Level: 2/3
Tuning: Dropped D

This was Tommy Johnson's best known song. He recorded it at his first session for Victor Records in February 1928. Every other artist who learned from him performed a version of it, and many have recorded their versions, all slightly different from one another. Mine is a composite of the versions of about a dozen players I have observed who learned from Johnson, among them Mager Johnson (Tommy's brother), Mott Willis (his cousin), Babe Stovall, Roosevelt Holts, Isaac Youngblood, Arzo Youngblood, Boogie Bill Webb, Houston Stackhouse, and Bubba Brown. The guitar is in dropped D tuning - like standard tuning but with the low sixth string tuned down to D. The piece is notable for its descending vocal phrases set against ascending phrases in the guitar, especially the figure in the first four bars played alternately on the fourth and sixth strings.