'Twilight Blues' Dick McIntire solo

Guy Cundell · Post by **Guy Cundell** » 8 Mar 2017 4:22 pm

Sol and Dick moved in the same circles in LA in the 30s. Clearly, they were rivals but with equal skills and creativity, or so it seems to me. I wonder what the relationship between the two was like.

Here is a transcription of the chord solo from a radio transcription by Dick McIntire which I believe was made in 1939. It is interesting to compare this recording with Sol's recording from about the same time (Dec 1938). I think this rivals Sol's "Fascinating Rhythm" chord solo. Swings hard!

Below that is Sol's arrangement of the head published by Ball in 1939.

Sol uses C#m while Dick uses F#9. The top four strings of the tunings are the same. To get to F#9 from C#m, just raise the bottom string a tone and drop the 5th string a semitone. Dick only used one of those lower strings a couple of times in this solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExrJCvglgBE

Matthew Dawson · Post by **Matthew Dawson** » 8 Mar 2017 7:28 pm

Cool! I was just listening to this today at work and thinking what a cool performance it is. Nice work with the transcription!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 8 Mar 2017 7:34 pm

Nice transcription, Guy. I really enjoy listening to Dick Mcintyre's playing... such great tone, intonation, and execution. And this recording was a live performance on radio? That's pretty impressive. In today's world of multitrack studios, punch-ins and corrections, it's refreshing to hear live playing from start to finish sounding so excellent!

Bill Creller · Post by **Bill Creller** » 8 Mar 2017 7:54 pm

Thanks for that !! Really enjoyed it !

Matthew Dawson · Post by **Matthew Dawson** » 8 Mar 2017 8:11 pm

That's a mighty tricky reverse slant in bar 2!

Guy Cundell · Post by **Guy Cundell** » 9 Mar 2017 1:31 am

Good point, guys. There is a whiff of major third (A, the middle note) in there but on slowing it right down, it kind of evaporates. But it definitely is a reverse slant. A little bit of slightly flat A in the chord is not entirely out of place, but I think you are both right. I've taken it out of my copy. Also, that chord should read F+ (aug) rather than F#5. Peer review! thank you.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 9 Mar 2017 3:17 am

Super transcription of some tricky rhythms, guy! That solo has such personality and is different from what you usually hear Dick play. In terms of chord positions, it's often whatever position was easiest to grab on the fly that's correct. At crisp speeds, intonation issues are less of a factor as they fly on by.

David M Brown · Post by **David M Brown** » 9 Mar 2017 4:26 am

Sebastian MÃ¼ller wrote:
Matthew Dawson wrote:That's a mighty tricky reverse slant in bar 2!
That must be typo, you can't play a splitbar reverse slant. Dick hardly used any 'normal' backward slants !

They are not easy but you can play them...get the outside notes in tune and then pull the middle string behind the bar to bring it up to pitch. Or finesse the tip of the bar to put more pressure on one string or the other for tuning.

At slow tempos!

Andy Volk wrote: It's often whatever position was easiest to grab on the fly that's correct. At crisp speeds, intonation issues are less of a factor as they fly on by.

Yes, at faster tempos you can get away with those fudge slants!

Thanks for the great tunes!

I love this style of Hawaiian guitar.

James Kerr · Post by **James Kerr** » 9 Mar 2017 11:54 am

I love having a bash at these old tunes from time to time. Here is my version of Stack o' Lee Blues played on a 1929 Student Guitar from the New York Academy of Music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHETAHwxry0

James.

Nathan Laudenbach · Post by **Nathan Laudenbach** » 9 Mar 2017 8:40 pm

David M Brown wrote:
Sebastian MÃ¼ller wrote:
Matthew Dawson wrote:That's a mighty tricky reverse slant in bar 2!
That must be typo, you can't play a splitbar reverse slant. Dick hardly used any 'normal' backward slants !
They are not easy but you can play them...get the outside notes in tune and then pull the middle string behind the bar to bring it up to pitch. Or finesse the tip of the bar to put more pressure on one string or the other for tuning.

At slow tempos!

Andy Volk wrote: It's often whatever position was easiest to grab on the fly that's correct. At crisp speeds, intonation issues are less of a factor as they fly on by.
Yes, at faster tempos you can get away with those fudge slants!

Thanks for the great tunes!

I love this style of Hawaiian guitar.

Absolutely right! Of course vibrato serves two purposes, the vibrato effect, but also covering up your own imperfect pitch. I asked John Ely how often he uses vibrato to hide imperfect execution and he said "uh, like 99% of the time". You can get away with one flat note when playing three note chords surprisingly well.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 13 Mar 2017 1:56 am

Dick McIntire's Hot Licks Folio. Enjoy!

see new link below ...

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 13 Mar 2017 3:18 am

Try this:

http://www.yumpu.com/xx/document/view/5 ... icks-folio

David M Brown · Post by **David M Brown** » 13 Mar 2017 3:49 am

Andy Volk wrote:Try this:

http://www.yumpu.com/xx/document/view/5 ... icks-folio

It's a shame it's not downloadable.

Thanks for the post.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 13 Mar 2017 4:55 am

No? Later on, I'll put it somewhere else where you can download it.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 13 Mar 2017 7:35 am

That's a nice looking book, Andy. Easy to read tablature, 3 tunings. Very useful information.

I had a whole box of Dick M. transcriptions, individual songs, years ago, but the arrangements were very simple, beginner level. This book has more meat on the bones!

David M Brown · Post by **David M Brown** » 13 Mar 2017 8:03 am

Andy Volk wrote:No? Later on, I'll put it somewhere else where you can download it.

A big thank you in advance.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 13 Mar 2017 3:19 pm

https://www.facebook.com/groups/steelbenders/files/

Levi Gemmell · Post by **Levi Gemmell** » 13 Mar 2017 4:04 pm

I'd just like to echo my thanks too, Andy and Guy, for posting these here. As a new player started directly with C6+A7, it's great to have this wealth of material to try out in C#M/F#9.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 13 Mar 2017 8:06 pm

Sebastian MÃ¼ller wrote:I'm finally back from a business trip and have a steel guitar by hand. In my opinion bar 2 is not

----
-12-
-13-
-13-
----
----

but just this:

--9-
----
--9-
----
----
----

Sebastian, I believe Guy has it right. It is easily playable on a longer scale instrument (Dick used a long scale Fry Pan). The 3rd of the triad (A) is faint, but I believe it is in there.

In the event I am wrong, however, I still believe that the way he would played the dyad you depicted would be like this rather than at the 9th fret:

----
-12-
----
-13-
----
----

To my ears, the C# is not played on the 1st string--it just doesn't have the same timbre as other notes he played there, and second it is an inconvenient move. The simple slant makes all the sense in the world to me, especially in the case of a descending voice in the chord.

David M Brown · Post by **David M Brown** » 13 Mar 2017 8:34 pm

Andy Volk wrote:https://www.facebook.com/groups/steelbenders/files/

Thanks. I'm not on Facebook, though.

It seems you have to be a member of Facebook to download, it isn't public.

I'll try to get one of my buddies to use his password to sign in.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 14 Mar 2017 6:42 am

I created this poster about 15 yrs ago and don't even have it on my computer anymore but there was this small image on the web with Dick on his frypan. The full page photo is in my book Lap Steel Guitar.

https://www.elderly.com/images/accessor ... /618-1.jpg