…..one night I was laying down, I heard momma and poppa talking…..”
This site is a resource for acoustic finger style blues.
I’ve always loved the blues, and I’ve been whacking away at the guitar for years and I got ok at it. In October 2014 I got a new resonator and decided that I was going to make a real effort to get better. So a mission was born:
Learn a new song every week for a year.
There isn’t a lot of sites for finger style acoustic, and I learn better by having tabs in front of me, so I’m going to try to tab out all the songs that I learn in the next year. Some of it is going to be straight from the delta, some of it more country-style, some of it is going to be more rocky. Some of it will be harder, some weeks I won’t have enough time so I’ll put up something a bit less complex.
But it’s all going to be about the blues.
….what it’s all about….
The song pages will have a brief introduction to the artist, and a brief run down on the history of the songs. There’ll be an audio file at the top of the page, just under the song title. A lot of the songs will be old, so the quality of the recordings might be a bit dodgy.
The tabs will be broken into sections -. the intro, the progression, then any solos, outros, bridges etc. I suggest you get the progression down first – just strum along to the chords to get the feel and pace of the song – then focus on the intro and solos. .
I’ll be doing most of it by ear – some weeks I’ll probably cheat if I run out of time and search for existing tabs, and I’ll give credit when I do – so the accuracy of the tabs might be a bit questionable. I’ve got a pretty good ear, but I’m just some guy doing this for fun, so cut me some slack! Please post any corrections in the comments and I’ll fix the tabs up as soon as possible.
The site is built in wordpress, using an original child theme based on the great Adamos Theme made by Template Express. The tabs are generated by jtab , a javascript/JQuery library created by Paul Gallagher, and made available in the “Guitar Chords and Tabs” plugin built by
Jerome Bourdais.
Any questions? Interested in creating your own 52 weeks site? Make a comment, and I’ll get back to you.
Great site. Thanks for the work and posting it up.
What got me interewsted in learning blues was R.L. Burnside “poor black mattie”.jumper on the line,Blind willie johnson,Skip james unique style “progression?”,i dont know the techy term,hes another significant favorite.Like all have mentioned.Thankyou so much for having the time to tab these out for us who either dont know how to or maybe dont have the time.One thing that i love to do when i print these out is to go through them forward,and then see how they sound backwards.I forget which ones, since ive printed out so many that i stick to my walls,but some of them reminded me of the way lightnin hopkins plays.another favorite.Thankyou again may you have a blessed Christmas.
Amazing website! keep this up pls 🙂
This is one of the most generous things I’ve seen on the Web! It’s beautifully presented, ideal for my own learning tastes, and to my ear dead on accurate. I’ll be around every week. Thanks so much!
Keep on working, great job!
I’m at a loss for words, thank you so much for putting this site up. I’ve really been getting into the blues and this stuff is solid gold.
Just found this site and I’, super excited to start using it. Thank you.
Don’t stop with you efforts. Great site.
Cound you possibly TAB out Blind Blake’s Hard Road Blues?
Thanks Harry! Sure, I’ll give it a go. Watch this space in the next few weeks!
This is great. The combination of audio, tabs and your clear explanations make for really quick learning.
Just 2 questions: so far, you’ve stuck to standard tuning (with an excursion into dropped D). Do you play open D or open G as well?
And does having my hero Robert Belfour up there in the header picture mean you play his stuff too? I have ‘sort-of, close enough’ ways of playing most of his songs, but I would love to see someone else’s interpretations!
Good luck with your blog. You have been bookmarked 🙂
Bouke
Hi Bourke, glad you are getting something out of this site!
I do play in open tunings a fair bit, but I’ve been trying to keep the tabs as accessible as possible for most people. In my early days I would hear a song, find tabs for it but a lot were in alternate tunings and it made it a bit of a hassle retuning the guitar from one song to the next. So I decided I’d try to make it as friendly as possible for beginners and experienced players alike. I play on doing some alt tuning songs in the future, because the range of emotion you can get out of non-standard tunings is something that every guitarist should experiment with. It can really open doors to your creativity and makes you think about the potential of the guitar in a different way.
I’m a huge fan of Robert Belfour, and we lost a true legend when he passed on earlier this year. I’m planning to do ‘Hill Stomp’ sometime in the future, but with those Hill Country guys it’s pretty hard working out exactly what tunings they are in and what they are doing. The sounds they can get are amazing. The image in the banner is actually Junior Kimbrough, who played with Belfour a fair bit when they were learning the trade. Both are first class bluesmen.
Thanks!
Oh man, i didn’t even know Belfour had died. What a loss.
i get your point about open tunings and it’s a good thing because, after several years in open G, I decided to learn some more standard tuning songs.
And yeah, those Hill Country players sure make it hard. I usually just sort of get a groove going and sing the lyrics…
(Did you get the image at fanart.tv? I think they made a mistake naming that image, because I am pretty sure it is from the same shoot as these: http://www.bluesartstudio.at/Komponenten/12LBWo02.jpg http://www.bluesartstudio.at/Komponenten/12LBWo03.jpg and Belfour pasted his initials on the guitar using fake gems – sorry for being an online trolling know-it-all)
Anyway, keep up the good work!
Bouke
I’m not sure where I got the image from – but the image you provided is undeniable! It’s definitely Robert Belfour and I’m pretty sure you are right about the photo being taken in the same shoot. The clothes are identical.
Thanks for pointing out the mistake! I honestly would have gone my whole life getting it wrong. There’s such little info out there about some of these guys that I need all the help I can get, so please point out any other mistakes I’ve made – I’m sure there’ll be a few of them. I want this site to be more of an appreciation of these guys and girls lives and stories than anything else, so correcting any mistakes I’ve made is very important to me.
Thanks again.
This is a great web site. I’m so stone cold in love with blues in the raw that this will be a regular stop for me.
