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LESSON 2
Delta Blues Guitar: "Crow Jane"
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Here's a challenging little number! It is best known as Carl Martin's "Crow Jane," although he used it for "Good Morning," "Judge" and "Joe Louis Blues," among others. And he may have learned the arrangement from the obscure but great Joe Evans. Martin and Evans both hailed from Knoxville, Tenn., which loosely throws them into the East Coast school. "Crow Jane" departs from the usual I-IV-V chord structure by its use of the second half of the ragtime progression (I-III7-VI7-II7-V7-I) and dependence on the II7 (F#7). I play this with three (T,i,m) fingers, although I sometimes use four for pluck-strumming chords. The middle finger plays the top string; down arrows indicate the number of fingers used and strings played by each. The initial "E" chord at the fourth fret is frailed with the index or, if played with picks, with a rapid thumb-index back-and-forth strum.

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Charlie Archer
© Charlie Archer
Master of delta blues and beyond

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Lesson 1 "Pay Day" by Mississippi John Hurt
Lesson 2 "Crow Jane" by Carl Martin's


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