Murphy Henry

We were back in the saddle at the Misfit Jam tonight but pickings were sorta slim. Bob Mc and Susan were on banjos, Bobby V (the artist formerly known as Bob Van) was on bass, and I was holding down the guitar.

We opened with "Cripple Creek" in G, playing in unison, but then I thought, “Let’s go to A since there are only two banjos to retune when we put the capos on.” So, to A we did go. And in that glorious chord (or key as some folks say) we did:

Boil Them Cabbage
Blue Ridge Cabin Home
Salt Creek (Susan soloed)
I Saw The Light
Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms
Old Joe Clark

I will point out that the key of A is the “normal” fiddle key for "Cabbage", "Salt Creek", and "Old Joe". And “singing songs” are done wherever the singer wants. Although I will have to say that A was stretching Bobby and me (or Bobby and I, as folks are wont to ungrammatically say these days). I was definitely straining for the tenor on the higher notes.

Funny things that happened: Bob Mc got lost in the middle of "Blue Ridge Cabin Home" and was out of sync with the rest of us. I stopped him to say, “Bob, are you listening to the rest of us?” His answer? “No, of course not!” Gotta give him credit for honesty!

Susan got a bit flummoxed in the middle of "Salt Creek" when she tried to put the ending on without finishing the song, that is, after the A parts. When that obviously didn’t work, she started to say something about it. I responded with, “Don’t talk in the middle of the song. Keep playing!” Which she did. We got the ending lick straightened out after the song was over, but the ever-supportive Bob Mc said that if he got a vote, he would always vote for talking in the middle of a song!

On the subject of capos, I pointed out that some folks I have picked with refer to the key of A as “two G.” Which simply means put the capo on at the second fret and play out of G position. Thus, the key of B becomes “four G.” When I was performing as a solo folk singer back in my college days, I used that same terminology on the set list I had taped to the side of my Yamaha 12-string guitar. I also used “two C” when I capoed up two frets and played out of C position. (Most folks would call that the key of D.) Made sense to me. But I always did have a strong streak of redneck in me. Or at least I like to pretend that I do!