Hello,
unfortunatly my following question has got nothing to do with the blues directly, but:
I am a german writer currently working on an essay about Lightnin Hopkins, which will be published at the end of the year in an edition by TBOOKS COLOGNE in germany. We wanna use the image of Lightnin (for the cover of the book) which you posted on your website, so do you know who took the photo or owns its rights, or wether there are any copyrights at all?
Sorry to bother you, but you might be of great help.
Cheers,
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
Unfortunately I don’t know who has the copyright for the image. I first came across it as the cover for a 7 CD collection titled “Lightnin’ Hopkins – The Complete Prestige / Bluesville Recordings”. Blueville was a short lived label from the 60s that was owned by Prestige, Prestige itself was bought by another label 30 or 40 years ago. If you caould track down a copy of that collection it might have the info on the photo in the liner notes.
Good Luck!
Hi there,
great site by the way, love it!
Been trying to play the following tunes, any chance you can Tab them?
Slippin til my gal comes in partner, Rev Gary Davis
Catfish Blues, Skip James
I wanna do something for you, Mance Lipscomb.
I looked for ages but can’t find anything accurate.
Thanks in advance,
Ben.
Hey Ben,
Glad you are getting something out of the site!
I’m doing a Frank Stokes song this week, but I’ll have a crack at the songs you mentioned in the next few weeks. Watch this space!
Cheers.
Cheers,
Frank Stokes is great!
OMG, I LOVE THIS SITE! Thank you for all your time and energy.
i love this site also.as an older blues guitar learner i commend your time and effort for your broad range of blues players,being older i have seen in person a lot of the guitarist that was still around from the sixtys to present thanks again,great job with soo many free lessons
Thanks Ernest!
I was lucky enough to see John Lee Hooker before he passed on, but he’s the only guy who was playing country blues before the Second World War that I’ve seen. Would love to have seen John Hurt or Bill Broonzy live! Who have you seen?
I really enjoy this site. I’ve been playing this style of guitar for years, but hadn’t heard of many of these artists on your site. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this. Any chance you can post “Sunday Street” by Dave Van Ronk? I’ve got portions of the song figured out, but could use some help.
Hi Mark, part of the idea for this project was to ‘discover’ new music for myself, some of the forgotten players who were doing awesome things but for whatever reason never got the recognition they deserve. Half the guys I hadn’t heard of either, but are now on regular rotation. I’ve been meaning to learn some of Dave’s songs, so I’ll try to work out Sunday Street for the week after next. The guy is pretty good though – he seems to have an extra finger on each hand! – and his ‘touch’ is as good as anyone I’ve ever heard. But I’ll see what I can do.
hanks for checking out the site!
There’s a video on Youtube of him playing Sunday Street, but I agree with you. He’s so fast and fluid, its hard to see what he’s doing. If you don’t get to it, I’ll understand and I’m sure I’ll enjoy whatever songs you post. Thanks again for such a cool site!
No worries, I made a bit of a start and couldn’t work it out in standard tuning – half the notes I were right, but the other half were just nowhere to be found. It was a real wtf is going on here situation.
Then I found the video I think you are talking about – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVTiDhOR35g – and saw he was playing in dropped D with a capo on the second to bring the low string back up to E. So it’s a 12 bar in E – E, A and B chords – but played with D, G and A chord shapes! It explains the very familiar but very different sound he gets.
Hopefully I’ll have it by next Monday, but if not, it won’t be too far away. There’s some really great stuff going on in there, and I’m determined to learn what he’s doing.
Thanks for introducing me to a fantastic song and a seriously good musician!
By the way, what kind of resonator guitar did you get. I just picked up a Paul Beard GRS last year, but I’m already wanting to upgrade. The Taj Mahal songs sound particularly sweet on a resonator.
Hey Mark,
I got a Gretsch Honey Dipper about a year ago. Good, solid instrument for the price. Those Paul Beard GRS’s look very, very nice.
Taj is actually the reason I got into blues, his “De Old Folks at Home” record made me sell all my electric guitars and just stick with the acoustic!
I have a bunch of electric guitars, but rarely pick them up. Lightnin’ was the one that first inspired me to get into this style of music. I think Fishin’ Blues was the first song that I learned.
Fantastic work, man! And outstandingly generous too.
Thanks for the tabs and the notes, and for keeping these songs alive.
A labour of love for sure and within minutes of having stumbled across this site, my guitar was out and I began enjoying the results of the effort that has gone into this project. Thank you so much.
Many thanks for putting up authentic acoustic blues n tab form. I’ve been trying to learn some of these songs for years. Your efforts are really appreciated!
No worries! Glad you are getting something out of it. I’m nearly at the end of the 52 weeks, but I’ll still be putting stuff up though not nearly as regularly. If you ave any requests don’t hesitate to ask!
Again tremendous job sorting out these old tunes, and I’ve left other comments lauding your efforts, but how can I print a hard copy of the tabs? My printer spits out a bunch of black swirls. What’s the secret?
Keep it up Brother,
Jim
Hi Jim!
Unfortunately the plug in I use converts the content into tabs after the page has rendered, and all the PDF converters I’ve tried reads the code and not the output of the code, so you end up with a bunch of numbers and dollar signs! The only thing I can suggest is to take a screen shot (or screen shots) and cut and paste the pieces of tab together in simple editor like MS Paint or even Word. If anyone out there has a good WordPress plug in for PDFs that reproduces the actual content you see please let me know about it.
Absolutely magnificent resource, the Kindhearted Woman Blues tab is one of the most accurate Johnson transcriptions I’ve come across. Whenever I grow cynical about the internet I seem to stumble across tremendous acts of generosity, diligence and passion such as this that wash away any doubts. Would love to see your take on Scrapper Blackwell’s Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out or any of Rory Gallagher’s acoustic blues. I detect an interest in points of technique throughout your work, Gallagher’s strangely kinetic hybrid style is worth a look for an enthusiast.
Wow! This site is going to be fun … just stumbled on it today, looking for Tommy McClennan tab! Thank you for your dedication to roots blues music!!!
