View Full Version : Minor Key Bluegrass Songs
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?
mmukav
Apr-21-2004, 8:22am
Shady Grove-we do it in Dmi.
Ken Sager
Apr-21-2004, 8:52am
Cheyenne, Bluegrass in the Backwoods, Lonesome Fiddle Blues...
keymandoguy
Apr-21-2004, 8:58am
Im not sure of the correct key but Wayfaring stranger in E m
JDARTGOD
Apr-21-2004, 11:49am
I do Wayfaring Stranger in Am.
LRB - "The Crime I Didn't Do" has always been a great minor tune.
Amandalyn
Apr-21-2004, 5:16pm
"Lonesome Moonlight Waltz"- Monroe in Dm/F
It's a head turner.
Scotti Adams
Apr-21-2004, 5:36pm
Manzanita...Dm..
Coy Wylie
Apr-21-2004, 5:47pm
Clinch Mountain Backstep in A or B, not really minor but modal.
Dru Lee Parsec
Apr-21-2004, 7:52pm
Little Sadie in Dm
Minor Swing in Dm (although it's more swing/Dawg music than Bluegrass)
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
Scotti Adams
Apr-21-2004, 8:51pm
..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...
duuuude
Apr-22-2004, 8:09am
St. James Infirmary Dm
Not bluegrass but old. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif
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.
KevinM
Apr-23-2004, 11:45am
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.
LeftCoastMark
Apr-23-2004, 3:37pm
June Apple. Easy and it rocks.
Dan Cole
Apr-23-2004, 4:44pm
There's a nice tune on the Greenbriar Boys album called "A Minor Breakdown". Its nice too.
mandofiddle
Apr-23-2004, 4:51pm
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...
Mark in Nevada City
Apr-23-2004, 9:13pm
How 'bout Pretty Polly? Nuthin' like a good bluegrass murder ballad ;)
Cheers, mmm
Coy Wylie
Apr-23-2004, 10:02pm
Mark, I was just thinking "Pretty Polly," you took the words right off my keyboard.
Polly ain't minor, more of a mountain modal.
Scotti Adams
Apr-24-2004, 6:16am
..neither is Big Spike Hammer..its got a G#minor in it...but taint minor all the way thru...
Bobbie Dier
Apr-24-2004, 7:01am
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
Dan Cole
Apr-24-2004, 8:01am
Grisman's Little Sadie
smilnJackB
May-03-2004, 12:21pm
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
rcoolz
May-03-2004, 10:59pm
2 Bill Monroe tunes ( Come hither go yonder)Am eboneezer scrooge Em, are two real good minor tunes and --for a challenge try ( El Comanchero) dm http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif