The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #118488   Message #2562005
Posted By: 12-stringer
09-Feb-09 - 02:50 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Graveyard Blues (Roscoe Holcomb)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Graveyard Blues by Roscoe Holcomb
Last line is "I found out it was only a dream." I don't have a handy mp3 of this for the other ? line and can't remember the lyrics for it. Offhand, my recollection is that it's in open tuning, but if not it's played out of standard G positions. If you're not on a dial-up connection (like I am), try youtube and see if the b/w video of Roscoe playing it is still available -- it's on one of the DVDs of old time music from Stefan Grossman's company, and these go up on youtube from time to time (but usually get taken down again).

This is best known as "Graveyard Dream Blues," and was recorded by some of the urban femme blues singers of the 1920s. I think I have an mp3 of it by Ida Cox. There's also an excellent western swing version (as "Graveyard Blues") by Bob Dunn's Vagabonds, with Leo Raley as vocalist, from around 1941.