Dallas Rag

arranged for fingerstyle guitar

"Dallas Rag" is the most well-known tune from the playing of the Dallas String Band, who recorded for Columbia Records in the late nineteen-twenties.
Quoting from the liner notes for "From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music"...
The music of the Dallas String Band has been called pre-blues as well as proto-blues. The group has been referred to as the only black string band in history and an early Texas country band, sometimes in the same paragraph, often after being credited with erasing all color lines in American musical history.
- end of quote -
My version of Dallas Rag uses the standard conventions of ragtime - a syncopated melody against an alternating bass. There are no knuckle-busting chords or reaches, and there is no need to play it fast, unless you want to show off. Of course, guitar players rarely fall prey to that temptation...

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