John Hartford tabs

[bryris]

I am looking for some tabs/sheet music/chords for "Steam Powered Aeroplane". The song was performed on banjo - but could be done on guitar.

I love that song -- probably my favorite folk song.

If you know of anything, I'd be appreciative. I am unable to find much on the main tab sites.

[mtnByker]

I'll second that request. In the meanwhile, maybe some of you would enjoy Turn Your Radio On, the 24/7 John Hartford web radio channel.

[wthurman]

I just finally got the words to "Joseph's Dream" which was not released on the CD version of the LP it was on. The title is listed but it's a completely different song. I also managed to find an MP3 of it live, which I don't like as much - but it's going into the repertoire for sure. "Steam Powered Aeroplane" has one of my fave lines that I really can relate to:

"The city's grown up so it looks just like
A crossword puzzle on the landscape
Looks like a 'lectric shaver now
Where the courthouse used to be..."

Well, we didn't have a courthouse that looked like that, but the Humana Headquaters looks so much like an electric shaver sitting in a recharger that the two are indelibly matched in my mind:



Also, I recently found out that John Hartford was originally John Harford, and changed it to "Hartford" at the suggestion of Chet Atkins, who had heard him and was impressed enough to help him secure his first recording contract with RCA.

Amazing what you find out years later.

All the best,

Wade

[bryris]

"The city's grown up so it looks just like
A crossword puzzle on the landscape
Looks like a 'lectric shaver now
Where the courthouse used to be..."

You are thinking of the tune "Steamboat Whistle Blues".

[Harmonist34]

I don't have any tab, but I can give you the chords:

G Am D

I think that's pretty much it, though I've heard it played with another passing chord or two. Great hartford stuff available on www.bluegrassbox.com, of course.

My favorite Hartford line is from a reunion concert. He said, "...and in the aeroplane band you didn't rehearse, you didn't have to tell anybody anything, and the only requirement for a song to be in the repetoire of the band was that one person could perform it from start to finish."

[wthurman]

Originally Posted by bryris

"The city's grown up so it looks just like
A crossword puzzle on the landscape
Looks like a 'lectric shaver now
Where the courthouse used to be..."

You are thinking of the tune "Steamboat Whistle Blues".

Dang it, you're right.

My mind must be "sittin' in a back chair way up over Kansas City..."

LOL!!!!

[Harmonist34]

Here it is. Lyrics aren't mine, so I don't know whether or not they're right.

________________G_____________________Am
Well I never went away on a Steam Powered Aero plane.
______C________________D___________________G
Well I went and stayed and **** near didn't come back again.
____________G____________________Am
Didn't go very fast on a steam powered aero plane,
_______C______________________D___________________ __G
Oh the wheel went around, up and down, and inside and then back again.

Am___________________________G
Sittin' in a 747 just watching them clouds roll by,
Am_________________________G
Can't tell if it's sunshine or if it's rain.
Am________________________G
Rather be sittin' in a deck chair high above Kansas City,
_____Am_________________________________D7
On a genuine old fashioned steam powered aero plane.

[PeaVine]

Originally Posted by mtnByker

I'll second that request. In the meanwhile, maybe some of you would enjoy Turn Your Radio On, the 24/7 John Hartford web radio channel.

THANK YOU, thank you, THANK YOU, thank you, THANK YOU, thank you,

God, that's wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!