Rank Strangers by Albert E. Brumley


i ws working at borders in charlotte, north carolina when i was befriended by free-jazz gutarist James Blood Ulmer, who taught me his unique tuning. I practiced it for two years, writing all my songs in that tuning, which was four A strings and two E strings. one day, the manager of the music dept in which i worked came over to my house and we jammed on this classic song. me on guitatr and lead vocals, joe champion on percussion and harmony and response vocals. i thought it came out pretty good, although my southern girlfriend thought i sounded ridiculous when i tried to sing southern style.

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This is super cool! I think you captured that mountain hillbilly sound quite well, and I say that because my stepdad’s family was originally from the Fort Smith area of Arkansas and I was amazed that “grandma” knew the words to so many songs. They all sounded like this - straight out of the Oprey. Love the idea of that tuning. Might have enjoyed playing guitar more if I’d known about this.