Level: 4
Tuning: Standard

"Old Man River" was written by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was a featured song in the 1927 musical Show Boat that contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. The song is notable for its lyrical pentatonic scale melody. Martin takes this haunting melody and adapts it to his unique fingerstyle jazz approach.

Martin's arrangement is played in the key of C.

Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra had a hit recording of the song in 1928 sung in a much faster tempo than Kern and Hammerstein intended, and featuring Bing Crosby on vocals and Bix Beiderbecke on cornet. A second version, by Paul Whiteman with bass singer Paul Robeson on vocals and sung in a dance tempo, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006.