Evening Prayer Blues

[AlanN]

Anybody play this one? Tough number to get right. Can't really play a straight grass rhythm on it, don't sound right. Have to play more of a loping thing.

Ol' Bill was harder to pin down than a slippery cat.

[batman]

Hey Alan, been meaning to learn this one. I think Compton and Long got it about right in raliegh the other night. life is good Don

[JimRichter]

I play this one. #Worked long and hard at it after hearing Compton play it a year back at a workshop. #Always wanted to learn it, but hearing/seeing Compton really made it click. #Having been a true blue blues guitarist most of my gigging adulthood, I think the light came on for me w/ this song when I found that many of the licks (as well as the rhythm) were ones I already played on the guitar. #The A part of the tune isn't the killer--it's the B part. #That's th eone that'll still flubb me if I haven't played it in awhile.

I let my subscription to MM lapse, so I haven't seen the tab. #But having recently seen the tab for it on the Bibey DVD, there are so many nuances to the tune that tab just doesn't get. #I think that's why it's great to be exposed to someone like Compton who breathes the tune.

Jim

[mandobob]

Haven't seen that article but I tried to learn it form the Big Mon. Now, I am counting challenged, but isn't that in 5/4 and then have some 2/4? (I play it in 4.1/6.3 but with a Reggae feel...)

[Spruce]

I play the tune alot, and use it as a good tune to test mandolins...

"Ol' Bill was harder to pin down than a slippery cat. "

I have one of the few recordings (I'm looking for more!) of Mr. Bill doing this tune live (Vancouver BC 11/3/1980), and it varies quite a bit from the version on "Master of Bluegrass". #That 2 beat tag on the end of the A part is stuck on the end of the B part, and the timing is different....
So yeah, Ol' Bill was hard to pin down on a tune...

Anyone ever heard the original version by DeFord Bailey?
It's facinating to figure out how Monroe got his version from DeFord's, 'cause the two have very little in common to these ears.
I think you could play the tune for many a mando player familiar with EPB, and few would guess what it is...
DeFord's is a very cool listen...

"Worked long and hard at it after hearing Compton play it a year back at a workshop."

I have a nice recording of Compton picking this tune apart piece-by-piece at one of his workshops, and it's facinating to see his take on what makes this tune tick. #
In a lot of ways, if you can master EPB (not that I have ), you have a real head-start on figuring out how Monroe constructed tunes, and the sometimes odd phrasing that he used in his blues-based playing...

It's a cool tune for sure and nice to hear at some jams, although it can be a jam buster....

[Tom C]

If it is written in 4/4 there is and extra 1/2 measure (or a 6/4 measure at the end.)

I do not have music in fron of me but if in 4/4 the tricky is to hold that long note for 5 beats. So you need to hold it till the end of the first beat in the 2nd measure. #
# # # # #
da da-da-da dahhhhhhhhhhh # da da da-da...... # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # # # # # # # # #1 # 2 # 3 # 4 # #1 # # #2........

[Don Grieser]

Compton sometimes plays a Deford version and then a Monroe version. The Deford version is pretty crooked. Bill straightened it out some but not completely. There's a kind of call and response to it, and I guess when the spirit moves, you can hang on to any of those notes a little longer if your backup musicians can follow it.

[AlanN]

I have a tape of a mando workshop (Bush, Thile, Tony Williamson, Jimmy Gaudreau, Jody Stecher, Drew Emmitt, Baldassari, Compton, Emory Lester and Tim O'Brien). They all go down the line and play a tune. When it comes to O'Brien, he says "Ok, it's Say and Play Hour" and plays EPB, real fast, a bit too fast, but he gets it clean and good.

[Stringbuster]

JP Cormier has a pretty cool version of this tune on his new CD -(X8 , A mandolin Collection).

[mingusb1]

Hey AlanN, any chance to get a copy of that workshop? #Sounds pretty sweet. #But I don't want to open a floodgate (of requests) here. #

Z

[GTison]

seems like when I learned it. It just comes right out of the language of the monroe style. sometimes you just have to be absorbed into the tune to get all those slides and stuff.

I'd love to hear what compton said too. A great version (not Mon ) is on Richard Greens album "wolves a howlin'" I think baldassari is on there?

I've got a video of Monroe playing that at bean blossom about '87-89 time frame... on sunday morning for the Gospel show. It's pretty true to the recording. He just fades out the ending by walking away from the mic.