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columnHeader If you haven’t yet watched It’s A Wonderful Life this Christmas season, and even if you have, let’s re-live that memorable moment when George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) yells at Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell): “One of us is going to jail—well, it’s not gonna be me.” George could have called it the hoosegow, the cooler, the clink, the joint, the pokey, the slammer or the calaboose— But why didn’t he? Because George Bailey didn’t use slang—or did he? Tune in to find out. While you’re at it, have your 5-string at the ready to accompany the movie’s opening theme, Buffalo Gals, played in the Key of C, or Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed’s vocal duet of said tune that starts in the Key of B and lands squarely in the Key of Bb less than 20 seconds later.

acbTomIn other news… (Ah, you were wondering what sort of grammatical slight of hand I would employ to give the illusion of a seamless transition to the discussion of this month’s tab.) In The Jailhouse Now is inspired, you guessed it, by the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack and is a special request from Phyllis and Roy Heintzelman. Merry Christmas, Cousin Roy!

The tabs are for the Intro, which is a chorus break—“He’s in the jailhouse now” and a Verse Break, such as the 1st verse which starts “I had a friend named Ramblin’ Bob.” While both tabs are what I would consider to be down-the-neck breaks, you’ll notice that there aren’t a lot of open strings in either of them.

The Intro starts with a reverse slide on two strings. Make it a strong, decisive move with your left hand to start the tune with plenty of energy. Keep the pressure on the strings as you move backwards in order to make the slide as loud and clear as the preceding picked strings. In both breaks you’ll find some single-string work (especially on the A chord of the Verse break) and you’ll see that I tend to use two thumbs in a row throughout the tune. This is how I’m comfortable playing a tune at this tempo and with this swing factor. On the C chord forward roll in the Intro, it just feels right to me to alternate T-T-M and T-I-M forward rolls.

The bottom line is to make music and to make music that sounds good. Tabs are suggestions as to how a tune could be played. They’re not written in stone— imagine the exorbitant new subscription rates if they were. Always feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the tabs and I’ll be happy to go into as much detail as is needed to help you work through them.

Peace to all who inhabit what Carl Sagan called this "Pale Blue Dot".

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