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Arranged for Mandolin by John Baldry

In The Pines is a classic bluesy song which was first recorded in the bluegrass idiom by Bill Monroe. It's played in slow 3/4 time, and has a quite different feel from the fast tunes so often associated with bluegrass. While In The Pines is a vocal tour de force, it also offers the mandolin player a lot of scope, particularly with double stop tremolos. I've tabbed an extended break here, which plays the basic 8-bar sequence twice and concludes with some licks which can be used to fill in until the vocalist returns for the next verse.

A feature of this kind of slow playing is that apart from the tremolos, slides and hammers, all the notes are played with downstrokes of the pick. Nary an upstroke, even on the picked triplets. The rhythm has a strong triplet feel - play with swing, as explained under the tab.

The tab gives you a wide range of double stops in the key of G. Double stops are the secret to learning the complete neck of the instrument. In any specific key double stop fingerings recur in different positions and octaves all over the fingerboard. Moreover, as the strings are all tuned with the same interval between them (a fifth), it follows that fingering patterns can be moved across, as well as up and down the fingerboard, to reproduce what is basically the same sound but in a different position and/or key. Learn one key and you've got the knowledge for all the others - without a capo!

The origin of In The Pines seems to be lost in the mists of musical time. It's a very bluesy song, and has been associated with Leadbelly, though I believe Bill Monroe could have got it from Clayton McMichen (of Skillet Lickers fame). Oldies may remember the pop version, Black Girl, by The Four Pennies, which charted in the UK in 1964!

There have been many bluegrass recordings of In The Pines. Perhaps the classic version is the duet by Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin, recorded on 8th July 1952, and currently available on the superb CD of the same title. Monroe's arrangement is in the key of E, which puts it quite low for the lead vocal, but enables Monroe to scream up to a falsetto high E in imitation of the wind 'in the pines', "Whoo-ooo-hoo..."! It's interesting that Bill had put the song up a whole tone since his first recording with the 1941 lineup of the Blue Grass Boys, which was in the key of D. The earlier recording is also slower and more dirge-like, at crotchet (d) = 31, whereas the 1952 version swings along at the faster pace of d = 39.

There are many other recorded versions of In The Pines. A particularly tasty arrangement played as a guitar instrumental is to be found on Steve Pottier and Sandy Rothman's Bluegrass Guitar Duets CD. Pottier and Rothman also play In The Pines in E, a good blues key for the guitar. However, G is more practical for jam session singers who don't imitate Monroe's falsetto whooping. Keep it lonesome and bluesy with a fair sprinkling of flattened sevenths and thirds - it's a great number for a festival session, though I hope it keeps warm for all of us this summer and that we don't "shiver when the cold wind blows"!

John Baldry, Crawley, Essex. About John

Arranged for Banjo by Peter Ainsworth

Based on a Butch Robbins version.

This tab is a transcription of a recent version by Butch Robbins, from his 1995 CD Grounded, Centered, Focussed on the Hay Holler label.

Peter was very economical in the description...

Bill Cheatham
Arranged for Guitar by Chris Moreton  About Chris

This is a real favourite with Bluegrass pickers. For me the definitive version is on the Doc & Merle Watson On Stage album (Vanguard, USD 9 and 10; now deleted), though there are many other sources. The “B” part incorporates string crossing patterns which are similar to those in my Soldier’s Joy tab (NWBN, May 1998) but there is more work for the left hand here. Use these chord shapes (I = index finger, R = ring finger, P = “pinkie” or little finger, M = middle finger):

 G               C              D

Updated 23rd Jan 1999