Ranks Stranger

[mandolin72]

What are the chords in the song Ranks Stranger. If you could a link to the tabs.

[Moose]

No harm intended, but I believe you refer to "Rank Strangers"(Stanley Bros'& et al..) - Sorry, can't help with the "tab" - Moose.

[csstanley]

Maybe this helps. Scroll down till you see Rank Strangers.

http://www.alltabs.com/mandolin_tabs.php?id=R

[jbrwky]

Whats wrong with Ranks Stranger? He was a friend a mine. I dated his sister, Howdi.

[earthsave]

Those tabs are just the turn around and intro, but that is pretty much the chord progression.... G and D with a C in there in the turn around. A good way to learn it just to noodle around the chords and sing along, you'll figure out what goes where by the sound. See if this helps??

<span style='font-family:courier'>G D G
I wondered again .... to my home in the mountains
D
...I was happy and Free
G D G
I looked for my friends, but I never could find them

I found they were all
D G C G
Rank Strangers to me, Rank Strangers to me

Chorus (ride on G for a while)
Everybody I met..... No mother nor dad..
D
Not a friend could I see
G D G
They knew not my name and I knew not their faces
D G C G
I found they were all rank strangers to me, rank strangers to me</span>

[mandolin72]

Thanks alot

[Jim Broyles]

Just to be a mandolin picker, and not a nit picker, the tabs are in the Key of F and so is the recording by the Stanley Brothers. Make your G's F's and your D's C's and you'll have it. Actually, the recordings I have are closer to F#, but I suspect they did it in F on their instruments. Maybe Ralph checks this board and will set us straight.

[earthsave]

Good point. Yep, the recording one I have is in F# and the tabs linked are in F. I put it in G, since it contains the chords most people are familiar with when starting out.

To transpose the linked tabs, just shifter everything up a letter (whole step).

F, Bb, C goes to F#, B, C# (to play along with recording) goes to G, C, D

[mandolin72]

thanks alot for the help

[ourgang]

If playing in key of G, there's also a "C" change in the chorus:

Everybody I met, seemed to C be a rank stranger. #If in "F" you play a Bb. #At any rate, a IV chord goes there.

[Jim Broyles]

If playing in key of G, there's also a "C" change in the chorus:

Everybody I met, seemed to C be a rank stranger. If in "F" you play a Bb. At any rate, a IV chord goes there.

That arrangement sounds okay, but the Stanley Brothers' recording that I am listening to right now does not have that change. It stays on the I.

[ourgang]

I was picking with Renfro Profitt this past summer and that was one of the songs we did. He put the IV chord in. I listened to my copy of the song and you're right, it does not sound like the IV chord is there. I've always used it though. For those that have never heard of Renfro Profitt, he was Ralph Stanley's lead guitar player when Keith Whitley sang the lead.

[David M.]

On one live Ralph Stalney and the CMB record, they do it in key of E. Makes for some good break opportunity.