No worries, thanks for having a look! I’m still going to be doing stuff, albeit not as regularly, so if you have any request shoot me an email at 52weeksofblues@gamil.com or leave a comment.
Love this site. Love to see Kentucky Blues by Dennis “Little Hat” Jones
Great song – gotta admit I’ve never heard it before, so thanks for turning me on to it. I’ll see what I can do!
How about Pistol Slapper Blues? Rory covered it. Blind Boy Fuller might have done it originally.
I’ll see what I can do – might take a while, though.
Hi Mark,
It did indeed take a while, but here it is: http://www.52weeksofblues.com/?song=pistol-slapper-blues
Enjoy!
Great stuff. Wonderful idea. Keep up the good work. We all enjoy this tremendously. It keeps it all alive these good old blues songs.
My congratulations on finally tabbing out the old acoustic blues. I’ve searched far and wide and your accomplishment is stunning and much appreciated. One question, can the tabs be printed and if so how? I can’t seem to make a hard copy. Again many thanks and I hope you can answer my copy question.
Yours in the Blues,
Jim
Hey Dude, again I can’t thank you enough for the effort you put into this project. The only site with Wiley and Thompson! I don’t know how often you check your mail but my question still stands. How do I print a hard copy of the tab? Meanwhile keep up the good work!
Jim
I think this is one of the most vital information for me. And i’m glad reading your article. But wanna remark on some general things, The web site style is ideal, the articles is really nice : D. Good job, cheers
A million thanks for your site. An incredible resource to learn country blues.
Hi RPC any chance you could take a crack at Doc Watson’s house of the rising son?
Man you ABSOLUTELY RULE!!!
Amazing website! I’m a starting blues guitar player and for many old blues songs it’s hard to find any decent tabs online, so when I saw your collection of songs, I was pumped. Thanks dude!
No worries, hope you get something out of it!
u did good! great site. need another year!
Hi,
First off, fantastic job with this site. It’s a great addition to what the web can offer about the blues.
Secondly, I was wondering if I could get in touch with you. I ‘m working on a thesis that focuses on the use of alternate tunings in Texas blues music. Your entry on “Bring Me My Shotgun” was helpful.
Your input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Sure, I donöt know that much about Texan blues, but happy to help if I can. Shoot me an email at 52weeksofblues@gmail.com. You might also want to check out weeniecampbell.com, the community there is full of guys and girls who know just about anything you could ever wish to know about the blues.
How about “Keep It Clean” by Charley Jordan? It’s been covered a bunch of times, but his version is my favorite recording of the song.
Thanks so much for this great site! One Dime Blues, Etta Baker – just love it, if only there were more tabs like it! Love of acoustic blues renewed – poor old Gibson is in for a hard time….
Hey dude I’ve just come across your website and you are a godsend! Thankyou for your time and effort.
However I’ve encountered that since yesterday your tabs have been showing up like this;
$3.2/4 4.$2.3 $3.4.$2.3.$1.0 $3.4.$2.3.$1.0 $3.4.$2.3.$1.0 $3.4.$2.3.$1.0 $3.2.$6.0 $3.0h1 $4.2 | $6.0 $5.2 $6.0.$3./4 $2.3 $6.0.$3.4 $6.0.$3./4 $2.3 $6.0.$3.4 $6.0.$3.2 0h1 $4.2 | $6.0 $5.2 2 2 $6.0 0 0 0 |
I cannot decipher this weird code to figure it out and yesterday I was learning Shotgun by Lightnin Hopkins just fine. I this just me or do other people have the same problem?
Hopefully this gets fixed soon. Thanks again.
Jono
Hi Jono,
Yeah, that problem sucks! It’s caused because the plug in I use to generate the tab images renders after the page has loaded – ie it gets the raw symbols on the page like the $6.0, and maps them to a library of images and info about where to put the images – $6.0 is mapped to a 0 with a line through it, and placed on the lowest area so it becomes the open low E string. It uses Javascript to do this which Apple has a love/hate relationship with.
The problem is the JS code is 4 or 5 years old, and it clashes with some versions of Apple’s operating system. It’s fine on my Windows desktop, it’s fine on my Macbook, it’s fine on an iPhone 6 (kind of, the layout is all screwed up), but it’s broken on my iPad and iPad mini. I’m not sure about non-Apple tablets. I had a crack last year about trying to build a new plug in to fix it, but it was well over my head.
So unfortunately there’s not much I can do to fix it except say to try not to use a phone or tablet to look at the tabs – which is really shit nowdays. I’ve got a lot of feelers out trying to find another way to present the tabs, and hopefully someone will come up with a solution soon.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
A few months back I bumped into your site and have loved using the tabs, but just a this week I started encountering the same problem as Jono. I havent changed computers. Do you know of a fix?
Thanks
Hi Robert,
Should be fixed now!
Yes I see tabs same way, can’t make sense of them. I need this so bad too!
Been playing the tunes one after another, in a deep blues groove. Thanks so much!
Larry
Hi Larry,
Hopefully its fixed now. Had to reinstall an older version of wordpress after beating my head against a wall for a few days.
I was looking for an accurate tab for Taj Mahal’s “Fishin’ Blues” today and stumbled accross your site. Thank you very much for the time and effort that you have invested in this work. This has been my favorite type of music for as long as I can remember. I picked up a guitar last year after a 37 year hiatus and decided that I was either going to learn how to finger pick it or I would get rid of it. 11 months in and I haven’t gotten rid of it. So… I guess old dogs really can learn new tricks! Thank you again.
Thanks Ed! I’ve been trying to play Fishing Blues on and off for years – it is the single reason why I’m into this kind of music. I heard it one day and it literally changed my life. I wanted to play Hendrix, heard that song and decided I wanted to be able to play like Taj!
I have looked and looked for some type of tab on Songs by Taj Mahal. Really hard to find something
And the I stumbled upon this site. OMG exactly the type of music I was looking for.
