Tumbling Tumbleweeds

  1. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    I like this old tune, and recently decided to suss out the solo Buck White played on it years ago on a CD I have. Decided today to try and play the whole tune and record it.

    I don't have any tabs for this, but would love to hear others' versions as well.

  2. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    That sounds great, Mark. I especially like the solo and the little fills between the phrases. Very musical!

    I see from you slide show that you already have the original Gene Autry sheet music (with vocal line, piano accompaniment and guitar chord symbols) -- it can be downloaded from the Library of Congress here:

    Link

    Alternatively, there is a leadsheet with harmony here (without the original opening verse, which everybody seems to omit anyway):

    Link

    I'll have to see whether I can cobble something together from that...

    Martin
  3. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Thanks Martin. Your first link wont open for me this morning for some reason. I was able to see the musescore file, though. Yes I left out the first verse as well, it never spoke to me.

    I learned the chord progression in the key of C first, which is where I believe Bob Nolan wrote it. I played and sang it in C for awhile, but when transcribing Buck White's solo I found he'd played it in D so I went ahead and transcribed there. I had to do it by ear, the Gene Autry sheet music images were just lifted from the web.
  4. crisscross
    crisscross
    Sounds great Mark!
    And thanks for the leadsheet Martin, I only seem to find those expensive ones...
  5. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Hi Mark,

    Not sure what the problem with the PDF link is -- it works fine for me. Maybe try this link to the LOC catalogue entry, with PDF download link and browsable gallery of the scanned pages:

    https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.100008234/

    Martin
  6. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    My mistake, Martin. When I clicked the link, I would see only a blank page ... and I failed to realize that my browser had downloaded a PDF! So I have that sheet now.

    If anyone wants a copy of the midi file I made for this in key of D, you can get it here: http://www.markgunter.net/audio/midi...umbleweeds.mid
  7. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Great work Mark. I didn’t know the song but sure enough you got a feeling for this kind of music and can perform it well on mandolin.
  8. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Thanks for the midi file, Mark.
    And thanks for the PDF link, Martin.
  9. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Thanks Frithjof.
  10. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    As promised, here is my mandolin cover for this classic Western song, written in 1934 by Bob Nolan of The Sons Of The Pioneers, who also first recorded it that year. There are many other recorded versions, and Gene Autry starred in a movie of that name.

    My recording for two mandolins, tenor guitar and mandocello is adapted from the LOC score, with a bassline and mandolin harmonies extracted from the piano part plus a few bits from the Musescore leadsheet I linked above.

    Interestingly, neither The Sons Of The Pioneers nor Gene Autry included the original first verse on their records -- they start straight with the chorus. I quite like the intro and verse, so I've included them in my version.

    1921 Gibson Ajr mandolin (x2)
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar
    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello



    Martin
  11. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Great job, Martin. Thanks for working this one up.
  12. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Nice, Martin. Your recording as a mandolin quartet represent of course a different style. That’s fine with me. I like to listen to a diversity of versions.
  13. crisscross
    crisscross
    Fine arrangement, playing and artwork, Martin!
  14. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Thanks for posting this Mark, and really good to see you posting, well played and I really the sharps and flats in this one.
    And again Martin, nice to see the diversity of our group, thanks.
    -it’s funny, I did once see a really old German cowboy film (in German and in Germany) where some of the cowboys were, I think, Swiss, Bavarian and maybe Italian?!
    All sorts of strange looking outfits too. I think it was set in Texas or Arizona, don’t know what year that was, but talk about wild and authentic!
    Must have been a great time to live.
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