Tennessee Blues - Skaggs and Rice

[Spruce]

There's a super version of Bill playing TB from the Great American Music Hall in '79 or so....
That one was my template...

[William Smith]

Listen to several different versions over and over, then develop your own. For me, the real "emotional" version of this tune is Duffey's.

Bob

Yep Bob,,my thaughts also brother!, Everyone should make every song their own,,Gotta love BIG Johns' versions of this killer tune,,there is one on youtube,,live from the late 70's,,poor quality but very cool! He played with the "feelin"

[mandolirius]

Tell that to Mr. Bill...

Just proves that even he couldn't copy himself.

[swampstomper]

Original recording:
Recording Date:1940-10-07
Composer:Bill Monroe
Place:Kimball Hotel, Atlanta, GA
Master:054525
Instruments:Bill Monroe-m; Clyde Moody-g; Tommy Magness-f; Bill Westbrook-bs

The Duffy version is a tour-de-force, the Skaggs & Rice version pure tribute with beautiful touch and tone, but the original just rocks! You can just feel (and hear!) Monroe being egged on by his bandmates to one more variation. The broken, inconsistent time just adds to the feeling of a wild jam session with a virtuouso (Monroe) "let out of the doghouse".

[lukmanohnz]

It's great to browse the posts here only to be reminded of songs already in my CD collection. I went back to the Skaggs & Rice CD after reading this thread. Last Christmas when I first began playing mandolin I would have listened to this track with wonder and amazement and never imagined my own hands would be capable of playing it at any tempo. But yesterday during my lunch break at work I started figuring it out by ear using my iPad and the Capo app (an absolute must-own app for any mandolin-playing iPad or iPhone owner out there). Then this morning on my drive to work, I put Sleep With One Eye Open in my car stereo, cued up track 4, and just about wept. The Thiele-Daves collaboration has displaced The Allman Brothers' Eat a Peach as my desert island disc.

[Rob Fowler]

I'd never heard the Duffey version so went about finding the youtube version of it. Here it is:



That Duffey was something else!

[David]

I learned this tune from the Scaggs and Rice version (which is the same as the studio Monroe version on the "Essential Bill Monroe"), the way I hear it the crooked part starts on the IV chord (D) when it goes back to the I chord after 7 beats instead of the expected 8 (two full measures). It then waits a half measure to hit the V chord, and from there again returns to the I a beat early. Or something like that. Crooked as all heck and I love it!

[f5loar]

I guess i do more of a Duffey version then Monroe after seeing that clip. I sure miss that line up of the SS. Amazing how such talented guys like Phil just seem to drop out of sight never to return to bluegrass. Anybody know what he is doing these days?

[swampstomper]

The studio cut of the Duffey version is on one of the Scene albums but also in the "Always in Style" retrospective from Sugar Hill which they issued after his untimely passing. That CD also has some great Duffey work with the reunion original Gents.

[mandolirius]

I love J.D. and the Scene but that version didn't do much for me. While it was fun to see Duffey blister it, they turned T.B. into a pretty pedestrian blues without any of the Monroe mystique the original had.

[William Smith]

I guess i do more of a Duffey version then Monroe after seeing that clip. I sure miss that line up of the SS. Amazing how such talented guys like Phil just seem to drop out of sight never to return to bluegrass. Anybody know what he is doing these days?

Hey F-5,,yes my uncle Gene Johnson told me Phil was doin childrens music? with his wife,,that was about 5 years ago though when I asked,I think my aunt stays in touch with them,,,and I agree I love that Scene line up!

[AlanN]

Yeah, they got the perfect guy to replace The Voice back then. Not only did Phil have the good resonant lead voice, he was/is a killer guitar man, something Starling could not do. That Act IV is such a great record (I think TB is on there). I have an old record by a band called Old Dog, was Phil + the Stockwell boys, and a lady. Phil I think picked mandolin on it, very hip playing, great stuff. Also, a solo record he did back then with several original instrumentals, one called Clarence.

