John Fahey - Steamboat Gwine 'Round De Bend

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TGNeil
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Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2010 1:09 pm
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Wed Feb 24, 2021 4:24 pm

Today's new lesson is one I have been promising for a couple weeks. I hope you enjoy taking up the Lap Steel challenge of Steamboat Gwine 'Round De Bend.



John Fahey played a few of his songs on the Hawaiian Lap Steel Guitar, a Kona Style 3 to be precise, in Open G Tuning. Steamboat Gwine 'Round De Bend was the opening tune on his 1972 album Of Rivers And Religions.

This lesson is done on my Kona from 1920 but can be done on any acoustic guitar on your lap. It is possible to do it bottleneck but there are times when you to have the lower strings played with the steel and the first string open. It would not be difficult to modify the melody a little to facilitate that. However, I do recommend giving the lap approach a try.