Deep River Blues
Digital Sheet Music
By Doc Watson

Unfortunately the print was extremely small and even making it as large as possible on the computer, I still had to use a magnifying glass and copy it out by hand. Good to get the Tab to this great song though.

Doc Watson most often sang this song with just his own guitar accompaniment, and this Tab is exactly the alternating bass fingerpicking he played. Note that Doc picked with just the thumb and one finger of his right hand, which gives a unique sound to some of the fast bits...

, but most players use the conventional thumb & 2- or 3-fingers technique. Doc admits it was all he knew growing up, but added "I don't recommend it". The note at bar 1 tells you to use "triplet feel", aka "blues", or "swing" timing. That means that eighth notes between the beats are played not half-way between, but closer to the next beat. Most players do it without thinking.This sheet is incorrectly attributed. It was actually written and first performed by a country duo of the early 30s, The Delmore Brothers (Alton and Rabon), as "Big River Blues". They recorded it in 1933, and you can hear it on YouTube. There is also an excellent teaching video by Jim Bruce.