Deep River Blues

MP3 at http://soupgreens.com/2008/09/04/deep-river-blues/ , as well as FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. Under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 unported license as always.

This is the Delmore Brothers/ Doc Watson tune "Deep River Blues."

The guitar is a 2007 National Estralita that I just bought, and this is the first recording I've done with it. It's an amazing instrument. The bass, treble and midrange are perfectly balanced. It's loud as hell. It's convincing at country, old time jazz, and acoustic blues. The sound is pretty and warm but can also bite if you dig in. Good action and cool looking too.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• national
• estralita
• folk
• doc
• watson
• fingerstyle
• acoustic
• guitar
• country
• creative
• commons

[Maysey1]

Man I love your version! Any tab for this? One of my favorite songs and I'd love to play that on my old 39 Dobro. Maybe I can just watch this long enough to catch on. GREAT VIDEO of this GREAT SONG!!!! Mark

[lcsgze]

@Maysey1 Thanks! It'd sound killer on an old '39 box. That must be an amazing piece of machinery one way or the other.

I never thought about doing a tab. It's a bit of a project, and I guess I'd worry that this picking has too many little details for people to want to learn it. But I like posting my stuff in sheet music/tab format for other players, so maybe I'll take this on.

[robasoar]

great playing and good voice also. are you sure Doc Watson played this song in F? there are 2 vids of Doc playing Deep River Blues on Youtube, one old one in black and white and another one from the 80's i think and he is playing in E.

[lcsgze]

Dunno. I picked it up from a book way back in the 80s. Lotta years...

[trevorm1]

I love this version of this old tune.

Brother Im trying to learn this song as I type, and am wondering if you can explain the differences.

Thanks bro.

BTW I have a similiar guitar but its by Republic.

[lcsgze]

glad you dig it,trevorm.

My version is based on Doc Watson's, but I learned that original so long ago that not many of the original riffs are still there. This is in F, just like his version. Part of the guitar break is the same, and the way I voice the F7-Fdim-F9 on the VII fret comes from him. The rest is country swing style with a strong bassline.

[MrJamesbond51]

Yeah I like this version too...cool !!

[mgriecoa94]

Have any tabs?? :D

[rycooderfanclub]

Like your version a lot man !! Great job !

[Hyperstasis]

This is great, you have the perfect voice for this song. Also that is an amazing-looking guitar.

[clintonious]

greatness!!!!

[Jazsngr]

Great song......you sound great.......love the guitar too! Thanks for posting!

[jimbo9580]

what a great rendition,, thanks for posting

[gtrbri98]

Love it man! I really want to start playing more in this sort of raggy bluesy jazzy style. Great guitar. I recently got an El Trovador....have a video or two with it on my page if you're curious to hear the difference in tone. Cheers!

Brian

PS - Nice hat too!

[killermorderca]

really great interpretation, nice to see somebody still plays his own style :P

[zantron]

this is great man. keep it up. nice playing.