There's no place like Home in San Antone

Hey Folksies,

Delayed post here, I know, I would blame life and tour and being busy, but I just had an amazing weekend at home in what feels like the first time in forever. So I read a book., made some good food, and enjoyed quality time with my cat. 

But fear not, I did not forget about you. I did have moments of guilt as I sat curled up in the sun with a cup of tea, aaaaaannnd I watched as those moments sailed by. Such a great teacher. Soooo responsible.

Home in San Anotone,

The next step in Western Swing, making use of our movable Chord Shapes.  Introducing Twin Fiddles, and the C Major Pentatonic Scale. Take a look at the C Pentatonic worksheet, remember that these scales are movable as well, there are often numerous ways to play the same notes on your instrument. For the Guitars and Ukulele's I have tried to provide tab for the scale in a place that makes the most sense for this particular song. 

cpentaworksheet.pdf
File Size:	79 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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homeinsanantone_leadsheet.pdf
File Size:	71 kb
File Type:	pdf

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homeinsanantone_fiddle.pdf
File Size:	60 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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homeinsanantone_tab.pdf
File Size:	77 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Recordings:

the Download File here is a version I recorded for a previous FolkHarmonic group.  There are also 2 Recordings from the 1st Western Swing era (From the mid 1930's to late 1940's) , and 2 from the 2nd Western Swing era of the 60's. My version is based on the earlier era and similar recordings from that time.

homeinsanantone_oct23_2013.mp3
File Size:	5832 kb
File Type:	mp3

Download File

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40's vs 60's

Brief Historical Context

Where does this music come from? During the great depression many of the young folk in rural areas of Texas and Oklahoma were forced to move to the cities to find work. They brought with them their love of music, dancing and string bands to the big city, where  for the first time they were exposed to the wonderful world of Jazz music. Not wanting to be known as country pickers many of the musicians adapted already known favourites, blues progressions and cowboy songs to be more Jazzy. Texas Swing (or western Swing) was born. There was no set orchestration for a western swing band, who ever and what ever was at hand was played. You'll find video footage of bands consisting of  guitar, bass, 3 fiddles, and accordion, some had horn sections, some had piano. These were dance bands, and as long as the joint was jumpin' no one cared.  One of the best known musicians of this genre is Bob Wills, but there are many others that deserve mention (perhaps even more than Mr Wills) Milton Brown, who was once a bandmate of Wills' is often referred to as the Father of Western Swing. Unfortunately a car crash ended his career prematurely. I'm sure given more time he would have also come up with a better band name, Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies is an interesting choice if you ask me. My personal favourite in the western swing world, and in song writing in general is the remarkable Miss Cindy Walker, who had an extensive writing career that included hits like "You Don't know Me" and was the first woman to be inducted into the country music hall of fame AND was the first woman to record a country music video. 

cheers
a