Woody Guthrie's Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues

[Gypsy0Eyes0]

Is there any technique to picking these chords? You can really detect the individual finger changes in your guitar playing and same with woodies/dylans but I cant for the life of me figure it out.

[TimMcMullen]

@Gypsy0Eyes0 — Being self-taught, I don't read music or tabs. I learned this style from listening to Woody, John Greenway (who has an album of Talking Blues), Bob Dylan, but especially from Paul Stookey's very clean picking on his "Talking Candy Bar" and from countless hours of sitting in the front row of folk clubs watching Ramblin' Jack Elliott play. YouTube has a couple of versions of Paul's song that may give the most specific visuals on the fingering.

[TimMcMullen]

The key approaches are hammering on & emphasizing bass notes in transitions between chords. The Chords are G, C, & D, with repetition on the D until the "joke lines" are done. Basically, hit the bass note (e.g., the "E" string, 3rd fret), then strum; hit the open "D" string, strum, etc. Emphasize the notes walking up to C, then on D, hit the low note & the high note. I know this doesn't help much at all, but it may show better on my YouTube video

Tim McMullen's AC-DC Sock-It-To-Me Talkin' Blues.

[TimMcMullen]

I almost forgot, I have a third example of the talking blues, Tim McMullen's Talkin' Herstory, which is nearly seven minutes long, so it gives you a real opportunity to repeatedly hear the fingering.

[Gypsy0Eyes0]

@TimMcMullen Thanks for the help!

[GoldenGhettoFilms]

he should put at least SOME rythym in his voice..

[beIshazzar]

hahaha I love professional guitar players, you're actually BETTER than Guthrie, but you've lost all the emotion

[speedygonza99]

Any way you would post the tab to your talkin blues? Its great and I'd like to try writing some of my own.

[Kway32]

No, but that's a very good cover.

[1fanofmileys]

Is that Woodie Guthri?

[papercut665]

no lol. thats why he said it was writen 100 years ago. woodie wrote "this land it your land" but the real version not the polticly correct one