The Star of the County Down (cover)

[Glennwillow]

This is my cover of the well known Irish song, The Star of the County Down. The music is traditional and the modern lyrics are by Cathal McGarvey. I am playing two guitars in this video, not at the same time, of course. The lead guitar playing in Am at capo 7 is my Gibson Advanced Jumbo LC and the guitar playing in Em with no capo is my Sheppard GA. The guitars are in standard tuning.

The accompaniment on this song is a good example of why a capo can be helpful. The song is normally played with Em, G and D. For my picking style, I found that if I played the song in Am, C and G I could easily hit most of the melody notes to play a more interesting musical interlude between verses. Am on capo 7 turns out to be the actual key of Em. Trouble is, up on capo 7 the guitar tends to sound a little thinner. So I added a 2nd guitar playing with no capo in the original Em key but with a much watered down playing part so that the accompaniment didn't sound overwhelmingly cluttered. Playing the two parts together makes for a much fuller backup sound, I think.

Barry (TBman) had played a very nice Jim Tozier instrumental version of this song a while ago on Show & Tell here. I complemented him and mentioned that I knew this song from singing it. We had a PM exchange and Barry told me he'd really like to hear my version, so this is it.

I hope you like it -- thanks so much for listening! And thanks to Barry for the encouragement to play this song.

- Glenn

[MarkoMarkus]

I agree it's better with capo. It actually sounds a lot brighter especially the way you play, a lot of melody on the high string, if you don't use capo it be sound a lot more dull probably.

Great work as anything I've heard from you till now!

[bajawatt]

Great! Enjoyed that.

[Kerbie]

Very interesting! Kinda like doubling-down on Glenn! I love it.

Very well done. Reminds me of Peter, Paul and Mary with Peter and Noel playing a fifth apart with a capo and sounding great.

Excellent... I really enjoyed it.

[TBman]

That was excellent Glenn, great job!

My version:

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by MarkoMarkus

I agree it's better with capo. It actually sounds a lot brighter especially the way you play, a lot of melody on the high string, if you don't use capo it be sound a lot more dull probably.

Great work as anything I've heard from you till now!

Hi Marko,

Thank you for listening and for your comments! I'm very pleased that you liked the way this came out! It's wonderful to get your reaction!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by bajawatt

Great! Enjoyed that.

Thank you Bajawatt,

Thank you so much for commenting here! I'm glad you liked this!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Kerbie

Very interesting! Kinda like doubling-down on Glenn! I love it.

Very well done. Reminds me of Peter, Paul and Mary with Peter and Noel playing a fifth apart with a capo and sounding great.

Excellent... I really enjoyed it.

Hi Kerbie,

Thank you for listening and commenting. You are always paying attention! So thank you!

I'm glad you liked how this came out. And you are right -- it's using that Peter, Paul and Mary technique of one player in one location low on the neck and the other player using a capo and going up higher, often a fifth apart. I am quite sure I learned this technique from them when I was first learning to play at about age 16 and P,P&M were my model for how to play. I sure wish we had YouTube in those days so we could have seen them actually play!

Thanks so much for commenting, Kerbie!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by TBman

That was excellent Glenn, great job!

Hi Barry,

I'm so glad you weighed in here on this song and even included your Soundcloud file of "Star of the County Down"!! That's so cool!

I'm glad you liked how this came out, Barry! Thanks so much for the inspiration and the encouragement!

- Glenn

[islandguitar]

Thanks Glenn (Barry too!). That was super enjoyable! Love the ever present, non intrusive second guitar in there on the lower register! Great idea to make this song complete and oh, so listenable. The group I played in many years ago did a lot with fingerstyle and one guitar capoed up while the other remained un-capoed. Some really nice things can come with that sound and your use of this technique really filled things in, Glenn.
A nice surprise for a Labor Day! Thanks again,
Fred

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by islandguitar

Thanks Glenn (Barry too!). That was super enjoyable! Love the ever present, non intrusive second guitar in there on the lower register! Great idea to make this song complete and oh, so listenable. The group I played in many years ago did a lot with fingerstyle and one guitar capoed up while the other remained un-capoed. Some really nice things can come with that sound and your use of this technique really filled things in, Glenn.
A nice surprise for a Labor Day! Thanks again,
Fred

Hi Fred,

Thanks so much for your thoughts and your kind words! I'm glad you felt that this came out okay. And how interesting that you have used this capo technique when playing with more than one guitar!

Thanks so much, Fred!

- Glenn

[john57classic]

Nice job as usual Glenn, you always have a great sense for adding to the piece with your accompaniment(s). Makes it so much more enjoyable of a song to listen to.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by john57classic

Nice job as usual Glenn, you always have a great sense for adding to the piece with your accompaniment(s). Makes it so much more enjoyable of a song to listen to.

Hi John,

How very nice to hear from you! Thank you for listening and for the kind words. I'm very pleased that you liked this!

- Glenn

[TacomaDR20]

Glenn, maybe the best piece I've heard you do. Very nice job on an old favorite tune.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by TacomaDR20

Glenn, maybe the best piece I've heard you do. Very nice job on an old favorite tune.

Thanks Tacoma!

I'm very glad to know you are listening! And I'm glad you liked this!

- Glenn