Level: 2/3
Tuning: Open G

Johnson's first wife was Maggie Bedwell, but they had split up by the time he recorded this song at his first Victor session in February 1928. Perhaps by then she had become Maggie Campbell. Many other musicians learned versions of this song from Johnson. The guitar is played in open G tuning (often called "Spanish" tuning, D-B-G-D-G-D from high to low). It has some similarities to guitar figures played by Charley Patton and Willie Brown, who were early mentors and partners of Johnson. My version is a composite, influenced especially by the playing of Mager Johnson, Mott Willis, and Roosevelt Holts, with added elements from Patton and Brown. The descending bass pattern alternating on the fourth and sixth strings is a distinctive feature of this tune. Musicians who knew Johnson state that he sometimes played the descending pattern only on the sixth string and had different versions of the guitar part for dancing or listening. He also was known for snapping the bass strings in this tuning, a technique also used by Willie Brown and Charley Patton.