“FOLSOM BLUES” – PART ONE

To this day, Johnny Cash is still a household name. From love songs, hymns and otherwise fairly surface–based lyricism of popular western music, Cash took music to a new level of darkness, depth and description. From elated homecoming songs to the imaginings of what life must be like in prison, Cash had struck a chord with the people that other musicians simply couldn’t.

It would be unfair not to mention his sideman, Luther Perkins, for contributing to Cash’s sound – and in this here article, we’re looking at the plucky, driving rhythm guitar that evolved out of this little three-piece band from Tennessee.

Today, we’ll look at the basic, yet deceptively tricky rhythm playing. For the next lesson, I have readied a fingerstyle tune heavily influenced by Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”.

I have recorded two versions of this exercise – one at 120bpm, and another at 240bpm.

A clean tone will work well with a little bit of slapback echo and reverb, but remember: this was achieved using water tanks and bathrooms back in the day, so keep it organic!

BARS #1–4

The left hand simply holding an E chord, we rely mainly on the right hand to create the ‘boom-chicktrain’ sound. Slightly palm mute the strings to keep the notes short, lifting slightly as you play the middle strings for the second and fourth beats. You’ll notice that I have done this as a two-bar rhythm. Luther Perkins didn’t necessarily always play this – he often mixed up one or the other. The second bar is heard in later recordings, and may arguably not exist in the earlier Sun Sessions. By the live prison shows, however, you’ll hear this rhythm picked frequently by Carl Perkins, who also joined the show. Try to master each rhythm for now, but use them as you please. Lift for the quavers in the second bar of the rhythm, and pick down and up on the ‘two’ and the ‘and’, picking down on all other bass notes.

BARS #5–8

Continuing the E chord for bars #5 and #6, you’ll be a little surprised by the F# major barre chord in bar #7. This is an old blues device that sets up the B major. The good news is that because you’re picking the strings independently, you get a little more time to form the chord, so get the first finger down as you pick those notes, and by the second beat, you’ll need to form the other part of the chord. You also don’t need to stress about the full barre as we don’t hit the first and second string anyway, but it’s not a bad habit to work at just playing the full barre chord. In bar #8, we have a B barre chord that you can get away with playing as a power chord. You’ll need to edge your first finger to the sixth string to catch the bass note on the third beat.

BARS #9–12

Back to E once more, we finally walk into the IV chord or the A. Don’t be afraid to really pronounce the bass notes in bar #11, setting up the A. Make sure to watch the picking pattern, and try to remain consistent with your palm muting.

BARS #13–16

Another short bar of A brings us back to the E chord pattern, and in bar #15, we see a variation of the B chord – this is an open B7. You can use the B from bar #8, but this chord rounds it out nicely. All you have to do coming from E is switch your first and third finger for the strings without changing frets, and you will have a B7. As we approach the third beat, you’ll need to take your second finger and place it on the second fret of the sixth string. Don’t worry about getting this finger back to the fifth string until you have to. That applies to any alternate bass line like this – in my experience, it’s better to move your finger only when you have to. Finally, we finish with the E.

SUMMARY

I’ve been playing this style of music for over 15 years, and I take for granted how complicated this stuff can be at first. Luther Perkins was a nervous individual and lacked confidence as a player, which further credits his work when you consider the slightly complex nature of going through all these patterns with different chords. But rest assured, with plenty of practise, it can become second nature for you – just as it did for Johnny and Luther.