Travelin' Down This Lonesome Road

This next recording is Bill Monroe's break on the recording of Travelin' Down This Lonesome Road found on Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys - All The Classic Releases 1937-1949 (Disc 4).

Mike wants me to move to the key of F next. Playing out of this key requires mostly playing in second position with the root F found by your index finger on the third fret of the d-string. You can easily get lost if you don't learn your positions for playing out of F.

In this song, there's a pretty cool section where Bill plays a series of double stops, from second position using the pinky and ring, to first position with the index and ring sliding back up to second with the index and ring.

The song has a great, bluesy feel to it. It reminds me some of True Life Blues and Sugar Coated Love. Lot's of down strokes and slides. You can really here a bluesy precursor to rock and roll in this break.

Here's Bill's version.



And here's my attempt.