52 weeks of blues

Cherry Ball Blues is a fantastic example of the dark, brooding music Skip James is known for.
It is played in ‘cross note’ tuning – in this case open E minor – and the recording I’ve used is from his 1966 album ‘Today’ (the song is titled “Cherryball” on this record). Skip’s original version was played in cross note tuned to the key of D, aka open D minor. The tuning from fat string to thin string on the version I used here is E B E G B E, the original is a whole tone lower. Cross note is a great tuning – it gives you an octave in the bass strings, and the treble strings are the same as in standard tuning allowing you to play all you usual licks.
Skip takes advantage of this by bouncing his thumb between the two bass E strings, and using familiar ‘up the neck’ treble string positions for the ‘main riff’. An unusual aspect of the tuning is that it makes it effectively impossible to play a IV chord with a root bass note in open position, so most of Skip’s cross note songs doesn’t use a IV chord at all – very strange for the blues. The only real chord change is to the V chord towards the end of the progression, though Skip uses the bass V note very effectively in the main riff.
The tuning lends itself to ‘soundscapes’ – deep, brooding, eternal sounds – rather than verse/chorus type songs. Skip plays totally by feel – no two repetitions of the progression and the same length, he adds bars and alternates the riffs as the mood suits him. To make it a bit easier to follow, I’ve tabbed out quite a few half bars. Skip would play a phrase, sing, then use these half bars to reset the mood and set up the next passage.
His eerie falsetto voice and restrained guitar work really makes this piece. Take your time and really build the emotion of the guitar lines. It’s a great introduction to cross note tuning and Skip’s style – it’s not a complicated song and there isn’t too much to learn, but all of it is full of great sounds.

I love my little cherry ball
Better than I love myself
I love my cherry ball
Better than I love myself
Then if she don't love me
She can't love nobody else

Cherry ball, she quit me
Quit me in a nice, good way
Cherry ball, she quit me
Quit me in a nice, good way
You know, what it take to get her back
I carries it ev'ryday

Now, I left cherry ball standin'
Standin' in the back do' cryin'
Now, I left cherry ball
Standin' in the back do' cryin'
Of course, I feel her condition
But her trouble ain't none a-mine

She's just like a spider
She's hangin' on the wall
She's like a spider
She's hangin' on the wall
You know, she done quit me
She quit me without a cause

Now, when she left me
She left tears in my eye
Now, when she left me
She left tears in my eye
You know, that I love her
But her disposition I do despise

Now, you can take the Southern
I'm 'on take the Sante Fe
Now, you take the Southern
I'm 'on take the Sante Fe
I'm gon' ride an gon' ramble
'Till cherry ball come back to me

A bit of free time riffing to set the mood.

Skip improvises slightly over each repetition, but most follow a very similar structure. He plays lots of half bars and varies the speed slightly each time – play this one by feel. The ^^ indicates a trill, a very quick hammeron/pulloff repetition. Here are the first two verses, the rest are variations on the theme set in the first verse.
He also uses ‘left hand muting’ a lot – play a note then immediately lift your fretting finger to kill it. It’s most noticeable on the G note on the 3rd fret high E starting at the start of bar 2 of the progression. Takes a bit of practice to get it to sound similar to the recording.
Verse 1 Verse 2

Nicely delayed little riff to take us out.