Orville Johnson teaches a classic blues song entitled "Depot Blues." This lesson was inspired by the blues great Son House.
Taught by Orville Johnson in Songs with Orville Johnson seriesLength: 35:31Difficulty: 3.0 of 5
Orville Johnson teaches a select group of his favorite songs, including a few originals.
Lesson 1
Orville Johnson teaches his version of the classic blues song "Come Back Baby."
Length: 29:43 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 2
Orville Johnson teaches a classic blues song entitled "Depot Blues." This lesson was inspired by the blues great Son House.
Length: 35:31 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 3
Orville Johnson teaches the traditional blues song "Railroad Bill."
Length: 16:10 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 4
Orville teaches the classic blues song "Bye Bye Baby Blues" by Little Hat Jones.
Length: 21:48 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 5
Orville Johnson teaches the classic "Spanish Fandango."
Length: 32:50 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 6
Orville Johnson teaches a classic song entitled "A Bicycle Built for Two." This song is also known as "Daisy Bell."
Length: 23:54 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 7
This fantastic tune entitled "Weave and Way" is a great song for beginners that want to take things to the next level. Alongside the simple chord progression, Orville also demonstrates 3-4 very different...
Length: 44:19 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 8
Orville presents this fiddle tune entitled "Texas Gales." This song lesson offers an opportunity to work on right and left hand synchronization as well as flatpicked melody lines.
Length: 34:11 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 9
Orville presents a great fiddle tune titled "Gold Rush." This is yet another great beginner song that offers a secondary lead option that, by the end, will leave you with a complete tune perfect for jamming...
Length: 49:22 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 10
Orville will teach this classic tune titled "The Sailor's Hornpipe." This up beat song imitates the life of a sailor and the duties aboard the ship. This lesson provides the perfect opportunity for a beginner...
Length: 12:56 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
About Orville Johnson
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Orville Johnson was born in 1953 in Edwardsville, Illinois and came up on the St. Louis, Missouri music scene, where he was exposed to and participated in a variety of blues, bluegrass and American roots music. He began singing in his Pentecostal church as a young boy, in rock bands in middle school, then took up the guitar at 17,with early influences from Doc Watson, Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Chuck Berry. In the early 1970's, Orville spent several seasons playing bluegrass on the SS Julia Belle Swain, a period-piece Mississippi river steamboat plying the inland waterways, with his group the Steamboat Ramblers.
Orville moved to Seattle, Washington in 1978, where he was a founding member of the much-loved and well-remembered folk/rock group, the Dynamic Logs. Other musical associates include Laura Love, Ranch Romance, File' Gumbo Zydeco Band, Scott Law, and the Twirling Mickeys. Johnson, known for his dobro and slide guitar stylings and vocal acrobatics, has played on over 100 albums. He has appeared on Garrison Keilor's Prairie Home Companion, Jay Leno's Tonight Show and was featured in the 1997 film Georgia with Mare Winningham. His musical expertise can also be heard on the Microsoft CD-ROMs, Musical Instruments of the World and the Complete Encyclopedia of Baseball. He teaches as well at the International Guitar Seminar, Pt. Townsend Country Blues Week and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop.
Orville released 4 recordings in the 1990's: The World According to Orville (1990) Blueprint for the Blues (1998) Slide & Joy (1999) an all-instrumental dobro tour de force and Kings of Mongrel Folk (1997) with Mark Graham. He also appeared on 4 discs with the File' Gumbo Zydeco Band and produced Whose World Is This (1997) for Jim Page and Inner Life (1999) for Mark Graham. In the 21st century, he has released Freehand, a new Kings of Mongrel Folk disc, Still Goin' Strong, and been featured in the soundtracks of PBS' Frontier House and the Peter Fonda flick The Wooly Boys as well as the compilation cd Legends of the Incredible Lap Steel Guitar.
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.I really enjoy these pieces where you learn licks you can use elsewhere. Thanks Orville!
Hi Orville......great instruction and song, thanks
I just learned Depot Blues and it is a great tune! There are so many things you can do with the basics...it offers much opportunity for being creative. Best of all, Orville is a master of explanation and makes it virtually impossible to NOT learn what he is teaching! Thanks once again Orville! You're the best and I am so pleased to have discovered JamPlay and the wonderful people within!
I just learned Depot Blues and it is a great tune! There are so many things you can do with the basics...it offers much opportunity for being creative. Best of all, Orville is a master of explanation and makes it virtually impossible to NOT learn what he is teaching! Thanks once again Orville! You're the best and I am so pleased to have discovered JamPlay and the wonderful people within!
I just love your teaching style and have learned so much! I hope to see more songs under your listing.
So great to have you teach this at PSGW and then be able to come home and have this lesson so that I can get this song down right away. You are such a terrific teacher.
Thanks. Glad you're here on Jamplay. you'll find the other tunes I taught last week on here too.
I enjoy your instruction and would like to perform some of your arrangements, but they're too short...kinda like samples. Is there a longer/full transcription of Depot Blues available?
I don't know why but your lessons flow in through the brain and out through the fingers!! You've got that teach'n mojo
I'm at a loss for words as they've all been said. Thanks again Orville.
Great job, but I still can't figure out what "hangin' crepe on my door" means (in verse 4).
there's an interesting discussion about that here on the WeenieCampbell website (a site devoted to country blues music) http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=2513.0;prev_next=prev
Thank you so much for this lesson. Excellent teaching. Keep it coming. I can do this!
nice, broken down well and the coolest guy called orville i know good 1
Very nice! Thank you!
Thanks as well Orville,I love that you like the sound of playing with bare fingers.I do as well and am being constantle chastised by my Guitar playin buddies(all in good spirits though)
Wow! Orville thanks so much. I love this song and you made it so easy for me to learn it. Maybe in the future you can introduce something by Robert Johnson? Looking forward to more of the old blues!
Thanks Sir, You and I are around the same age around 40 right.:) I'm retired living in Thailand learning the blues. Fills the day in a great way. Been enjoying Hawkeye but came over here just to learn a song from you. Thanks so much.
What a great tune, what a nice pace and teaching style! Thanks Orville for making me sound better.
More ... Please.. please.. please
great lesson. youre teaching is great. Yourself , mary and hawkeye are constantly inspiring me to improve . keep them lessons coming!thanks
Oh I feel them blues.. great lesson. Thanks!
woohooo! I'm learnin' a Son House tune, how cool is that!? Thanks so much Mr. Johnson.
This looks awesome! Just need to get myself past my jetlag and picking up my guitar again, combined with Mazza's lessons this is great!
I am so excited to have you on the teaching staff. Together with Hawkeye's lessons, yours should make me into the blues player I want to be.
Wow, Orville...this is my first time really checking out your lessons, and you are an amazing teacher. I love your style of playing, very nice!
Your teaching style is easy to understand and fun. Really appreciate it!
Mister Orville you are fantastic Greets from Belgium
Man, these lessons are awesome! Thanks Orville!