Help identifying a few chords in Juber's Blues Deluxe

[larryb]

I have been working on transcribing Laurence Juber's Blues Deluxe for some time now, and I'm stuck on identifying a few chords and fingerings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCktCSAerhU

At 2:04 to 2:08 he walks down 6 chords. Can anyone help me figure out what they are?

Thanks.

[JonPR]

It's a blues in E, and it's a turnaround for the last 2 bars:

|(E) G#m7b5 A7 D9/Bb* |G7/B C9 B9 - ||

The E is the last note of the previous phrase, so only an implied chord. The shapes for the rest are these:

-7-------5--------3--2-----------------------
-7-------5--------3--2-----------------------
-7---6---5---4----3--2-------------------------
-6---5---4---3----2--1-------------------------
-----4---5---2----3--2------------------------
-----5-------3-----------------------------

The first G#m7b5 is actually a rootless E9, but neither Juber nor the bassist plays the E. Still it works as part of a cycle of 5ths: E-A-D-G-C.
* The Bb under the D9 chord is played by the bass, as part of a chromatic rising line, to counter the descent of 3rds and 7ths in the chords. (It makes a strange hybrid chord - Bbmaj9#11#5!? - which was probably not planned.)
I've labelled the G7 with a B bass, because the bass plays B, although Juber puts G on the bottom.
There's a couple of high staccato stabs after the B9, not sure what they are.

[larryb]

Thank you so much JonPR.

- Larry

[larryb]

https://youtu.be/wCktCSAerhU

OK, I need help one more time. At 4:35, right after the pentatonic lick, what is the chord that LJ slides back and forth on? The best I can come up with is that it's a C#, played on the top 4 strings like this:

9
9
10
11

But something doesn't quite sound right. And if it is a C# chord, how does that makes sense in an E7 blues. I understand if it's C# minor, but that doesn't seem to sound right either.

Thanks in advance.

[stanron]

Just a minor niggle here. In the second and fourth chords he doesn't seem to have his first finger actually down on the fifth string. I would guess he is muting the fifth string with his second finger.

Secondly why bother calling

X X 6 7 7 7

G#m7b5 when it could as easily be a rootless E9. This is a blues in E after all. None of this will make any difference to the sound I know, just thought I'd ask.

[larryb]

Originally Posted by stanron

Just a minor niggle here. In the second and fourth chords he doesn't seem to have his first finger actually down on the fifth string. I would guess he is muting the fifth string with his second finger.

Secondly why bother calling

X X 6 7 7 7

G#m7b5 when it could as easily be a rootless E9. This is a blues in E after all. None of this will make any difference to the sound I know, just thought I'd ask.

Hey Stanron.....any idea re my recent post, dealing with chord at 4:34 and the chords immediately following?

[stanron]

All I'm getting at 4.34 is this

┌───────7─6─5───────╖
├─────────────8─5─8─╢
├───5─6─────────────╢
├───4─5─────────────╢
├───────────────────╢
└───────────────────╜

The two pairs of notes are the flat 7 and 3rd of an A7 chord slid up from one fret below so G#7 to A7. Is this the right place?

[larryb]

Sorry, it's right after that lick. 4:37.

Originally Posted by stanron

All I'm getting at 4.34 is this

┌───────7─6─5───────╖
├─────────────8─5─8─╢
├───5─6─────────────╢
├───4─5─────────────╢
├───────────────────╢
└───────────────────╜

The two pairs of notes are the flat 7 and 3rd of an A7 chord slid up from one fret below so G#7 to A7. Is this the right place?

[stanron]

Sorry about the delay.

I tried rigging a second computer so I could record bits of the track into Audacity in order to hear it better. The sound is not very good.

In this bit you can't actually see what he's doing but it's something like

┌─9───8──9───8──9───╖
├─9───8──9───8──9───╢
├─10──9──10──9──10──╢
├───────────────────╢
├───────────────────╢
└───────────────────╜

I thought four strings at first but can only hear two or three. Again at first I thought that at the 9th fret it's was E6 but it looks like a C# now.

The next bit is also impossible to tell from looking. It could be

┌─────────────────────╖
├──11──10─8s9─8─9─8─9─╢
├──10──9──7s8─7─8─7─8─╢
├──11──10─8s9─8─9─8─9─╢
├─────────────────────╢
└─────────────────────╜

At the point where it's played at the 9th fret the chord in the sequence could be a C# of some kind leading in serial fourths back to E so these could be partial 9th shapes.

[larryb]

Thanks. That's more or less what I've got, too. I'm glad it's not only me having a hard time discerning exactly what he's doing. With the rest of it, when the camera view is facing him, I can at least see. And I'm not above stopping the video and counting up how many frets and on what strings. But this section has to be total ear. (Although, from the side angle, I can almost see what frets he is on.

Thanks very much for this. It's a big help. I've been working on tabbing this thing out on and off for almost a year and just a few measures left.

Originally Posted by stanron

Sorry about the delay.

I tried rigging a second computer so I could record bits of the track into Audacity in order to hear it better. The sound is not very good.

In this bit you can't actually see what he's doing but it's something like

┌─9───8──9───8──9───╖
├─9───8──9───8──9───╢
├─10──9──10──9──10──╢
├───────────────────╢
├───────────────────╢
└───────────────────╜

I thought four strings at first but can only hear two or three. Again at first I thought that at the 9th fret it's was E6 but it looks like a C# now.

The next bit is also impossible to tell from looking. It could be

┌─────────────────────╖
├──11──10─8s9─8─9─8─9─╢
├──10──9──7s8─7─8─7─8─╢
├──11──10─8s9─8─9─8─9─╢
├─────────────────────╢
└─────────────────────╜

At the point where it's played at the 9th fret the chord in the sequence could be a C# of some kind leading in serial fourths back to E so these could be partial 9th shapes.

[jodygc50]

Hi Larryb -
Are you willing to share your Juber Blues Deluxe tab? It's been on my list for a while and I just discovered your posting on AGF. I'd trade some tabs I've done you're willing. i.e.; I've tabbed out a pretty complex Bruce Cockburn's King Kong Goes to Tallahassee if that does anything for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSI_ksxQLLk

I'd do the work myself on Blues Deluxe - knowing I'd learn a lot - but I've got a chronic health issue that has slowed me down a lot. Let me know.
Thanks

Martin OOO28-EC
Martin OOO-1 Spruce/Mahogany
National Steel Polychrome Tricone