Chords for Acoustic Guitar Sessions Presents Eric Bibb

_ _ [C#] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ My dad [D#] had one of those [F] showbiz parties because my dad was involved in the New York folk scene.
And so he was in a circle of friends that included Judy Collins, Odetta, Peter, Paul and Mary.
Those are the people around at that time.
So he wanted to have a party [D] and basically _ see and be [E] seen.
We lived in a big house in Queens, in Hollis, Queens.
It was wintertime and I remember being excited about who was invited.
I'd heard that this rage that everybody was talking about, Bob Dylan.
Nobody knew how to say his name. _
But this was the freewheeling era and everybody [D#] was really excited about it. _
So we didn't know if he was going to show up.
It was getting late.
I was having a conversation with [F#] Peter [E] Yarrow from Peter, Paul and Mary.
And then I got kind of tired and I went up [F#] upstairs.
And then [D#] around midnight I heard, and it was snowing, I heard this commotion, you know,
like the level [F#] of voices went up.
[E] And I kind of made my way back downstairs in my [B] bathrobe and my pajamas.
And [F#m] there he was, looking [G] just like the cover of Freewheeling.
And I [F] watched people kind of, you know, try to saddle up to him and start a conversation.
He seemed pretty aloof [D#] and like maybe he didn't really want to be there with all
[Gm] of [D#] these, [Gm] you know, kind of bourgeois folkies, you know. _
But I saw my chance and I went [F#] up to him and I said, hi, I'm Eric and I play guitar too.
And I really like your songs.
And maybe because I was young, you know, he just decided, like he was twice my age,
he decided to have a little conversation.
So he said, oh yeah, you play guitar.
I said, yeah.
He said, well, you know, keep it simple.
Forget all that fancy stuff.
[D#] And to me that was in hindsight a reference to the _ [E] really kind of _ gentrification of the kind
of folk music that had inspired him.
This was the era when there were hit records, including his own songs on the radio.
And there were arrangements, you know, played by studio musicians
and there was some pretty fancy playing going on in the folk, you know.
And some people thought that was a good thing and some [D] people thought
that that was basically, [C#] you know, travesty.
So he was just [E] trying to steer me in a direction, which I appreciate because _ _ [D#] after all
of these years [C#] I have truly decided [E] consciously to simplify things.
And the guitar that I'm playing, this little Gretsch Jim Dandy
to [D] the Rescue [E] guitar is _ the same model that I discovered in a studio in upstate New York
where I was recording Turner Station.
_ [D#] And _ [E] I was looking around today thinking, I wonder if there's anybody
in San Francisco who's carrying these, you know, really cheap old parlor guitars.
_ [C#] Because I'd really be interested in finding that [F] sound again.
Being able to [E] reproduce it on stage, you know.
[F#] And lo and behold I was walking down Haight Street [E] and I looked
up [F] in the music exchange there and in the window was this Jim Dandy.
And the guy said he [E] had four of them.
_ [Gm] And [F] I really pestered him to bring up all of them.
I tried them [D#] all.
_ And [N] this is a $150 guitar.
A little bit more.
Not much.
A hundred, 170 bucks.
And I tried them all and this was the one that spoke to me.
And I bought it.
_ Turner Station. _
[E] _ _ [C#] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C#] _ [E]
Going up to Turner [C#] Station.
[Em] _ _ If I had [E] to hobo there. _ _ _ _
Going up to Turner Station.
_ _ [Em] If I had to hobo there.
_ [C#] Start a new life brother.
_ _ [Am] Believe I cut my [Em] hair. _ _
_ _ _ _ Everything done changed.
My walk, talk, state of mind. _
_ [E] _ _ _ Everything done changed.
_ My walk, talk, state of mind. _
[Em] _ Since I made my decision.
_ [Am] _
Leave this town [E] behind. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
Got [E] a place up in Turner [C#] Station.
_ [E] _
Make a preacher laze by the dime. _ _ _ _
[Em] _ [E] Got a place up in Turner Station. _ _ _
Make that preacher laze [Em] by the dime.
_ [D] [C#] Make a man [Em] forget the system.
_ Keeping his face in a permanent frame.
_ _ _ _ Going up to Turner Station.
_ _ If I had to hobo there.
_ _ _ _ _ Going up to Turner Station.
_ _ If I had to hobo there.
_ _ [C#] Start a new life brother. _
[Am] _ [E] Believe I cut my hair.
_ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ I started out [F] playing classical guitar.
Which gave me a sense of what you could do [D#] with all the fingers on your right hand.
_ [F#] And it gave me the sense [D] that the guitar was indeed an orchestra.
And of course I was exposed to all kinds of music that let me [F#] know that [D#] harmonically you could do all kinds of things.
I [F] [D#] was playing Carcassi and Soar.
But I was around musicians, guitar players who were my dad's accompanist.
Who were jazz [E] players.
[C#] _ [D]
People who were [E] transcribing Ravel for guitar.
So I was aware, even though I was steeped in folk music.
I was aware that there was other harmonies around that were interesting to me.
And I even found out through listening to people like my dad and his accompanist.
That you could flavor a folk arrangement that basically had three or four chords.
With some alternate chords that didn't necessarily throw a gear.
But just added [D#] another dimension that made it [E] very interesting.
And that was somehow in the back of my mind [D#] when I started trying to arrange my own [F] songs.
But also I realized [D#] that I was never going to be _ someone who sounded like my pre-war blues heroes.
_ You know I think everybody kind of starts out with John Hurt.
He was one of my earliest heroes.
But there were so many, you know.
I realized very early on that as much as I loved his singing and playing.
And I saw him live at [C#m] Reverend Gary [E] Davis.
You know Ernie has gotten, Hawkins has gotten pretty close to that thing.
And he studied with the Reverend.
And I had friends who studied with him.
But I realized that that very complex ragtime type of [F#] playing [D#] was not really my interest.
I wanted to accompany myself as a singer.
I wanted to have interesting guitar parts.
I wanted to have moving bass parts that sounded sort of like a band.
But I realized that as hard as I tried.
And as much as I wanted my [F#] voice and my playing to [E] sound like those pre-war heroes.
_ I was actually more interested in writing songs and incorporating [B] the influence of those people.
[C#] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _