Josh Smith - The Danny Gatton Influenced Solos on 'Brown Gatton'
LIVE FROM FLAT V by Josh Smith
HUMBLER OPINION
Over the last two columns, Josh Smith has been breaking down the song “Brown Gatton,” his ode to both Danny Gatton and James Brown, which Josh originally recorded in 2017 for his album, Still.
HUMBLER OPINION
Over the last two columns, Josh Smith has been breaking down the song “Brown Gatton,” his ode to both Danny Gatton and James Brown, which Josh originally recorded in 2017 for his album, Still.
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:07 These are 100% Danny Gatlinx that I'm playing.
00:09 [MUSIC]
00:15 Then I play some really cool Danny stuff like this.
00:17 [MUSIC]
00:22 That one I got right from him.
00:23 [MUSIC]
00:31 So then this time, we're into the second chorus of the song, and
00:34 I'm playing a lot of double stops.
00:36 [MUSIC]
00:48 And you'll see I break out of it early and modulate to that C.
00:51 [MUSIC]
01:01 So the whole solo is basically three times through, E to C, E to C, E to C.
01:17 And then we go back to the bridge, which is the same as the beginning, the four chord.
01:21 And that's it, that's the whole song basically.
01:24 It's a simple song with a lot of twists and
01:27 turns that gives me a lot of freedom to kind of mess around.
01:31 And play, chromatically play, all that hybrid picking stuff.
01:36 You'll hear me play a lot of cascades sometimes in this song, stuff like this.
01:40 [MUSIC]
01:49 Which is, again, straight out of the Danny playbook.
01:53 Cuz I mean, that tension right there, I can use that to walk up to the C.
01:57 [MUSIC]
02:00 I'll do that sometimes.
02:01 [MUSIC]
02:02 That's a good one, I'll play it slow for you.
02:04 [MUSIC]
02:10 Yeah, I don't think I actually got that one from Danny, I made that one up.
02:13 [MUSIC]
02:18 But a lot of that is from just years of playing and loving Danny Gatton, but
02:24 loving hybrid picking, figuring out how to play those open string runs and
02:29 all your keys and use your open strings.
02:32 That stuff's so fun.
02:33 This song I think is very reminiscent of me and what I sound like,
02:38 which is a mix of all these different styles, blues and jazz and
02:43 country technique and R&B and soul.
02:46 I love all those things and I kinda think that's what helped me find my voice is
02:51 when I was able to start mixing them all up together.
02:54 And that was one of my favorite things about Danny Gatton,
02:57 because he always sounded like he only played whatever he heard right that
03:01 moment with no filter.
03:02 He wasn't afraid to play jazz on a weird country song or
03:06 play blues on a country song or play jazz on a funk.
03:10 He'd play anything, anywhere, anytime.
03:12 And I really respected that about him in addition to his amazing playing.
03:16 So that was Brown Gatton, it's on the Still album, check it out.
03:20 [MUSIC]