Ry Cooder - Vigilante Man (live)

Wow - Now this takes me back - loved the Old Grey Whistle test. Looking back on it Bob Harris shaped a generation! A lot of what I am is because of that programe!

What can I say about Ry Cooder that hasn't been said already. I've been a fan since the early seventies. When I first started to work for a living, buying vinyl records on a Saturday afternoon where's where a lot of my money went. Often I'd end up getting a Ry Cooder album because they were always being sold of in the bargain bin. Then one day I looked around and I had twenty Ry Cooder albums!

Anyway Ry Cooder is know for his slide playing and a lot of guys like me learned to play slide through listening and watching Ry play. He always plays in a open tuning, usually open 'G' so you have to tune the guitar like this: First tune both the E strings down one whole step to D. Then lower the fifth string (that's the thicker one - the second one down from the top) also a whole step down to A so the strings are now D G D G B D

The thing about playing in open G is that the sixth string is not the root of the tuning - the fifth string is. A lot of guys miss the point and avoid playing the sixth string but infact it gives you a lot of melodic options.

Hey I got straight into talking about open G and didn't even check whether this video of vigilante man is actually in that tuning - I think it is - check and let me know.

Take it from me though open G is the best tuning for playing Delta blues. The lowered sixth gives it a rich dominant sound. Anoth place you'll hear open G is on the Rolling's Stones tracks such as Honky Tonk Woman and Brown Sugar.