from a movie called "Rush", 1992. Will Gaines was the antagonist, played by Gregg Allman. Fantastic movie.

Thanks, happy the work resonated with you. Do pass it along. The more, the merrier!

Enjoy having the guitar in your lap. It makes the world more livable and for some survivable….s.

Grazie, Marcello. My pleasure.

Thanks. Do pass it around. The work is here for free for just that reason.

This guitar is another Froggy Bottom, a Gibson-inspired Model C. Thanks for listening and especially commenting. Good to have the company!

Your comment makes me very happy. Many thanks.

Wonderful!

Yes. Horizontal necks will cripple your access to the upper frets if you keep the slide in the correct position. Try it. Horizontal is bad. Try it both ways, you'll see.

You are welcome. Glad to be useful. There is more at Patreon.com/ScottAinslie

Glad you enjoyed it! A video walk through lesson and transcription are available along with more than 300 posts at Patreon.com/ScottAinslie. Just $5/month.

Dziękuję, przyjacielu. Thank you for listening!

Thank you, Tom. Best wishes, s.

Mi Hermano, gracias. No hablo bien, pero: The song is in the key of C (and in open C tuning, the chords are C F G. The guitar part is pleasantly complex, but can be simplified in standard tuning. I would love for you to play it, and to hear a version and see the translation. Let me know what I can do to help. [email protected]

@@scottainslie Thanks, Scott! Your work deserves it, i will try it first in Open D I IV V🫡✨Saludos….My title could be “Mi tierra querida” in literary translation

Open D should work beautifully. The third in Open C is on the first string. The third in Open D is on the third string. Figures will translate keep in touch. Muchas gracias. @@a.s.v4261

I would meet with you on Skype to look at the song in open D. Let me know if that would work for you. I'm on the East Coast of the US, Eastern Standard Time.... @@a.s.v4261

⁠​⁠@@scottainslieWe see every day in Spain South border same drama, people dying crossing danger seas…. Poets, musicians, can create new beauty to the world on the basis they feel. I ll sing it in the old Re Mayor with the help of the six maidens of my guitarra española! 😉👏🤝

Gracias, amigo. Felicidades de Vermont, USA

The lyrics actually have never lived up to the music. Cliches sound terrible when they meet a melody with such obvious pathos…

thanks for responding to the work, much appreciated. s.

Thank you, Susan. High school was a LONG time ago (and I couldn't wait to get out: three years and off to college...the youngest freshman with the longest hair...;-)...and a misfit at Washington & Lee, without a doubt. Good faculty though....

So long ago… and how far we’ve come. Truly appreciate your music and message.

Thank you, Jay. Always brings a smile to see you turn up anywhere. Swannanoa is coming and I'm counting on some time with you.

@@scottainslie it’s a date. I look forward to some conversation and friendship at Swannie 2024.

this is excellent to hear. Montreal isn't that far. We're in southern Vermont....s.

@@scottainslie as I recall, it happened at the Old Songs Festival, somewhere near Albany. Maybe 6 or 7 years ago …

Ah, of course. A pre-festival workshop. Great to feel useful. @@jimpetersMontreal

Trish: may the gods smile on us, right? Hope to see you before too long. much love, s.

I will look for you and see you again one day.

I know the Gods adore you. And the Goddesses too. John’s birthday is February 25. He was born in 1924, he would have been 100. Where does the time go? The last time I saw you you sang a song about a Latina woman. I can’t remember if her name was Rosalita or Grace. And I loved that song too.

My dear sister, not a day goes by I don't think about John and with him, you. And this is that song you remembered. Grecia Cruz is the woman who was lost, and Rosalita is nod to Woody Guthrie's song about the los alamos canyon tragedy. @@patriciabyerly3162

Thank you so much for taking time to respond. My dear brother. I will see you again one day.