Seasons of the Ukulele

A weekly song challenge for ukulele players - all welcome. Find out more here

Season 717: Big River – A Johnny Cash Low G tribute

CanadaJim

READY FOR THE RIVER - Neil Moret & Gus Kahn - 1928
I opted for the "River" option here David. Thanks for hosting.
I learned this song in the late seventies from Lyn Hardy's vocals on the Catskill Mountain Goose Chase LP she recorded with her husband at the time, Jay Unger.

potmo

AlanDP You seemed to hit all the notes to me… Thanks for your usual standard of play. I still don't think I have known any of the songs you have done! I do always wind up liking them. I thought the streak was going to be broken, but the "cry me a river" I know was by Joe Cocker (with Mad Dogs and Englishman), an inspiration to me, because he got famous in spite of even sillier contortions than me.

Threebird

Thanks for hosting and picking a theme that gives me an excuse to finish learning this song, since the word river is mentioned twice.

Here is my approximation of 'Pretty Boy Floyd' by Woody Guthrie, I finally worked something out and this is my first ukulele version of the song (but I did do an acapella version for a previous season).

I would also like to introduce my new ukulele, which was made for me by Fred Casey (CF Casey Guitars) in Manitoba. The top/back/sides are Oregon Myrtle, the neck is Spanish Cedar, and the bridge & fingerboard are Ziricote. "Officially" Fred is retired, but still had some good ukulele wood and a shop, so… A special feature of this instrument is that it is made entirely of materials the luthier already had on-hand (inc. p/u, tuners, wood, etc) - so I did my part to help use up his existing inventory.

johnpoole

A hit for Johnny Cash but written by Kris Kristofferson. Johnny's hit helped consolidate Kris's career as a singer songwriter. Full of great imagery and lyrics. My favourite being ' cleanest dirty shirt". " Sunday Morning Coming Down" Normally I'd probably play this on a baritone. But I like the tenor with a high g for the contrast with the sombre melody in this case. Thanks for being the Sasquatch, the Yeti, the Unicorn, the Bunyip man, the Loch Nessie…..yes potmo the rarest of all things…A New Host!!

DelGriff

potmo Multitracking: Fine with the following qualifier, at the risk of ruffling feathers: Limit yourself to Ukelele and vocals.

Any chance you could extend that to a rhythm track please?

UkeCan1

The Rio Grande is a big river whose name is Big River in Spanish. There are lots of songs about it.

"I'm an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande" is a 1936 song by a different Johnny - Johnny Mercer - first sung by Bing Crosby in a movie.

It's been featured in lots of movies, and covered by just about everybody, including - yes indeedy - Johnny Cash.

AlanDP

A version of this song was recorded by Johnny Cash, and is better known as "The Wreck of the Old 97." The sheet music I have credits Henry Whitter with writing the song, however, the music comes from "The Ship That Never Returned" written in 1865 by Henry Work, and there is a lot of dispute that even generated some lawsuits back in the 1920s about who really wrote the lyrics. It's about a real train wreck that happened because the train was going too fast to try to make up time when it derailed. It was a huge hit for Vernon Dalhart in 1924, and is claimed to be the first multi-million selling country song, selling around 7 million copies, if I remember correctly. The engineer's last name was really Broady, not Brooklyn. The B-side of Dalhart's 78 rpm record was "The Prisoner's Song," which I also recorded for the seasons way back in Season 195.

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay

Here is a song that climbed to the top 5 on the USA charts in 1962 by…. Walter Brennen. While Brennen did this as a "spoken" song, I thought that it might be something The Man in Black could have done, So, here I am doing a very poor Johnny Cash impersonation singing "Old Rivers" and, yes, I played my low G tenor for this one.

Bystander

Thanks for hosting David, good to see a new face in charge. A quick CCR cover from me that doesn't really suit my playing and singing style but I've always loved the song, especially that chord riff.

potmo

DelGriff Well who is little old me to argue with the godfather himself? Still I would prefer you do the rhythm track like a rap vocalist but I won't fine or arrest you and it will of course be included in the playlist.

potmo

Threebird Glad I gave you an excuse! Well worth learning! I guess you are returning the Guthrie favor!

potmo

UkeCan1 Nice one. Not a two fer but a multi qualifier (do we have a term for that?). Really nice job.

DelGriff

potmo I would prefer you do the rhythm track like a rap vocalist

Haha - you mean a bit of beat boxing? Seems like a fair compromise - never tried it before - could be a disaster, but what the heck! 😆

potmo

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay I beg to differ! I think you did a fantastic impersonation of the man in black! BTW, my mom grew up in Green Bay, my parents met at UW, where my oldest sister was born. well not on campus but in Madison. We used to drive to Green Bay every Thanksgiving to visit my grandparents in Depere. And I own a share of the packers. I have a bucket list item that is to watch the packers play in Lambeau on a brutally cold winter day… I am not much of a sports fan these days, but I will always be a packer fan. My grandfather was one of the original founders of the team and helped structure the whole "fans own the team" thing.

potmo

johnpoole Well I am flattered (I think), but it has certainly been my pleasure to host! This was definitely a perfect Johnny Cash tune.
…" And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin' And it echoed through the canyons Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday…"

This is actually the first song I actually recognized, although I think a couple of those I vaguely knew. Such a perfect Cash tune. I wonder if Kris wrote it for him.

potmo

DelGriff Well, as I said, there wouldn't be any severe consequences but yes I would prefer such an effort and we will be the judges as to how big a disaster it is. Not sure what beat boxing is, but yeah i mean when the dudes make the rhythm sound with their mouths.

DelGriff

potmo Not sure what beat boxing is, but yeah i mean when the dudes make the rhythm sound with their mouths.

Yes - that’s exactly what it is! My teenage daughter will be horrified that I’m attempting it - so that’s an added bonus! 😆 I’ll just blame you, David @potmo ! 😜

potmo

UkeCan1 IT occurs to me that is either a three-way multiqualifier (name of river word river and word big in title) if we are bilingual or you are the first "name of river" entry.

potmo

DelGriff maybe you should have her do it?

potmo

Day 3 10amish Hawaiian time.
This is awesome! The songs keep rolling in. I am certainly humbled not only by the amazing talent that kind of puts me to shame, had I any pride, but the song selection and enthusiasm.
Don't ask me why, but one of the many quirks in my behavior is that I like to tally stuff. So here is my current tally: (no promises that I will keep this up as if anyone cares)

"Big in title": 1

Johnny Cash: 4

River: 6

River name: 1

Total participants so far: 10

Total songs: 15
Total countries represented: At least 5, according to my calculations (I am counting by where you are not by your original nationality). Not sure where threebird and johnpoole are from … guessing fellow murkns but …
Total songs I recognized: 2 . I didn't know my song until the day of. Still aspiring to be able to master a tune in a short period of time like Wendy et. al, with meh results.

Keep 'em coming! By the way, I would love to hear one of you virtuosos make an attempt at the season topic. My low G hasn't showed up yet, so I am already probably out of time.
Also hoping Wendy will do a Johnny Cash song so that she can claim to have swept all the options.

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