Level: 2
Tuning: Standard

Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1939, five years after the outlaw known as Pretty Boy Floyd had been shot and killed by the FBI and local police in Ohio. Floyd was mythologized and regarded as a friend to the poor by many Americans; there were unconfirmed stories that when he robbed banks, he destroyed mortgage documents, and that he gave money to the poor on occasion. He was mentioned positively by Tom Joad’s mother in “The Grapes Of Wrath,” John Steinbeck’s novel about the plight of the dustbowl Okies – a book that was very important to Woody. (His song “Tom Joad” condenses the book into 17 verses.)

In short, to many folks outlaws like Floyd were poor people who preyed on the rich. Woody went overboard making up stories about Floyd, but it makes for a great song! This fingerpicking version, in the key of D, has the typical Travis-style alternating bass notes, played on all four beats of each bar by the thumb, while the fingers fill out the rhythm during accompaniment or play melody during the solo. The accompaniment pattern has variations, but the gist of it is in the first two or three bars of the backup to the verse.