Thank you for putting this together. Wish there were more sites that were this complete.
Tim
No worries, thanks for having a look. Taj is the single reason I play this kind of music. I heard Fishing Blues way back in my misspent youth and had never heard music as good as what he was doing in my life.
I’m neglecting the site a bit since the initial 52 weeks is over, but I’ve got a few more Taj songs I’m going to put up. If you have any requests, just ask though it’ll probably take a while to get them done.
Thanks again!
Me too! I had a Kramer guitar, playing in metal bands and only listening to metal music in the mid-80’s. In 1987 my older brother talked me into going to see Taj Mahal. After hearing “Fishin’ Blues” all I wanted was a National Steel guitar!
Love this s##t!!! I have picked up some good tunes from you. I just got one question. Can you transcribe “Going away” with Rev Gary Davis? I think you could do it properly. I have nowhere else to turn hehe…
/ André
Hi Andre,
Thanks for taking a look at the site! I’m not updating it as often as I used to, but will try and do as many requests as I can. I can’t find a Gary Davis song called “Going Away”. Do you have a link to it?
Thanks,
rpc
Hi! I found it on youtube. It was Ari Eisinger playing a song called “Going Away” and I fell in love with the tune. But it was written in the info that it was a Rev Gary Davis song, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Then I learned that the real name of the song is “I’m throwing up my arms”. So I’ve got the tabs and know how to play it now 🙂
But now I’m looking for the tab for Rev Gary Davis “The great change in me”. Maybe you can transcribe it 🙂
Thanks anyway for the good work!
Hi. this is an absolutely amazin website. thank you so much for sharing your work and the blues with others in this great way!
greetings from germany
dan
Thanks Dan, glad you are finding the site useful!
THANK YOU !! You created the website I was searching. It’s all about blues and guitar… and that’s what I love.
This is an amazing site! I’m really impressed. It’s beautiful and somehow you cash really teach via only writing. I loved the explanation of the shuffle feel. And great musical selections.
No worries, Eleonor, and thanks for having a look!
Please change cash to “can” 🙂
When I was a student I was listening Sonny Terry et Brownie McGhee,
Life flows
Now I am retired ….. and I’ll get out my guitar …. Many thanks
First I want to say that your site is absolutely amazing! I’m sure that everyone who is using it appreciates your work and time. I just was wanting to know if I could possibly use some of your work for a college project? If so please get back to me and I can give you more details if needed. Once again thank you so much for all of your time and work that has gone into the 52 Weeks of Blues website!
Hi Quinn,
Thanks for taking an interest in the site! Send me a message at 52weeksofblues@gmail.com about the college project, shouldn’t be a problem
Thank you very much from Spain. Your site is a proof of authentic generosity and love for the blues. The history (personally, love that part, I have a degree in History 🙂 ), the tabs, the pieces… a very good presente for everybody.
As an amateur guitar player, I think that your path, is a very good challenge for the new year!
Best Whishes.
Mario Delgado.
Thanks Mario,
Merry Christmas to you too!
Thanks again, and happy new year.
Wow what a great site. Thanks !!!!
Do you give private lessons?
Cheers.
TD
Hi Tim, thanks for taking a look!
I have given lessons in the past, but I don’t really have the time for it nowdays. I can recommend an English bloke named Jim Bruce – http://www.play-blues-guitar.eu/blues-guitar-jim-bruce-youtube-videos.php – crappy looking website but a hell of a great player, much better than I am, and he’s been a teacher for many years. I’ve never met him, but I’ve seen a lot of his lessons etc just from being interested in the same kind of thing.
Another guy is John Miller – http://johnmillerguitar.com/teaching.html He’s helped me out with a few songs on this site and is just a super nice guy who knows just about everything a person can possibly know about this kind of music.
Good luck, and thanks for looking at the site!
What a fantastic website. I’m reeling from having heard Scrapper Blackwell for the first time – so’s my guitar, I think I heard it say, “You can’t be serious.”
Hi Findlay,
Yeah scrapper is amazing! Relatively unknown and a real ‘solo’ type player – he’s always trying to inject a riff or a shift of momentum in his playing. I must admit I didn’t know anything about him when I started this project, and now he’s one of my favourites!
please post more soon
It would be great if you made this available as PDF downloads, as individual songs and as a collection. The pages don’t print well.
It’s a great collection of songs.
Wow, this is by far the best finger style Blues resource on the Internet, thanks a lot for the amazing job!!
Thanks for having a look!
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your gift – I’ve learned a ton from your site. One suggestion for a future overview is Sonny Boy Williamson ‘Slowly Walk Close to Me’…..what a most excellent jam – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8ZfYhFO1L8
All the best to you Sir!
Don
Thanks for having a look at the site, Don!
Wow, what a great laid bck tune – I’ll definitely have a look at at, but as you can tell by the lateness of this reply I’m not updating the site as much as I would like. Life & a new kid have gotten in the way!
I’ll send you an email when I’ve worked something out.
Thanks again for looking at the site,
rpc
This is more than good, this is incredible, wonderful site, exactly the music what I am trying to play. Thank you so much.
Thanks for having a look!
Big thumbs up on this work – I have been putting together a new Blues duo act in Austin TX and needed a few new fingerpicking tunes, and found a couple I was unaware of… with TABS! Talk about making my life easy! You made my set list a bit more interesting…it was very Lightnin Hopkins heavy 🙂 – come see me at Mojohand.com and check out Everything Blues™ !
Grego
Thanks for having a look, Grego!
Great site, thank you. Can you please do an arrangement of Fresno Shuffle by Dave Van Ronk , Thanks again.
Hello
this site is nearly the best fingerblues, countryblues, early blues i have ever seen, it´s really well made and now i know it´s worth it for me to buy this continental resonator, which the guitarshop in my hometown offered me in a very good condition, i will learn one song in a week for the next 52 weeks, i also love the information about song and artist and i bought some great new vinyls for my early blues collection, greetings from germany and sorry for my bad english 🙂
Hi Frank,
Thanks for the comment, its been a labour of love for me and I’m really happy you are getting something out of it!
