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Post by Pickers Ditch on Mar 21, 2020 19:59:33 GMT
Coach posted this Hayes McMullen track the other day and I'm fascinated.
I have heard of the man through the stories about Charlie Patton but this is the first time I've really listened to him.
I've now listened to all the tracks on his only album recorded in 1968 and I like this stuff.
Sounds like he's using a 12 string on some of the tracks and has a pretty different way of playing and rhythm.
I would like to learn more.
Can anybody point me in the direction of tunings, lessons, etc. please?
MM - may be a subject for Pocklington in November...
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Post by slide496 on Mar 21, 2020 20:45:13 GMT
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Post by coach on Mar 21, 2020 20:54:36 GMT
It's funny the interviews are always swung to be about C. Patton and then Hayes does a really funny take of Pony Blues. I've only listened to this once and haven't really thought about the tunings, he has a great percussive style
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 21, 2020 21:25:31 GMT
I got really into Hayes McMullen a few decades ago when he was part of the BBC Blues series in the 70s/80s. Not a very good quality copy, but I love this one....
Back in the olden days he appeared in a few documentaries and I decoded a few of his tunes. I would need to sit down with them again as I haven't thought about him for a very long time. He's just playing in Spanish isn't he, a bit up from G is how it sounds.
My friend Roy Book Binder knew Hayes and he stayed in Roy's apartment for a night or two.
Shine On Michael
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 21, 2020 23:26:05 GMT
I’ve just been listening to a few of Hayes’ songs and I think he is using standard and Spanish in various keys. The 12 string track that you posted is in F#, but in standard I think. F# is a very common key in west African music and in country blues. Muddy’s “I be’s troubled” for example is in F# and it is not an error in the transfers, it is in F#.
The Hayes McMullen track I posted is in Spanish up half a step to G# and is very typical of blues from the delta. Willie Brown, Son House, Charlie Patton, all played tunes built around this riff and rhythm. Hayes has a beautiful sweet tone to his music, both vocally and on his guitar. He also has a very cool taste in jumpers and back when I first saw him in the BBC film I was in my 20s and I tracked down a jumper just like his! Notice how his two fingers are locked together playing strings 3 and 2, so the B flat is bent up towards a B and the B string is ringing along with it creating a bluesy blur of major and minor pentatonic. In other words > BLUES!
Shine On Michael
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Mar 22, 2020 8:56:55 GMT
Thank you - that lot points me in the right direction.
I've got a jumper like that somewhere but it won't fit me nowadays - however, I think this is a good excuse to sit in the garden sunshine out of the wind and learn something new.
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Post by mark1977 on Mar 22, 2020 15:17:09 GMT
I'm grateful to this thread for introducing me to Hayes McMullen who I had not previously heard of. I love his version of Hurry Sundown. It ever so slightly reminds me of Tommy Johnson's Canned Heat Blues.
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