Ukulele Hunt

Tag: Country

  • Waxahatchee – Right Back to It (Tabs)

    Waxahatchee – Right Back to It (Tab)Download

    This arrangement of Waxahatchee’s Right Back to It is a rare outing in the key of Bb, which keeps all the melodies comfortably within the first few frets.

    But there’s still plenty of movement up and down the neck in the song’s instrumental sections. And there are many of those with an intro and two solos. I’ve kept the intro close to the original. And I recommend you do the same. But the solos have plenty of room for your own ideas. For mine, I’m following the chord shapes and adding in notes from the Bb major scale (plus a C# in bars 42 and 54 for a bluesy edge). And I use lots of slides and bends to imitate a lap steel guitar. The lick in bar 53 in particular is a classic lap steel move.

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  • Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Tabs)

    Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Tab)Download

    Intro: Matching the Willie version by following the bass notes using the thumb on the g- and C-strings. Followed by strums. 

    Verse and Bridge: Continuing the thumb-plucking and strums, and adding the melody line. Most of the melody line is picked with the fingers, but some notes are part of the strummed chords. 

    There’s a simple lick in bar 11 and a couple of lines inspired by the walking bass in bars 12 and 20.

    Solo: With Willie playing a nylon string guitar, his solo suits the ukulele fairly well. 

    The one problem is the bends. It is much easier to do bends on a uke in the middle of the fretboard. So I’m bending the E-string at the 7th fret rather than the A-string at the second fret. That does require some shifts up and down the fretboard. 

    Although the song is in swing time, the descending line at the end of the solo (bars 43-44) is played straight. 

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  • Old Crow Medicine Show/Darius Rucker – Wagon Wheel (Tabs)

    OCMS – Wagon Wheel (Tabs)Download

    Old Crow Medicine Show’s Wagon Wheel is pretty much ubiquitous wherever ukuleles are strummed. Or any instrument is strummed. Even Kesha has had a go at it.

    Part of the reason it’s so popular is its long gestation taking in Curtis Jone’s Roll Me Mama and Bob Dylan’s mumbled demo Rock Me Mama before OCMS’s Ketch Secor gave the song its current form. It’s not a coincidence that a song passing through so many hands would shape it into something so widely loved. Which is why the current music copyright insanity is so harmful.

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  • Brandi Carlile – You and Me on the Rock (Tabs)

    Brandi Carlile – You and Me on the Rock (Tab)Download

    Here’s my take on Brandi Carlile’s Joni Mitchell influenced and very catchy You and Me on the Rock.

    Intro: The Mitchell influence kicks in right away with a Big Yellow Taxi-esque strumming riff.

    Verse: And continues with a wordy verse. It’s tricky to hit every note in the melody. So I’ve taken a few liberties. Don’t stress to much about hitting every note and string exactly.

    Chorus: Things calm down a bit in the chorus. And I move from strumming only to include more picking. Even with the picking I’m doing a bit of “flick up” motion so I stroke the next string along. Making the note softer but still supporting the main melody.

    The chorus ends with a bar of 2/4 but it flows naturally.

    Bridge: There’s a short bluesy lick leading into the bridge introducing the more minor feel with the addition of Eb (the first chord outside the bog-standard I-IV-V in the rest of the song).

    Outro: The outro is cut down from the original so it’s just the second half of the chorus.

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