I’m not updating the site as much as I should nowdays, so apologies for the late reply.
And your English is great!
Thanks again for the lovely comment,
Regards,
rpc
Thank you for your fantastic gift to all blues lovers.I was looking for some Etta Baker tabs and discovered your site and my first thought was:I must be dreaming,this cannot be true.!Your site is a treasure and I look foreward to all the happy hours learning to play these songs. I wish you all the best. Greetings from Denmark.Robert
Thanks for the kind words, Robert!
I’m halfway through another Etta Baker tune – should be up in a week or two. I’ll send you an email when it’s live.
WHOA. I am so unbelievably happy to have found this site. Any chance we get a John Hammond tune like “Come To Find Out” or his version of “My Time After Awhile”? I’ve been grinding to figure both of those out for a week or so now.
Anyway keep it up!
Wow, never listened to John Hammond before – the guy is amazing! I’ll see what I can do – I’m not maintaining the site as much these days and have a bit of a backlog, but in a few weeks I should have something.
Thanks for having a look!
Greetings,
Thank you for your generous attitude toward sharing your knowledge and experience! I was wondering whether you would be kind enough to work on the tune Lazy Black Snake by Josh White. I have figured out that it is in open D tuning capoed, hence played in F.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxbF2ZGY0kQ
It is such a cool tune and it has beautiful, yet complicated riffs.
Warm regards,
Rhett
Hi Rhett,
Josh White was an incredible talent. It’s hard to hear what’s going on with the piano, but I’ll sit down and see what I can do. I’ve started a family, so it’s really hard to find the time to keep updating the site, but give me a few weeks and I’ll try to get something.
Thanks for linking to the song, I haven’t heard it before!
Hi,
First off I’d like to say thanks for making such an awesome site, these are some of the best blues tabs I’ve come across. I’m not sure if you’re aware but I’ve noticed this last week that your tabs aren’t getting translated into tablature, they’re just appearing as “$3.2/4 4.$2.3 ” etc. I’ve tested the site through different browsers & devices but the issues still there.
Thanks for the great work.
Hi George,
The tabs should be fixed now. It was an issue with the latest wordpress version and a really old plug in that generates the tabs.
Thanks for looking at the site! I don’t update it much these days – life getting in the way – but its great to see people like you using it!
Hi guys,
I am desperate!
I can’t see the tabs, I visualize this:
$6.0.$5.2 $6.0.$5.2 $6.0 $3.2 $6.0 |
$6.0.$3.0h1 $1.0 $6.0 $6.0.$5./4 $6.0.$5.4 $6.0.$5.2 $6.0.$5.2 $6.0 $3.0 $5.
What’s happen?
can you help me please?
Hello,
First of all, thanks for your amazing works, i used the website for months and you made me discover a lot of amazing songs and the story behind them.
But since some time the tab engine you use seems to not work anymore, I only get “$4.4.$3.4.$2.4…”,maybe you can do something ?
kind regards and thanks again for your amazing work.
HI Frenchfan!
Should be fixed now, had a problem with the latest version of WordPress and a really old plug in!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know.
Unfortunately the tab won’t display on any of my devices. Mac, PC, tablet different browsers – tried the lot but it just renders as
$6.0.$2.10 8 $3.9 $2.8 etc.
Really gutted – would love to learn some of these songs and it’s a shame that all your hard work is going to waste.
Is there any way around this? Can anyone recommend a browser and hardware combo that is working for them?
Fingers crossed!
Hi Dan,
Should be fixed now – though it will look like crap on most mobiles, I’m afraid! The tabs are rendered after the site loads, and I can’t control the width of them so they go off the page in a big way on small devices.
Thanks for looking at he site!
It’s back – brilliant! Thanks for all your work on this.
Hi RPC,
Looks like something happen with the jTab plugin as I tried several browsers (OSX, Windows, Android) and all have the same issue, as they don’t show the tabs but instead the tab notation for the app e.g. $2 0 1 3
Let me know if you need a hand with it.
Thank you!
Hi Damien,
Thanks for looking at the site!
The problem was caused by an automatic update to WordPress 4.9 which conflicted with the plugin I use for tabs. The new WP version was throwing errors with prototype.js caused by calls from the plugin’s jQuery. I couldn’t work it out, so had to do a reinstall to an older (4.8.3) WP version. I’m ok with js, but it was way beyond me to fix the plugin in a future proof way, so I’ll keep the older version of WP – I’ve started a family so don’t have that much time to dedicate to the site anymore.
If you want to have a look, this is the plug in: https://wordpress.org/plugins/guitar-chords-and-tabs/. It hasn’t been updated in 4 years, though, so it might turn into a deep rabbit hole!
Cheers,
rpc
Something happened with the formatting and it shows dollar signs
Hi Matt,
Should be fixed now!
Hi there, I really like your site but I seem to be missing out on something, can you please explain to me what this tab system is or how it works as I have never seen it before, thank you in advance.
H Brendan,
Thanks for looking at the site. Unfortunately an automatic update broke the plug in that I use to generate the tabs.
Good news is it all should be fixed now. Let me know if there are any other issues.
Thanks,
rpc
I really love your site. Great collection of songs and bluesmen.
But whats going on with the tablatures? They’re only displayed as the code. I would be very glad if you fix it.
So furthermore, I want to say thank you, people like you keep the blues alive!
Thanks for looking at the site, Lightnin’!
Should all be back to normal now, had an automatic update that broke things for a week or two.
Unfortunately jTab only recently stopped working. What I see is a series of $3.6…
Hi Cecil,
Should be back to normal. An automatic update caused it. And I thought technology was meant to make life easier!
