Ploddings

To think, many finger-pickers live their day, not realizing others share their origins of starting off with Mississippi John Hurt's, Spike Driver Blues :)

This write-up is based on the recording of it on the album 'Today!'.

What Hurt plays on the recording

The tuning of the song is in standard tuning, EADGBE.

And now, onto those notes...

The song starts with the I/root chord -- the G-chord.

It's played with an alternating bassline & pentatonic notes on the treble-side.

The song continues into the IV/C chord. It's played as a C-chord, with a G-note (3rd fret of the 6th string) in the bass. A C 'over' G, C/G-chord

After that trip to the C/IV chord, the riff gets back into the Gmaj/I chord.

Finally, to complete the chorus of Spike Driver Blues, Hurt plays 3 cycles of these endings,

• First time: Section B - Part 1
• Second time: Section B - Part 2
• Third time: Section B - Part 2 (repeated)

This first ending/bit rests on the G7 chord at the end.

To finish the chorus, Hurt then plays this 2nd ending/bit twice.

The slight difference from the 1st ending is that he lands on the Gmaj instead of the G7.

And that is it -- there are no more new parts to the song!

Thank you for following along with Spike Driver Blues, by Mississippi John Hurt.

It's a classic song that most fingerpickers ought to know. The song's played in the key of G in standard tuning.