Learn to play in the style of MJH, original early country blues roots music. He has influenced an innumerable amount of musicians throughout the last four decades. His songs continue to be played throughout the world. He invented the alternating bass style of fingerpicking.
“I just make my guitar sound like the way I thought it should.” (MJH)
Pay Day TAB & video below
Louis Collins
According to “Masters Of The Instrumental Blues Guitar”, Louis Collins is a murder ballad which Mississippi John Hurt composed from hearing people talk about a shooting. He first recorded it in 1928 for Okeh Records and then again in 1963 for Piedmont. Similarly, “Masters Of Country Blues Guitar” says that, according to Hurt, this song (his own composition) was based on a real event.
Enjoy the Tab, Mp3 and video tuition for Louis Collins.
TAB
Mp3
Click the youtube Video link below. This clip includes an explanation of how the alternating bass style works and Louis Collins. If this is too advanced for you at this stage please go to the fingerpicking exercises in the POSTS section of this site.
These lyrics are from “Mississippi John Hurt Today” (Vanguard 79220):
Mrs Collins weeped, Mrs Collins moaned
To see her son Louis leaving home
The angels laid him away
Chorus
The angels laid him away
Laid him six feet under the clay
The angels laid him away
Mrs Collins weeped, Mrs Collins moaned
To see her son Louis leaving home
The angels laid him away
Oh Barnes shot one and Louis shot two
Shot poor Collins, shot him through and through
The angels have laid him away
Oh kind friends, oh ain’t it hard
To see poor Louis in a new grave yard
The angels laid him away
[chorus]
Oh when they heard that Louis was dead
All the people they dressed in red
The angels laid him away
[chorus]
Mrs Collins weeped, Mrs Collins moaned
To see her son Louis leaving home
The angels laid him away
[chorus]