Thanks for having a look!
i cant load the tabs,they look like this $6.0.$1.0 $6.0.$1.0 | to me,is it my problem or do you guys experience the same issue?
good job anyway !
Should be fixed now. Thanks for taking a look at the site!
Hii, fantastic site. Glad to see you’re back up and running (after your domain probs), but the tabs aren’t readable (it doesn’t look like your plug-ins working)
Should be back to normal now – automatic WordPress update that conflicted with the tab plugin.
The site is brilliant. Thank you for all your effort!
Burke
Seattle, WA
My pleasure, Burke. Thanks for having a look!
This site is awesome.
I like all songs posted here
thank you very much
I came across this site by accident. I’m sure glad I did. You’re providing valuable resource.
Thank you for this amazing site! All your work figuring out tabs, intro’s, progressions, etc.. and all the info on each artist (including the style of his picking) is incredible! My love for blues was influenced by my father, a lover of old jazz from the 30’s. (Brubeck, Johansson..)
I love the guitar and have been working very hard with the alternating picking and getting that thumb steady. I will be on your site for a good long while learning all of these amazing songs! Cannot thank you enough! You are a gift to the world!
Thanks Caroline,
Its a labour of love for me so it’s great to hear that other people also get something out of it!
Just wanted to say that this site is extremely impressive and by far is the most professional and well organized, non-commercial site of guitar tabs that I have ever come across. Seriously, it’s like a glimpse into the future of many blues songs that I hope to one day be able to play. I can’t say enough. An amazing effort on your part to share all of this. Thank you! Much appreciation.
Late reply, but thanks Shaun! Comments like that make me think I need to get back into it.
Hi just want to give you a heads up that I cannot pull up your site on any browser now? My anti virus blocks it. So maybe you got hacked or something ??? Hope you can see and get this! Love what you do. Great site. Thanks!!!
Hi David,
Thanks for the comment – and for having a look at the site!
Sorry for the late reply, but I’v started a family and have become very time poor as you can imagine. The site uses a 5 year old version of WordPress, and some older plugins that aren’t compatible with newer versions. What this means is that the site isn’t getting patched as it should be, and some nasty bots have been exploiting this lower security.
If the site is getting as “insecure” message, maybe try changing the start of the url to http:// instead of https:// The issue is related to sites nowdays requiring SSL certificates, which I’m in the process of organising. Will take a week or so, so thats a temporary fix.
Thanks!
I’ve been playing finger style acoustic blues since my teens. I’m in my sixties now. I just recently came into possession of some old blues LPs. Several of which were Bo Carter discs. I use to play out a lot and only took one guitar and I didn’t like retuning on stage so I shied away from open tunings. In the last few months I’ve started delving into open tunings for blues. I’m primarily a piedmont player and play a lot of a John Hurt songs and he rarely uses open tunings. It’s hard to say what style Bo plays but you certainly couldnt call it Delta! More folky maybe like Mance Lipscomb? I’m really excited to be getting into Bo now. I’ve done “ Buiscuits” for years but couldn’t figure out some of his open tuning songs. I tried playing “ Baby who’s been here” for years without realizing he was in half Spanish tuning. Having recently discovered the Half Spanish tuning makes it so much easier. I was just in my yurt /man cave working out “Arrangement For You” and luckily found this site. This invaluable resource will save some time learning this song properly. Thank you for this !
Late reply, but thanks for having a look!
Wow… I’m speechless at your dedication and generosity.
Many thanks
Hey rpc,
still love your site. Many thanks for your great work.
I have a request for a tablature. May you do “Ants in my Pants” from Bo Carter if you are able to? I would be so gratefull 🙂
More of Lightnin’ Hopkins would be great, too.
Is it possible to support you in some way, maybe paypal oder something like that?
I wish you a good time and many greetings from germany!
Kurtis
Thanks so much for all your work on this. Maybe add donation link somewhere prominent?
I’d love to see “You was Born to Die” by Blind Willie McTell!
I love this site….but the tab is down again. Bad news
Hi Bob, late reply but I think it’s to do with the SSL certificate, or lack therefore of. Trying starting the url with http:// instead of the default https:// – thats working for me as a temporary fix until I can get the certificate up (and change some of the hardcoded urls deep in the code).
Thanks, rpc
Hey! Glad to see 52weeksofblues is back again! This is the good news of the day.
Im using chrome and the tabs dont display properly.
what do i have to to do get the tabs to show up right?
Hi Riley,
Im super late to reply, but the issue should be fixed now.
Regards, rpc
Hi Rpc, I ‘m over the moon to see the site back up. It’s been such an amazing resource and I want to thank you with all my heart for your dedication to it. All the blues artists you post are my source of inspiration to play and become better and better. Thank you again!!!
Thanks for the kind words Alex!
Thanks for a wonderful site. I am looking forward to a lifelong journey learning these songs ( i am an old slow learner)
Thank you for your work and dedication in putting this site together. I appreciate the history and backstory of each artist and song, I reckon you done ’em all proud. Any chance at getting Blind Willie McTell’s “You Got to Die” included?
Great site! Really appreciate the effort put into it. I learned Etta Baker’s one dime blues from this site and now it is one of my favourite tunes to play. Just lately I went back to your site to learn some of the other great tunes but the tab won’t display properly ( that old $6.0 etc issues appears to be back.) Tried different browsers and on my laptop vs tablet but no luck. Any suggestions?
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Almost 6 months late, but Ive fixed the issue!
Regards,
rpc
Hi RPC, I love blues, and I love your site, your effort, and your dedication. I love guitar too even not really good at, so this place is heaven….or hell, with the blues, the devil!
Really thank you
Hi rpc,
I love this website, thank you so much for your efforts. I’ve been working on Louis Collins which is such a sad and sweet song.
Is there any way I could ask you to make a tab for John Fahey’s Barbara Namkin Blues, off of the album “Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You”? I’ve been looking for it everywhere and I can’t find it which is frustrating because its such a beautiful song and really simple too it seems.
