{"id":135622,"date":"2023-06-30T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=135622"},"modified":"2023-06-29T14:20:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T21:20:30","slug":"learn-talco-girl-steve-james-rootsy-character-study-in-dropped-d-tuning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-talco-girl-steve-james-rootsy-character-study-in-dropped-d-tuning\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn \u201cTalco Girl,\u201d Steve James\u2019 Rootsy Character Study in Dropped-D Tuning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Steve James was not just a brilliant multi-instrumentalist, encyclopedic in his knowledge of blues and roots guitar and mandolin styles, but an idiosyncratic songwriter and storyteller. Among other gems in his oeuvre, \u201cTalco Girl\u201d is one of James\u2019 most popular tunes. This character study of a woman who returns to her Texas hometown after many years away is supported by a guitar accompaniment that would make a smart instrumental composition on its own.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TJ9P1-7Og2w?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The transcription here is of James\u2019 studio recording of \u201cTalco Girl\u201d heard on his 1994 album, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3JdcdwP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American Primitive<\/a>. <\/em>On the surface, the song might seem like straightforward roots fare, but with closer inspection, quirky details reveal themselves at all levels. The verse is 15 measures long, rather than the expected 16; this lends a slippery structural feel, as what\u2019s expected to be the last bar of each verse is instead the first bar of the subsequent repeat of the intro\/interlude figure. In bars 23 and 31, an Am chord is substituted for its diatonic counterpart (A major), the addition of the open D string (the chord\u2019s fourth) providing further harmonic color.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTalco Girl\u201d is more difficult than it looks on paper, and it might take some slow practice to be able to play it at tempo. It will help to think ahead when it comes to fretting-hand fingerings. For instance, in bars 1, 3, 9, and 11, on beat 2, play the sixth-fret C# and E# with your third and fourth fingers, respectively, making your first finger available for the fifth-fret E on beat 3.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn more excellent guitar moves from James himself, I highly recommend you check out his book\/video sets <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/roots-and-blues-fingerstyle-guitar\" target=\"_blank\">Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar<\/a><\/em> and <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/roots-and-blues-fingerstyle-guitar-explorations\" target=\"_blank\">Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations<\/a><\/em>, both available at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\" target=\"_blank\">store.acousticguitar.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Due to copyright restrictions, we are unable to post notation or tablature for this musical work. If you have a digital or physical copy of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/collections\/back-issues\/products\/no-327-march-april-2021\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/collections\/back-issues\/products\/no-340-may-june-2023\" target=\"_blank\">May\/June 2023<\/a>\u00a0issue\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>Acoustic Guitar<em>\u00a0magazine, you will find the music on page 47.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/no-340-may-june-2023\" name=\"magazine\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 198px; margin: 0px 20px 10px 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/001_340_Cover_150px.jpg?w=1290&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Acoustic Guitar magazine cover for issue 340\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/a>\n<p style=\"font-family: sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px;\">This article originally appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/no-340-may-june-2023\">May\/June 2023<\/a> issue of <em>Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of James&#8217; most popular tunes, \u201cTalco Girl\u201d is supported by a guitar accompaniment that would make a smart instrumental composition on its own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":135624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"One of James' most popular tunes, \u201cTalco Girl\u201d is supported by a guitar accompaniment that would make a smart instrumental composition on its own.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1656,1653],"tags":[1650],"ppma_author":[1541],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Steve-James-playing-resonator-guitar-photo-BIll-Evans.jpg?fit=750%2C575&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1541,"user_id":24,"is_guest":0,"slug":"adam-perlmutterstringletter-com","display_name":"Adam Perlmutter","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Adam-Perlmutter.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Adam-Perlmutter.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Perlmutter","first_name":"Adam","description":"Adam Perlmutter holds a bachelor of music degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a master's degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory. He is the editor of <i>Acoustic Guitar<\/i>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135622"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140967,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135622\/revisions\/140967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135622"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=135622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}