Minor key BG songs are some of my favorites. Jerusalem Ridge (Am), Kentucky Mandolin (Gm), Southern Flavor (Em). I'd love to know some other good ones. What am I missing? Any suggestions? Any favorites?
Minor key BG songs are some of my favorites. Jerusalem Ridge (Am), Kentucky Mandolin (Gm), Southern Flavor (Em). I'd love to know some other good ones. What am I missing? Any suggestions? Any favorites?
MWM
Mark in West Michigan
Shady Grove-we do it in Dmi.
Cheyenne, Bluegrass in the Backwoods, Lonesome Fiddle Blues...
Less talk, more pick.
Im not sure of the correct key but Wayfaring stranger in E m
Kenneth Froman
I do Wayfaring Stranger in Am.
LRB - "The Crime I Didn't Do" has always been a great minor tune.
"Lonesome Moonlight Waltz"- Monroe in Dm/F
It's a head turner.
Teri LaMarco
Manzanita...Dm..
Clinch Mountain Backstep in A or B, not really minor but modal.
Little Sadie in Dm
Minor Swing in Dm (although it's more swing/Dawg music than Bluegrass)
Greg B
http://www.gbguitars.com
Powder Creek
Irish Spring
Cattle in the Cane - although only B part is minor
A Butch tune, forget the name, maybe Waltz for B.M.
Temperance Reel
Gilderoy
Several Emory Lester tunes
..man Ive all but forgotten Irish Spring...I loved that song at one time....Emerson/Lawson...or was it Lawson/Holden...dayyam I hate when that happens...cant remember chit...
St. James Infirmary Dm
Not bluegrass but old.
mandollusional Mike
Irish Spring: I think Skaggs wrote it, Doyle picked it on mando on one of the Remembrances records
Wow. Thanks folks. I'd almost forgotten about Shady Grove - one of the first BG songs I ever heard. Everyone around here plays the fast uptempo happy version of the same name like on the "3 Pickers" CD by Ricky, Doc & Earle.
Cheyenne is a good one that I've listened to for years but never tried to play. Wayfaring Stranger gets called every few jams and I think we play it in Am. I've fooled around with early Dawg like Minor Swing and Tipsy Gypsy even though they're not exactly BG. I don't think of Manzanita as BG either but it's a great song anyway.
I'm always drawn to minor key songs. I don't hear them played very often. Wish I did.
MWM
Mark in West Michigan
Rosa Lee McFall (Charlie Monroe), Big Spike Hammer (was Osbourne Brothers, recently YMSB) come to mind, two of my favorites. Nothing like the melancholy minor keys.
2006 Duff F5
2001 Martin D-18V
80 year old fiddle of undetermined ancestry
June Apple. Easy and it rocks.
There's a nice tune on the Greenbriar Boys album called "A Minor Breakdown". Its nice too.
Go Vandals!
Seldom Scene used to do a tune called Gypsy Moon. My last band played it, and it is a killer tune. We did it in Am though I think they did it in Bm. I don't know if the Scene still does it though...
Mandofiddle
How 'bout Pretty Polly? Nuthin' like a good bluegrass murder ballad
Cheers, mmm
Mark, I was just thinking "Pretty Polly," you took the words right off my keyboard.
Polly ain't minor, more of a mountain modal.
..neither is Big Spike Hammer..its got a G#minor in it...but taint minor all the way thru...
Scotti,
I was thinking that about big spike hammer. We do it in B.
I like to play an old time tune 28th of January it's in Am
I wandered again to my home in the mountains....
Grisman's Little Sadie
Go Vandals!
Not Bluegrass, but a minor key song I like a lot is One Kind Favor. I think it goes, '
(Am) There's one kind favor I ask of you. One kind favor I ask of (E) you. There's one kind favor I (Dm) I ask of you. Won't you (Am) please see that my (E) grave is kept (Am) clean.
Good song! I am unsure I got the chords right. It's hard for me to place em' without an instrument in my hands.
Jack
smilnJackB
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