Andrew Lardner

Living in the Country

Added 2021-01-01 15:11:00 +0000 UTC

Happy New Year everybody. We have a most excellent 2-for-1 post this month. The attached transcriptions and lesson videos are based on Pete Seeger's 1965 recording from the first episode of Rainbow Quest and Leo Kottke's arrangement from a 1971 broadcast of The Dr. Demento Show.

There wasn't much justification for which Seeger version to transcribe, I chose the one that was most accessible and "iconic" in my opinion. There was however, much consideration when choosing which Kottke arrangement to present. As I discuss in the lesson video, Kottke's arrangement has three stages, version 1 which he played from roughly 1969-1971, version 2 which he played through the 70s, and the third version which emerged sometime in the early 21st century, there are many live recordings and it is first heard on Sixty Six Steps (2005). Version 1 is a great starting place for study, it is very similar to version 2 but it does not have the strumming section and does not have the variation where he omits the low bass notes on the return to the first theme. I'm also including an mp3 file of Kottke performing "Living in the Country" on the 1971 broadcast.

Both versions are worthy of serious study, but you may want to choose only one to focus on. It can be challenging to flip back and forth between the two versions.

Here is the link to my instruction on Pete Seeger's version:
https://youtu.be/ZvFWTC1ZhHU

Here is the link to my instruction on Leo Kottke's arrangement:
https://youtu.be/ud16N32dw3s

Here is my recording of Pete's version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbXbcF65v8c

Here is my recording of Leo's version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiKMTm0kTUA