Pay Day

(John Hurt)
Wynwood Music

Well, I did all I can do and I can't get along with you.
I'm goin' to take you to your Mama, Pay Day.
Pay Day. Pay Day.
I'm goin' to take you to your Mama, Pay Day.

Well, a rabbit come along and I ain't go no rabbit dog.
And I hate to see that rabbit get away.
Get away. Get away.
Oh, I hate to see that rabbit get away.

Well, just about a week ago, I stole a ham of meat.
I'm gon' keep my skillet greasy if I can.
If I can. If I can.
I'm gon' keep my skillet greasy if I can.

Well, the hounds are on my track, a knapsack on my back.
I'm gon' make it to my shanty, 'fore day.
'Fore day. 'Fore day.
Oh, I'm gon' make it to my shanty, 'fore day.

GUITAR:

I tuned down the Gurian to the key of D to record this, instead of tuning up to E. String intervals are all the same, but the instrument is simply based a whole tone lower:
D-A-D-D-A-D.

All the traditional Black players I know began learning to play guitar with the instrument in an open tuning, and most learned initially by using a slide on the first string to pick out melodies or as a barre for chords at the fifth, seventh and twelfth frets, third fret for blues. This has made so much sense to me that I think every student new to the guitar should be handed a guitar in an open tuning, at the very least, where two finger chords make perfectly acceptable sounds and give you access to the instrument quickly and easily.

My first open tuning was, from lowest pitch to highest: E-B-E-E-B-E, which was showed to me by a more advanced player in high school as the place where Crosby, Stills and Nash were playing some of the tunes off their first album. The next year I heard John Hurt using the same tuning in the playing of this song.

John played this with his fingers, but it is a perfect slide tune and illustrates this first string slide techniques so often first mastered by young black guitarists before they moved up to the more complicated standard tuning and chording.