“Little Red Wagon” (also called “Won’t You Ride in My Little Red Wagon”) was written by Rex Griffin and first recorded by Hank Penny in 1939. It’s a great song, and Matt uses it to talk about soloing on a circle-of-fifths progression. The song is in Eb, and he shows you some of the lines that Hank Penny’s band plays on his 1951 recording, which outline the C7–F7–Bb7–Eb chord progression beautifully. Matt also shows you how to use those lines to improvise on the chord progression by resolving from the seventh of one chord to the third of the next chord, and vice versa, in the circle-of-fifths progression. In this video, Matt sings “Little Red Wagon” and shows you the chord progression. Then he shows you melody and harmony parts for the background lines played by the band on Penny’s 1951 release.
