Banjo Lesson: Lonesome Road Blues Part 1 -- Up the Neck

Hear this tune played with guitar rhythm backup (slow, medium, fast) starting at 11:06. Guitar chords are provided on-screen.

By request, this is an instructional tutorial 5-string bluegrass banjo lesson teaching the popular instrumental "Lonesome Road Blues," a.k.a. "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad."

"... Lonesome Road Blues, is an American traditional song, "a white blues of universal appeal and uncertain origin" (Ralph Rinzler, quoted on Erbsen 2003, p. 118). It was recorded by many artists through the years; the first known is Henry Whitter in 1924 as "Lonesome Road Blues." Others who recorded it include Cliff Carlisle (also as "Down In The Jail On My Knees"), Woody Guthrie (also as "Blowin' Down This Road" or "I Ain't Gonna Be Treated This Way"), Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Roy Hall, Elizabeth Cotten, the Grateful Dead, Canned Heat." (Wikipedia)

This version is based on my listening to Flatt and Scruggs' version on the 1961 album "Foggy Mountain Banjo." A must-have for bluegrass banjoists, in my opinion.

I also found a nice YouTube of Doc Watson playing it on guitar and singing it here:
   • Going Down the Road Feeling Bad Doc Watson  

He's in the key of D, putting in some incredible lead fills and singing it smoothly as always.

On this video I teach my version of the tune lick by lick, phrase by phrase, using on-screen tablature, then I put it together -- slowly at first, then faster toward the end, adding rhythm guitar audio overlay.

This tune is traditional and in the Public Domain.

Free tab and play-along tracks at different speeds are available at my website, littlerockbanjo.com.

Hope you enjoy. I consider this one an "essential" in any banjo instrumental repertoire.