[Mike Bunting]

I love J.D. and the Scene but that version didn't do much for me. While it was fun to see Duffey blister it, they turned T.B. into a pretty pedestrian blues without any of the Monroe mystique the original had.

Thank you, I've been trying figure out a response to that video, I know it didn't seem very musical to me, chockfull of Duffy smart ass though.

[Willie Poole]

Until that U-Tube of Duffey playing T.B. I thought all of you were talking about a slow tune with the same name recorded by J.D. Crow and The New South...It had words also...

Yeah Mike, Duffey had a way of getting on peoples nerves with his antics but when he wanted to get serious he was the greastest....When he asked Dudely Connell to come aboard with the Scene, Dudley said only if you can get serious, and John did do just that for his last few months.....He was a good friend....

Willie

[Mike Bunting]

Until that U-Tube of Duffey playing T.B. I thought all of you were talking about a slow tune with the same name recorded by J.D. Crow and The New South...It had words also...

Yeah Mike, Duffey had a way of getting on peoples nerves with his antics but when he wanted to get serious he was the greastest....When he asked Dudely Connell to come aboard with the Scene, Dudley said only if you can get serious, and John did do just that for his last few months.....He was a good friend....

Willie

I liked all the CG and SS work that he did. I was only referring to that Youtube video. He was a sharp dresser too, as well as being a great singer.

[AlanN]

Yeah Willie, the slow TB is also a fine tune. Ain't this one we are talking about.

The best singers the Seldom Scene had were, in order:
1-JS, 2-PR, 3-DC (imo)

[Willie Poole]

Alan, I went to see JD Crow and The New South here in Annapolis and the lead singer/guitar player whose last name was Lawson (I think), not Doyle, long blonde hair hippie looking fellow, and he did the slow version of T.B and I fell in love with that tune, played it for years but don`t do it now but I will bring it back out and see if my voice can still do it justice, I have to stick with songs that don`t have a long wide, getting older, you know....

[AlanN]

Willie, that would have been Glenn (2 Ns) Lawson. He was in the good band Spectrum from late 70s-early 80s, also. Frankly, I never cared for his voice, but heckuva guitar man. Last I heard, he was an accountant somewhere down south.

[Brian Ray]

This thread has so many things I like in it... a classic Monroe tune; respect for Mon; Duffy; talk about the Seldom Scene; honest review of Duffy's TN Blues

I used to do this tune often but would kinda omit the 5 count 'cause folks usually can't follow it. I may dust this one off and try to get'r right for shows with the Blue Grass Boys Reunion. I believe they could follow it

[Spruce]

I used to do this tune often but would kinda omit the 5 count 'cause folks usually can't follow it.

Yeah, me too...
I play it more "right" these days...

[re simmers]

Thanks for posting the Scene from 1979. What a band. Auldridge, Eldridge, Tom Gray, Phil & Duffey....no weak links.

Duffey's smart mouth stuff was what drew the masses. He was the best front man bluegrass has ever had. Like him or not, he commanded attention from all. Somehow, when he was talking everyone stopped to listen. Sometimes off color, but he was quick witted, very smart and was the Johnny Carson of grass.

TB is the perfect Scene instrumental, 'on top of the beat' without speeding up. Ben is fantastic on the banjo.

What a great thread...The Scene and TB!!!

Bob

[Wolfboy]

Amazing how such talented guys like Phil just seem to drop out of sight never to return to bluegrass. Anybody know what he is doing these days?

He's running his own record company and recording studio in Guilford, Connecticut (http://www.americanmelody.com/), and teaching guitar, mandolin and banjo. I've always thought he deserved a lot more attention as a flatpicker (among other things) - one of my favorite bluegrass lead guitarists.

[AlanN]

Recorded in 1978
hmm....full scan didn't display, but this is the back cover of his LP Indian Summer, nice mix of vocals and instrumentals. Phil picks guitar and mandolin on it.