Double Bass Help with 16 Tons Tab...

[neddyrow]

My wife and I heard Della Mae do a cover of 16 Tons at GreyFox last weekend and it was awesome. My wife, who is our lead singer, hasn't stopped singing it since. We want to add it to the setlist but I can't come up with a bass line for it. I've got the little turnaround at the end but can't come up with a line through the Am-F-E parts. It's kinda slow and 1-5 sounds weird. Any help with tabbing this out would be appreciated.

 

[neddyrow]

I think I've got one figured out. I'm trying to figure out a way to post it for the TB input.

 

[Feral Feline]

Here's how I hack it up...

 

[Jake deVilliers]

Tennessee Ernie Ford does a great version of the song:


And there's always Merle Travis:

 

[Feral Feline]

I think I'll try to incorporate more of the bass player's line from TE Ford's version, but I'll always dig M Travis' version the most. IIRC, he wrote it based on his father's experience. Thanks for posting JdeV.

 

[petesenkowski]

Merle's version doesn't have a bass. Ernie's version features the bass of Cliffie Stone; Stone was also the the bandleader for the "Sixteen Tons" session and produced a lot of Ernie's music. Ernie's version was released in 1955 and was (and still is) wildly popular. Cliffie's bass line sounds pretty simple: a descending minor line repeated several times each verse, with a little drop at the end of each verse.

Thanks,
Pete

 

[Bass Doc]

If you get this tabbed,I too would like to see it. For some reason I'm having trouble figuring this one out. Thanks

 

[Steve Killingsworth]

Take a listen to this version

 

[jeepnstein]

Wow. I'm playing a show on Friday and one of the songs we are going to do is "16 Tons". I don't think I'll be playing at this level by then so I'm just going to have to wing it. The scary part is I kind of see what it is he's doing with parts of it. I think we're playing it in D though, "Because everything sounds better in D.", according to one of our lead players. Doesn't matter because he's impossible to play with because he's left handed and plays a right handed guitar. I refer to him as a hillbilly's Jimi Hendrix. He always replies "Yeah, I've heard of him." It's a very loosely strung band with lots of opportunities to both show off and crash and burn at a moment's notice.

Now I'm off to learn that bass groove.

 

[martinc]

jeepnstein:

I'm a bit late with this .....hope it went well.
A descending line starting with a grace note into the D (if that's the key you used) would be a simple way to play something like the Cliffie Stone version. That's assuming your singer is doing it the same way as Tennessee Ernie!
Listen to as many versions as you can find and use whatever sounds best for your band. This is a great way to learn any bass line.

 

[jeepnstein]

jeepnstein:

I'm a bit late with this .....hope it went well.
A descending line starting with a grace note into the D (if that's the key you used) would be a simple way to play something like the Cliffie Stone version. That's assuming your singer is doing it the same way as Tennessee Ernie!
Listen to as many versions as you can find and use whatever sounds best for your band. This is a great way to learn any bass line.

Thanks. It went pretty well considering the rain and the humidity, and the 90+ degree weather. All our guitars were suffering greatly, nobody could stay in tune. A band that played before us had even more trouble and I noticed that the bass player was using gut strings compared to my steel. It was like doing a show in a sauna.

I wound up doing pretty much what you're describing. We settled on D because "everything sounds better in D...". We do it as an instrumental jam, no singer.