Let me know. It would be amazing if you could.
Thank you again!!
Hi Vlad,
Wow, what a song! Im not working on the site much these days, but I’ll see if I can find some time to work this out. Ive got a feeling its going to take a while!
¨Thanks for looking at the site, and thanks for showing me this great tune.
Regards,
rpc
Heya RPC,
Firstly, thank you so much for the website. This really is a treasure trove of acoustic blues guitar knowledge and tab.
Secondly, just want to let you know mate that it looks like the tab has reverted to code, like some other times before.
All the best and take care of yourself there!
Thanks for the heads up! There’s a plug I need that is ancient nowdays, and contains hardcoded http links. The quick fix is to manually go to the http site eg – https://52weeksofblues.com/ change to http://52weeksofblues.com/
That should bring back both the tabs and the fonts.
A better fix is coming, just need to find a few days to dedicate to it!
Thanks again for the interest!
I’m not sure if others are having this issue, but any http version forces it to go to the https (nothing I’m finding to make it go to http). not sure if its an issue on the server on your side or not. just a heads up
Thanks Allan,
I recently resubmitted the site to google, which I suspect is why the http hack stopped working.
I found a bug in the codebase, and all should be fixed now.
rpc
Hey rpc,
Cheers heaps for awesome website mate. I’m thinking of writing a real blues banger titled “Hardcoded http Link Blues” and am looking for some inspiration from some of the classics you’ve spent a great deal of time and effort compiling. The manual quick fix suggested above was unsuccessful in my case using google chrome. I’m not great at computers, but if there is anything at all I can do to help you get the tabs on your website back up and running, let me know. Would happily donate $ for your time.
Kind regards
Rory
Hi Rory,
Thanks for the message and the offer! Only thing that I needed was a bit of time, and Im happy to say that everything should be fixed now.
Sorry it took a while to get around to it, and if you every write that banger send me a copy!
Regards,
rpc
How can you set All The Guitar Tabs back to how it was?
Hi Razer,
Fixed now, it was a combination of me not really maintaining the site any more and a hardcoded link. Hopefully you’ll be able to see the tabs cleanly.
Thanks for the message,
rpc
Thanks for putting together this amazing resource. Just wanted to let you know that when searching for “52 weeks of blues” on Google you get some weird results. You might want to get that checked out.
Hi Anon,
Yeah, little blue pills? Im talking to google about it and hopefully it goes away soon!
Thanks for the message, and sorry for the late reply,
rpc
Any luck with to coding? Love this site, and have been bummed it is not displaying the tab. I cant seem to get the http:// trick to work either.
Hi Beau,
Late reply but the site should be fixed now.
Thanks for the message,
rpc
Hello, i can not see the tabs anymore !!!!
It so sad for me !!! I really appreciate the site and this colossal work!!!!!
thank you for your help
Hi Antoine,
All the tabs should be fixed now.
Thanks for the message,
rpc
Hi RPC,
what’s going wrong? I can`t read the tabs no more.
Pleas help.
Thank you
Kind regards
Wolfgang from Germany
Hi Wolfgang,
Tabs should all be fixed now.
Thanks for checkout out the site,
rpc
Hey RPC. My guitar teacher turned me on to your website when we started working on Hesitation Blues. It’s been so helpful – can’t thank you enough and I can’t wait to explore more songs! You’ve done an amazing job.
I just updated my MAC OS operating system and when I returned to your website, the tab was in code. Couldn’t figure out how to get it back. Tried the fix you mentioned about but it keeps reverting to https.
Suggestions?
And thanks for what you’re doing here to preserve these classic blues.
Hi Jim,
Apologies for the late reply. There was a bug in the code thats been squashed – the tabs should all render correctly now.
Thanks for taking a look at the site!
I love the site, but recently the tabs have been showing up as code again, and every browser I use automatically switches back to https when I try to use the http link. Just a heads up in case any other people were having that problem.
All the best, thanks!
Thanks for the message Ethan,
I took a look and found a fix for the tab issue – it all should be fine now,
Sorry it took awhile to respond,
rpc.
Hello,
I appreciate your work on the site. Where can I and others leave a donation? Can you get the tab back up? Thanks!
Mike
Hi Mike,
I appreciate you having a look at the site!
Tabs should be back up now, sorry it took a while to fix it.
Regards,
Rpc
Hi, Thanks for the great site.
I have been using this site for a while but the tabs no longer show, can this be fixed?
Thanks
Hi Stuart,
Sorry for taking a while, but the site should be fixed now.
Thanks for the heads up,
rpc
Thanks so much RPC, really brightened up my lockdown gloom. I’m loving the Stump Blues and Bring me my shotgun. Great work much appreciated.
Hey there,
First off, huge thanks for putting this all together. I only started learning guitar a couple of years ago and this has been immensely valuable in picking up tunes and riffs and learning more about blues guitar.
I wanted to ask about some problems I’ve been having recently accessing the content. It is now only displaying numbers and symbols and I wonder if this is due to some sort of plugin copyright expiry? If so, is there any other way to access these tabs? They’ve been so useful to me, would be absolutely gutted to see them go…
Many thanks,
Dom
Hi Dom,
Thank you for having a look at the site, great to hear you found something worthwhile here!
The issue with the tabs should be fixed now, please check it from your end,
Regards,
rpc
Hey 🙂
It isn’t possible to see the tabs anymore. I’ve tried to change from https to http, and I’ve tried a lot of things suggested with a google search. But I haven’t figured it out, do you have a PDF with all the tabs, or something like that? Love your work here!
Hi Aron,
It was a bug in the code. Fixed now.
Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for taking a look!
rpc
When I try to change manually to HTTP from HTTPS the browser just goes back to HTTPS?
Hi Sam,
I haven’t been maintaining the site, and updated it on google, which explains the redirect from http. The better news is Ive fixed the issue, so hopefully you can see the tabs now!
