Wagon Wheel help?

[Kent Black]

Can someone tell me what the chords are and what kind of a pick pattern he is using on this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8saDIJczE

Thanks,
Kent

[Jim Broyles]

Open, first position chords: Verse same as chorus.
G D Em C G D C
G D Em C G D C
G D Em C G D C
G D Em C G D C

Picking pattern seems to be kind of a cross picking pattern on the strings 4-1-2-3-1-2-3-1 for each chord and repeated. To be clear, those numbers represent the strings and the order they are picked. I would play it DUUDUUDU, but do whatever works for you.

[GTG]

FYI, the original recording is the same pattern on capo 2 (guitar).

A E F#m D A E D throughout.

[MikeEdgerton]

Old Crow Medicine show does it in A, we do it in G as well. We also slow it down.

[kvk]

Open, first position chords: Verse same as chorus.
G D Em C G D C
G D Em C G D C
G D Em C G D C
G D Em C G D C

Picking pattern seems to be kind of a cross picking pattern on the strings 4-1-2-3-1-2-3-1 for each chord and repeated. To be clear, those numbers represent the strings and the order they are picked. I would play it DUUDUUDU, but do whatever works for you.

Silly question, which course is 1 and which is 4?

[Jim Broyles]

Highest to lowest. E1 A2 D3 G4.

[kvk]

Love this tune. Can't cross-pick to save my butt. Can't sing either. But just for yucks, I messed with those chords and that pattern and it sure sounds nice.

Then I moved it up to A and it sure does fit the fretboard nice on the top three strings. Just goes right down in a nice descending pattern. All triads except the F#m is 1-m3-1. I pick 3-2-1-3-2-1-2-1 DDUDDUDU as it's the only cross-pick pattern I'm even close to being able to do.

A x740
E x620
F#m x402
D x002
A x740
E x620
D x002

[reverhar]

We (The Neighbors) play it in A. I have been using a sorta Monroe downstroke style. Seems to work ok.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAIVSCpcyRo

[Kent Black]

Thanks for all the help! A good friends son plays guitar and wants me to play with him just for fun so I am trying to learn this and it seemed easy enough for me.

Thanks again,
Kent

[Ed McGarrigle]

What strum pattern do you use for this tune? I’ve got the chords down but I’m not much of a strummer

[JEStanek]

On a completely unrelated note, I saw a funny tiktiok where a person plotted out the towns and destinations reference in the lyrics and it didn't make any sense unless the writer meant a store not the actual Cumberland gap.

Jamie

[journeybear]

Yeah, I recall being told the Johnson City reference in particular was out of whack, involved going in the opposit direction or something. I had been under the impression all these mentions had arisen from personal experiences, or at least would have come from picking suitable points on a map that correlated with the reported activities. Sigh ... :whistling:

Anyway, here's my old band doing it as an encore at one of our regular gigs. A young lady had been bugging us all evening withy this request. We kept putting her off as we didn't do it (the lead singer had an issue with it being so "done" or over done). Even though our bass player knew one of the guys from Old Crow, since high school, and the two of us had been in another band that did it every night for 2 1/2 years, HE didn't know the words. :)) Finally, she put a $20 in the tip bucket. So we got a friend up out of the audience who did know it to take over. And man oh man, the place erupted! Dancing, singing along, an exuberant outpouring of joy. Seems people really like that song. Who knew? :grin: Thankfully someone took a video and posted it. I played the role of band leader, and had the chance to demonstrate my solution to the problem of how to end the ever-repeating repetitive repetition of the refrain. Oh, and you can see the requester kiss and thank our lead singer near the end, about 5:00 - even though his only role was getting out of the way. ;) Charming fellows get too much credit. Go figure!

t2bri-uMUlo

[MikeEdgerton]

I think you may have to blame Ketch for that verse.

