CURLY MAKES IT CRY

[Ken Byng]

Here is Curly Chalker on E9 playing a superb solo on Tennessee Waltz. I love Curly's E9 playing, and it's obvious that he put a lot more work into the tuning than he would let on. He feigned no interest in it, yet is right up there with the very best. Just a brilliant musician. You can't learn soul and feel like this - you are born with it.

[Danny Mitchell]

Wow! Amazing. Great find Ken.

[Will C]

Have I got this completely wrong? I love the solo, but the bar position, how low on the neck it is and which strings it's covering, it doesn't seem possible to produce the high notes I'm hearing. Or do I just not have a clue?

[Ken Byng]

Will
Everything is right about it. You have to take into consideration the angle of the camera, which is not straight on in front. Also, Curly had his E9 tuning on his rear neck, so the perceived position of his bar will be lower down than it actually is. The very highest point that he plays here is well over his 12th fret. His E9 tuning was standard, with a pedal and lever setup that was just as basic as Lloyd's. I can't see or hear anything wrong, and Curly plays much of the break on strings 1 - 6 with his thumb anchored around string 8 and his 2 fingers doing the picking. I can hear in my head what he is doing so it must be pretty straight forward.

[Will C]

I did wonder if he was playing on the back neck, Ken. Plenty of parallax error there. Thanks for that.

[Ken Byng]

There is a passage of play on this track where Curly (on E9) is playing a quick 2 string run where the notes just slide into each other. For a man who openly professed a complete disinterest in the E9 tuning, I reckon that he must have done a serious amount of woodshedding to get that amount of technique and understanding of what the tuning is capable of. One thing for sure - he has a right hand that few ever equalled.