What Key for "Little Rock Getaway"?

[FrDNicholas]

I found this in both Bb and C, and was just wondering if one key is more commonly used than the other? I would like to play it at our local jam, but if one key is more common, that's the key I'd like to learn it in. If it's absolutely necessary, I'll learn it in both keys, but would prefer to be lazy. Thanks.

[Dale Ludewig]

C is what I'm familiar with. You can find the melody and chord forms in Tabledit format at http://mandozine.com

It's a bit of a knuckle buster. Must be quite the local jam....

[doc holiday]

In either key.....it's very often a jam buster
:-)

[FrDNicholas]

We do have some very talented musicians at the jam that I struggle to keep up with. I had reached one of many plateaus, and playing with them has kicked me out of it.
On a totally unrelated post, I woke up this morning with a piece of song in my head that I'm hoping someone will recognize from the little bit I remember. "Waiting is a game, that I was getting good at,..........was becoming my style...." Does that sound familiar to anyone?

[AlanN]

Early Doyle Lawson and QS, maybe off their 1979 first LP, with Lou Reid on electric bass, How Long Have I Been Waiting For You.

LRG is indeed a great number, has been recorded by many. Noted out in an old MWN a la Richard Greene, also in Wayne Benson's Acutab book. Wayne talks about a lick he used to kind of get back to where he once belonged.

It is indeed a jam buster, the dim chords seem to throw people.

[FrDNicholas]

Thanks for the song info. I will look that up hopefully before tonight's jam. It becomes obvious pretty quickly if I'm playing a jam buster song. Often it's because it's an old folk song and the folks with the real talent prefer bluegrass stuff.

[Dave Reiner]

I've always heard and played LRG in C on mandolin and fiddle. Great tune! I used to play it on twin fiddle with Pete Anick when we lived in Madison long ago.

[FrDNicholas]

I looked for the lyrics to How Long Have I Been Waiting for you found one verse and a chorus. Is that all there is?

[Ole Joe Clark]

LRG is a great tune, that we attempt to play in C. I can fake my way through the chords, but still have to look at the music to get them right. One of these days the light will come on and I will remember them all.

Most of the time, Sweet Georgia Brown is the jam buster for us. :-)

Joe

[AlanN]

LRG has enough of a notey fiddle tune thing going on to appeal to the grass pickers. Ain't easy to pick it.

SGB is pretty straight forward, for me. Fortunately, I have a guitar man who likes to back me up on that stuff - Limehouse Blues, Bye Bye Blues, Minor Swing, etc. When we start in on that stuff, the picker crowd goes bye bye.

[greg_tsam]

I can play LRG and love the finger work b/c I'm a glutton for punishment. It's hard to get anyone to play it with me even the few that do know how. Pretty song. Many of the jams I find get dominated by singers and songs with lyrics. It's almost like I'm the default "fiddle tune" guy. Guess I should learn to sing.

[FrDNicholas]

Our local jam has a good balance of singing and fiddle tunes, for which I am very grateful. If we've played a couple of fiddle tunes in a row, someone will say, "Let's sing one". When we've sung a bunch, the next choice is usually a fiddle tune. I started working on Little Rock Getaway in C and really like it. It's going to take some time to get it to public consumption, but I think it will be worth the effort.
I'm still wondering about the song, "How Long Have I Been Waiting" and if there's more than one verse available somewhere?

[Ole Joe Clark]

I love those tunes that are more than "3 chords and a cloud of dust." The straight bluegrassers hate them. Four Leaf Clover, Bye Bye Blues, When You're Smiling, LRG, and many great waltzes that I like are great tunes that challenge me. I hope I never get to old to learn a new tune.

Joe

[greg_tsam]

Our local jam has a good balance of singing and fiddle tunes, for which I am very grateful. If we've played a couple of fiddle tunes in a row, someone will say, "Let's sing one". When we've sung a bunch, the next choice is usually a fiddle tune. I started working on Little Rock Getaway in C and really like it. It's going to take some time to get it to public consumption, but I think it will be worth the effort.
I'm still wondering about the song, "How Long Have I Been Waiting" and if there's more than one verse available somewhere?

Did you search the internet for it? Could this be it?

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[John Duncan]

Here is Solly Burton wearing out Little Rock Getaway in the key of C


http://youtu.be/AciymbgGHNU

[FrDNicholas]

So, it looks like the song How Long Have I Been Waiting has one verse and a chorus, then the same verse is repeated. That's what I found when I looked it up on the Internet, but thought there ought to be more verses. Oh, well, it's still I song I like.

[ralph johansson]

The only recorded version I own is with the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band, from 1962. It's in Eb, a far better range than Bb. But I would probably do it in C.