[journeybear]

Those verses. ;) He wrote them, adding to a throw-away outtake from the "Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid" soundtrack. Dial it up on youtube, there's not a lot there - just the refrain, then a minute in a few lines of a possible verse that I can't quite make out. Dylan has given his blessing to what Ketch did, so they have a shared co-writing credit. And I'll bet anything that Ketch may well have had a nice long toke or two while having some fun writing what he did. Dylan may have as well - sounds like a late-night jam.

B6HtXMVbGSY

[journeybear]

Here's a geographical exploration of the conundrum, may be the analysis Mike mentioned:

https://995qyk.com/2022/08/03/man-explains-why-the-song-wagon-wheel-makes-no-sense/

Walkin' to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke
But he's a-headin' west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee

Yup. Looks like east to me.

203035

I'd say, change it to "east" when you sing it. If anyone asks you why, tell them. Done. :cool:

[Ranald]

Anyway, here's my old band doing it as an encore at one of our regular gigs. A young lady had been bugging us all evening withy this request. We kept putting her off as we didn't do it (the lead singer had an issue with it being so "done" or over done). Even though our bass player knew one of the guys from Old Crow, since high school, and the two of us had been in another band that did it every night for 2 1/2 years, HE didn't know the words. :)) Finally, she put a $20 in the tip bucket. So we got a friend up out of the audience who did know it to take over. And man oh man, the place erupted!


My brother told me that he was doing a St. Patricks Day gig, and some fellow asked him if he played "Pat Murphy's Wake". My brother told him that he used to, but it had been a long time and he wasn't sure that he remembered the words. Anyway, the guy kept requesting it, and my brother kept putting him off. Finally, the man offered him a $50 bill to play it. My brother said to me, "It was amazing how fifty bucks focussed my memory."

[bwnunnally]

Here's a geographical exploration of the conundrum, may be the analysis Mike mentioned:

https://995qyk.com/2022/08/03/man-explains-why-the-song-wagon-wheel-makes-no-sense/

Walkin' to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke
But he's a-headin' west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee
Yup. Looks like east to me.
I'd say, change it to "east" when you sing it. If anyone asks you why, tell them. Done. :cool:

Putting the rest of the trip together, starting from walking south out of Roanoke (NY?) we would get this map:
203037

So notionally he caught a ride from Roanoke, NY, which is in the area known as the "North Country", down the coast with a trucker out of Philadelphia.
Although our hero was headed to Raleigh, North Carolina, the trucker was headed west TO the Cumberland gap THROUGH Johnson City, TN?
So our hero would have had to get out where interstate 81 meets 77 and head southeast to Raleigh while the trucker continued on his way.

The state motto for NC "To Be, Rather than to Seem", is not "Live free or die", which would be NH, so I am not sure what that line has in mind. 'If I die in Raleigh, at least I will die free"

[Jacob]

Roanoke, Virginia (https://www.roanokeva.gov) not New York?

203040

[Ed McGarrigle]

But guys, what strum pattern do you use?

[Cheryl Watson]

You can chop on 2 and 4 for simplicity, or a more complicated chop rhythm with more embellishment. Or, a basic strum pattern for that song would be:
D D DuDu
1 2 3+4+

[journeybear]

If you're talking about the strum pattern in the OP, you're out of luck. It's been taken down. This thread goes back 13 years. :whistling:

I'm with Cheryl on this. Just a basic 4/4 on-the-beat strum with occasional upstrokes to liven it up.

[Ed McGarrigle]

Thanks Cheryl
A pattern of D DU U DU was recommended but to me but that is a hard one for me as someone with little to no strumming experience — but is that an appropriate pattern?

[Mark Gunter]

The cool thing to me is Darius Rucker doing the tune and having a hit, knowing the background between Dylan/Old Crow re: the tune, and the background with Dylan/Darius re: Only Want To Be With You (Hootie And The Blowfish). I get a real kick out of the ironies of music history, and I love Darius Rucker's work (as well as Dylan's of course). In my mind, Darius chose the tune because of both the irony involved and the groove of the tune, and had another big hit with it. But that's just a gut feeling.

:mandosmiley::cool: