More commonly called “East Tennessee Blues,” this ubiquitous old-time, bluegrass, and country-swing instrumental was written by Charlie Bowman and first recorded by The Hill Billies in 1926. Check out this blistering track from the Bill Monroe & Doc Watson collection of live performances. In the early ‘50s, guitarist Chet Atkins assembled a roster of hot musicians including mandolinist Jethro Burns and lap-steel wizard Jerry Byrd to record a selection of standards released as a 10-inch vinyl titled String Dustin.’ A later compilation from those sessions dubbed Jazz from the Hills included “Tennessee Rag,” and that’s the version you’ll learn from Matt. In this video, Matt shows you how to play the basic melody for “Tennessee Rag” in both closed and open positions for the A part, and in closed position for the B part. For the simple second section, he adds a harmony part to fatten up the long notes.