Thanks for the message,
rpc
Hi RPC, thanks for your great work.
I’m still experiencing what Paul said time ago about the TAB reverted to some strange strings….
Em
$6.3 $2.0 $4.5 2 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | $6.3 $2.0 $4.5 2 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | $6.3 $2.0 $4.5 2 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 |
I’ve tried to use the http url but still the same problem.
Any suggestions?
Thank you again for your work
Michele
Dear RPC, I’m still experiencing this wired tab Paul was telling about, even changing to http://52weeksofblues.com/
Thank you for your amazing work.
Michele
Hi Michelle,
It took a while to find some time to debug the site, but hopefully you can see the tabs now.
Thanks for having a look!
Rpc
Hi RPC!
Your website is awesome. Thank you so much for the instruction and tablature on all the songs. Last song I learned was Fishin’ Blues from your site.
Your tablature is unfortunately still broken. Your fix above doesn’t work for me. The problem as I see it has to do with mixed content: some internal links to javascript and google fonts used are http and all the others are https and the browser will fetch one type or the other but not both like it did in the old days. However, you can disable this security feature with a click on the padlock icon and voila your tabs are back. Here’s a link on how to disable mixed content on a browser : https://kb.iu.edu/d/bdny . Works for me!
Keep up the great work. Look forward to many more songs coming down the pipe.
Take care.
Ron
Hi Ron,
First – Fishing Blues – it’s literally the reason I play this kind of music. Way back in my misspent youth I wanted to be the next Hendrix like any other wannabe guitarist. I’d saved up enough to buy my first semi-decent guitar and had my eye on this frankenstein Ibanez LP copy with two outputs so you could plug it into two amps and a switch so you could set the amps to be out of phase, it was a crazy sound. I’d tested it out twice and HAD to have it. I was driving in a car with a mate of mine and we were listening to some mixed tape – an actual tape, Im that old! – and Taj’s Fishing Blues came on. I had never heard anything that just hit me in that way before, two days later I spend all the cash I had saved on a Maton acoustic that’s hanging on the wall not 8 feet from where I’m sitting typing this
In other words – without hearing that song at the time I first heard it, this site would never had happened. I play it at least once a week – anytime I’m in dropped D – and still love it as much as when I first heard it. Mind you, it took a good 10 – 15 years from when I bought that guitar before I could get my thumb on auto pilot to be able to play it properly!
Second – yep, you are 100% correct. an outdated php function in the plugin that generates the URL resulted in a “http://” in the page source, breaking 2 fonts and 4 js file paths. It’s fixed now, so hopefully everything should render correctly now.
Lastly – unfortunately I’m not really maintaining the site that much at all nowdays. It’s probably been 3 years since I published anything new, despite having over 20 drafts at various stages of competition in the backlog. Ive got a family now and any spare time I get to myself I use it to play. The site started off as a way to force myself to practice every day and it certainly did its job – to the point where I know enough that I don’t need to study someone else’s style to improve.
I still want to produce content and haven’t given up the idea of the site or the enthusiasm about the music, but its the prioritising the 10 or 20 hours a week to produce the tabs that I’m struggling with. So – it might be a while before you see anything new!
Thanks for the kid words and the advice, and hopefully nothing goes wrong with the site for a while!
Regards,
Rpc
rpc,
I’ve been a lifelong fan of this music, but there is so much new for me to learn on this site. Clearly a labor of love on your part. Thanks so much.
As you know, tabs are down. I tried your suggestion of searching for the http site, but I keep being automatically redirected to the https site. If there’s a trick to getting to the http site, let me know. Thanks again
Roger
Hi Roger,
Thanks for the message. Im pretty lazy with site maintenance now days, but it should be fixed now.
Let me know if you are having issues,
Thanks,
rpc
How can I change the code into tablature?
Hi Richard,
It should be fixed now.
Regards,
Rpc
Hi RPC,
Another jewel I came across is “Long Way Home” by Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown on his album “Ramblin’ Man Blues”
Listening to this fantastic guitar piece I knew straight away where Eric Clapton got his mustard from – well, partly then 🙂
Maybe one for your long list of requests.
Cheers,
Dirk
Belgium
Hi Dirk,
Believe this or not, but I started a version of Long Way Home way back in 2016. I don’t really maintain this site anymore, but I’m embarrassed it’s been that long and I haven’t finished it off. The interplay between Gatemouth and EC on that piece is incredible. I tried tabbing it out for just one guitar, but it was taking a long time to work out each phrase.
As a thanks for messaging me, heres what I came up with – intro and most of the first verse. I didnt edit it for timing and Im sure its not that accurate, but it songs similar and hopefully can help you to jam along with it.
http://52weeksofblues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Screenshot-2020-05-03-at-17.23.38.png
https://52weeksofblues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Screenshot-2020-05-03-at-17.23.45.png
Regards,
Rpc
Thank you for the amazing site! Your work is greatly appreciated.
When I first started listening to the blues I fell in love with Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Penitentiary Blues” and “Prison Blues Come Down on Me”. Maybe he was thinking back to his time in prison. The lyrics and heartfelt playing are so mournful and compelling. I can’t seem to find tabs for either song. If you wouldn’t mind doing a tab for one I would really appreciate it. Considering how prolific Lightnin’ was, he doesn’t seem to get too many of his songs into tab or transcriptions, or maybe I’ve just been looking in the wrong places.
Thanks again,
John
thank you for this site. you are amazingly gifted, generous and sensitive to the creators of these tunes. You are much more talented than I, but we share the interest of going back and looking up the origins and history of the music we play (try for me). Hope you are well and family is thriving. Your site is so helpful during these strange covid times.
I play classical guitar casually , luckily I have some books and PDFs on fingerstyle blues . Wonderfull website. I will visit more to learn how and why of the compositions of great artists. Thanks.
Thank you very much! this site is awesome for blues lovers. I don´t speak english very well in order to traslate you how interesting is what you made here. Just thank you again