Yeehaw! Check Out This Amazing Bluegrass Cover Of Elton John's 'Rocket Man'

Love it. Gibson 5-string banjo with resonator. Martin D-28 guitar. And Gibson "The Fern" F-style acoustical mandolin. Stand-up bass.

We only need a 28-string peddle steel, with Jerry Garcia to play those painful notes ("Teach the Children"). I was born and raised on that stuff.

I first saw that clip a few weeks back, while browsing YouTube...

Follow the YouTube links, and you might find some similar great Bluegrass covers of David Bowie, Neil Young and other hit 70s songs..

Listen to Jerry Garcia play the peddle-steel on this C,S,N & the Canadian, cut.



Is that not breathtaking?  Except for the Intro, it's pure understatement. You gotta have that on this piece.

A version of 'Teach Your Children.." also appears on the soundtrack of the British movie "MELODY"/"S.W.A.L.K." (1971) :

https://youtu.be/sslUup8RENo

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

A version of 'Teach Your Children.." also appears on the soundtrack of the British movie "MELODY"/"S.W.A.L.K." (1971) :

https://youtu.be/sslUup8RENo

The same master cut, but a different artist on the peddle steel. It's a bit more abrasive. Jerry Garcia was the lead guitarist for the Greatful Dead. He may have been the greatest rock guitarist ever. I just think his understated subtlety on that peddle steel cut was pure genius.

This is what I reckon we could expect some day, if Thorin and Quill were to put together a NewsFix bluegrass band :

https://youtu.be/NehPWvOos8E

So much of Blue Grass comes out of the Ohio River valley (southern Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky), where many Irish folk songs were imported, revised and up-dated.

Ever heard of Lil darlin' Pal o' mine?



Now compare it to Woody Guthrie's This Land Was Made for You and Me.



Add the banjo picking of Earl Scruggs, and the plucked violin that is the mandolin, and lots of foot-stomping, and you've got square-dancing music, a la bluegrass.

Or, put Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger together, and get a great rally song:

And here's what might happen if a few of those good ol' boyz from the NewsFix right_wing got together for a jam session in Victor's backyard...

https://youtu.be/e4Ao-iNPPUc

https://youtu.be/GaJZQWB7kzA

https://youtu.be/SCCk_Odciv4

Yeah, well this is music by a Finnish band--figures...

Must be Europeans. Ya never, never play a 5-string banjo with a flat pick!!!!! WTF do you think the drone string is for if you don't play it?

That's like putting ketchup on a hot dog, fcs.

Here's the way it's played.  Here's Earl Scruggs (inventor of 3-finger pickin') backed up by Lester Flatt, in Fogggy Mountain Breakdown...



Three-finger pickin' is a rhumba beat: 1,2,3...1,2,3...1,2...over and over, in a hard 2/4 beat for stompin' music.  Scruggs is the master.

Here's Roy Clark and Buck Trent in Duelin' Banjos.  The 5th-string is tuned by the knob on the top of the neck, about 2/3's the way down.  It's tuned to a constant note of 'G' and is never fretted...hence, it's called a 'drone' string.  The 5-string banjo is generally tuned to an open 'G' chord.  Most tunes are played in key of 'G'...although ballads and such can be muted and played in key of 'C'.



Did you see Trent retune his banjo to an open 'D' in mid-song (right before he blew on his fingers)? That's an old Scruggs trick. Later model banjos have tuner pegs that do that automatically, in the peg board.