Chords for Doc Watson - "Deep River Blues" (Doc's Guitar: Fingerpicking & Flatpicking DVD)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Good morning, I'm Ralph Rensler from the Smithsonian Institution, _ where I've spent 25 years thinking
about a project like this one.
The project we're working on, just as a quick word of introduction, _ is a combination, combined
effort of homespun tapes, whom I think many of you have come to know through the Merle
Watson Memorial Festival, they're represented here.
_ Appianardi and Jane Traum have been doing this for 25 years, _ _ _ making it possible for
people like us to learn from people we may never get to meet, _ _ unless we're very lucky.
_ _ And the Smithsonian, which has a reputation for documenting what's important about our
history and our present, so that the future can learn from it.
_ _ The nice thing about this project is that it's not an archival project alone.
It's true, what we're doing here this morning will be saved _ if we can keep our world running
in good balance _ as long as that world is running.
_ And those tapes will be there as long as the technology _ permits it, so that your children
and grandchildren and right on down the line will be able to learn from them.
_ So this is an exercise in keeping something going that Doc has kept going, and Jack keeps
going, and a lot of people that you know keep going.
And that's about as important a thing you can do for the people of this world, I think.
I just thank heavens for people like Doc Watson. _ _ _
_ When I first heard this tune, it was done by Alton and Raven Delmore, and _ there were
two guitars, a tenor, a little four string, and the regular flat top.
And I never could get my guitar to sound [E] like both of theirs did.
It wouldn't do it.
Then I began to hear Brother Merle Travis, the late Merle Travis on the radio, and I
thought, now wait a minute.
If I can steal me a lick off of Brother Travis, maybe I can learn Deep River Blues.
The first part of the Travis style I learned was this little thumb rhythm. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Abm] And the way you do that, you mute about the first three or four strings on the guitar
_ with the back edge of your palm, the ball of your hand here, just before they [E] come off the saddle. _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ [E] And that little chord right there is the little E.
Now in that [Ab] rhythm, you jump the fifth string.
I'm lazy.
I never figured out a way to borrow that and get [E] that fifth in there.
_ You jump the fifth string on that rhythm.
_ _ _ Then after about ten years practice, I began to learn the lead line.
_ _ See _ [Gb] _ _ _
_ I just play _ with one finger and a thumb.
I don't use the sensible _ three finger method that you should use on [Em]
fingerstyle guitar.
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Gb] _
It's a little diminished chord.
_ [E] Then when you put that with the rhythm, it sounds like this. _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ [Em] _ _ [E] _ _
You bend the note.
_ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [Gbm] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ I thought I had accomplished _ _ _ something that had never been done before when I learned that tune. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
Let it [Em] rain, let it pour.
[E]
Let it [A] rain a whole lot more, [E] cause I got them deep [B] river blues. _ _ _ _
_ [E] Let that old river [Em] rise and fall.
[E] Let the [Am] big [Em] waves make a wall, [Ab] cause [A] I [B] got them deep river [E] blues. _
_ _ _ My old gal, [Em] she's sweet little pal.
[E] She walks just [A] like a waterfowl [E] when I get them deep [Bb] river [B] _
blues.
Bless her little heart.
[E] Ain't no [Em] one to cry for me.
[E] Fish [A] go out [Em] on a spree [Bb] when I get [B] them deep [E] river blues. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ [A] _ [B] _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ Give me [Em] back my old boat.
I'm gonna sail, boys, if she'll float.
[E] Yes, I got them [Am] deep [Bb] river [Bm] blues.
[B] _
_ _ [E] I'm gonna run down to [Dbm] Muscle [E] Shoals.
Times getting [Bb] better [Em] down there.
I told boys [E] [A] I [Bbm] got them [B] deep river [E] blues.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
[Eb] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
[A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [B] _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Let it [Em] rain, let it pour.
[E] Let it [Am] rain a [Em] whole lot more, cause [E] I got them deep [Bb] river [B] blues. _ _ _
[E] Let that old river [Em] rise and fall.
[E] Let the big [A] waves make a [E] wall, cause [Bb] I got [B] them deep river [Bm] [E] blues. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _