Thursday, April 23, 2009

Pre-emptive Friday Jukebox Video

I had it on my mind earlier this week,to play a depression era folk tune by Pete Seeger entitled 'Freight Train'.
Perhaps you know of it.
It's bright,and simple,and pops up in my head from time to time.

Well,I lickity-split on over to YouTube,and had no problem ringing it up.
I was more than a little surprised to discover that Pete didn't write the song!
It was written by an unassuming woman by the name of Elizabeth Cotten.

COOL!..I love learning new stuff about old music,..it's evolution and such,..so I was anxious to hear Liz and Pete perform the duet.
When 'WTF??' to my wondering eyes should appear?..but that Ms. Cotten plays guitar left-handed!..

So?..There's a shit-ton of left-handed guitarists you say.
Paul McCartney springs immediately to mind.
True enough,but they play left-handed guitars...Liz plays a right-handed guitar Upside Down!..
This puts the order of strings,top to bottom,..in reverse!
Hard enough to pick and chord,without having to imagine the whole thing ass backwards,and topsy-turvy.
..By my way o' thinkin',this is equivalent to playing the flute,by sucking on the opposite end.



'Freight Train'

Quite naturally,I obsessed over this singular phenomenon.
I flipped my fiddle over in my lap,..and had no friggin' clue how to proceed.

..This is what I finally came up with.



'dniW ehT nI tsuD'

That's all you get.

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