Josh Smith - How To Play 'Brown Gatton' Part 1
LIVE FROM FLAT V by Josh Smith.
JAMES MEETS DANNY.
“BROWN GATTON” is a song Josh Smith recorded in 2017 for his album Still, which leaned on the jazzier side of things. As the title suggests, the tune is essentially his expression of “James Brown meets Danny Gatton.” Singer and bandleader James Brown is, of course, the Godfather of Soul, and Danny Gatton, for those who may be unfamiliar, was one of the greatest all-around guitarists of all time.
JAMES MEETS DANNY.
“BROWN GATTON” is a song Josh Smith recorded in 2017 for his album Still, which leaned on the jazzier side of things. As the title suggests, the tune is essentially his expression of “James Brown meets Danny Gatton.” Singer and bandleader James Brown is, of course, the Godfather of Soul, and Danny Gatton, for those who may be unfamiliar, was one of the greatest all-around guitarists of all time.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 (explosion)
00:02 All right, Josh Smith back again.
00:06 This month we're gonna start talking
00:08 about my song "Brown Gatton."
00:10 This tune is from my album "Still,"
00:12 which was a jazzier album I did,
00:14 and the title should tell you a few things about this tune.
00:17 It's basically James Brown meets Danny Gatton.
00:20 That's at least what I was thinking when I wrote it.
00:23 So it's at its heart a James Brown shuffle,
00:26 like, you know,
00:27 (funky jazz music)
00:30 but mixed with Danny Gatton hybrid picking and ideas,
00:34 and of course, some interesting twists and turns.
00:37 So the phrase of the song, the melody,
00:40 the head of the song has a two beat bar,
00:44 every third bar.
00:46 So it goes like this,
00:47 one, two, three.
00:48 (funky jazz music)
00:51 (funky jazz music)
00:54 So what's happening there is,
01:05 (hums melody)
01:08 one, two, three, four.
01:10 (hums melody)
01:12 one, two.
01:13 (hums melody)
01:16 So it's turning itself around with a two beat bar
01:19 after every third bar of the melody.
01:22 This leads to some cool twists and turns,
01:24 especially when you go through the change,
01:26 because then the second time we do it,
01:28 we modulate to C.
01:29 So we go,
01:30 (funky jazz music)
01:33 (funky jazz music)
01:59 So that adds a lot of kind of forward motion to the tune.
02:04 When we hit those two beat bars,
02:07 it kind of, the audience kind of feels something,
02:09 'cause something different than the ordinary is happening,
02:12 but it doesn't feel out of place
02:14 because it's still in the same time signature.
02:17 You're just dropping two beats
02:18 and starting a phrase in a weird spot
02:21 as far as what the ear is used to.
02:22 And then when we get into the solo later,
02:25 that makes for a really great cool phrasing things
02:28 because you can have licks that cross the bar
02:30 in a different way than you're used to
02:32 and resolve in a weirder spot.
02:34 And I love that.
02:35 And that was kind of the Danny Gatton twist
02:37 on the James Brown thing.
02:39 Then we get to the bridge of the song,
02:40 which goes to the four chord
02:42 and we're full on James Brown here,
02:44 where I'm playing straight eighth notes.
02:46 (funky jazz music)
02:49, so we're basically chromatically moving around the four.
02:54 the five chord and then we're into the solo.
03:23 So that's the meat and the potatoes
03:25 of this tune, Brown Gat.
03:26 (rock music)
03:29 (upbeat music)
03:32 (rock music)