The Work Song - William Clarke
Posted Thu, 01/30/2025 - 17:11 by mmarquez
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The Work Song - William Clarke
I've been working on transcribing and studying The Work Song as played by the great William Clarke on his record Serious Intentions. I really like this song, especially Clarke's cover in West Coast Blues chromatic style (sorry Butterfield fans, but I like this one better :)). He plays a killer solo with abundant usage of octaves.
This is a recording I made quickly, using Bandlab. It's the head played twice and the harp solo (no ending, which is the head again with a small variation at the end). I have tried for many years, but I'm finally able to play octaves in the chromatic, and I am really enjoying that full, organ-like sound. I am also using some pulls and a lot of slaps (though funnily enough I missed one I really like in the original at the beginning of the solo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
The harp is a Seydel Saxony 12 holer in C, played in 3rd position. I recorded acoustically using my computer's microphone and used one of Bandlab's amp and cab simulators.
The backing track is this one, massaged to fit Clarke's approach, sped down to 124bpm and pitch-lowered to3 semitones to play it in D. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T3QBVj6yPM
I hope you enjoy it and, if you're into West Coast Blues on the chromatic, share your own cover!