John Renbourn Fingerstyle Guitar

In this lesson, John Renbourn presents a wide variety of fingerstyle arrangements from traditional ballads to country blues, from a Booker T. & the MGs rock instumental to the church hymn Abide With Me. All receive the special touches of John’s unique playing, and are explained in detail with the help of split-screen video techniques that allow the student to clearly see and study what each hand is doing.

The title captures the essence of all these players, but it is also a tribute to Davey Graham, as the title is taken from one of his ground breaking album. It starts wit a medley with John Renbourn’s tune Judy, and Davey Graham’s classic tuning Anji or Angie. Angie is a tune based on what I like to refer to as Spanish progression. White House Blues is not really a blues, but a nice arrangement. Another nice arrangement is Watch the Stars.

Then comes some tunes that have for a very long time been among my favorites. The first is Lord Franklin – the tune Bob Dylan used for Bob Dylan’s Dream. John Renbourn has made a sophisticated and far from easy arrangement. The next tune is another favorite: The Booker T Jones tune My Sweet Potato. It is based on a nice swinging lick played in Dropped D-tuning, with solo phrases played in between the licks.