In my early days Joe Pass was my favorite. Bought all his books, studied his method. I went to see him in the Village, a restaurant bar type of place. The place was noisy, I thought no one would be able to hear him. He played his first chord and the place became silent. I’m betting most of them were guitar players.

I am not sure what guitar he was using, maybe an L5 Gibson??? The next time I went to see hm he was playing a thin-hollow body made by Jimmy D’Aquisto. Jimmy D’Aquesto made me the exact same guitar. To my surprise, I didn’t play any batter. (smile)

John C.

Dave, what’s Joe Pass got to do with this post? There no comparing. Grrrr!

Just another way of doing the same thing - guitar/vocal, but I like Joes choice of chording ... it shows another way of accompanying a vocal using interesting changes, and passing tones. I'd be very uncomfortable trying to sing over Jack's changes.

In some sense I'd say that the song is a good choice to show how one can reharmonize and jazz things up. I think it's a good way to make Jazz more accessible to those who are not familiar with Jazz. We can see that Jack wasn't really “performing” but casually playing and accompanying himself on the well-known tune, which by the way is the official anthem of the state of Kansas. When president Roosevelt requested “Home On the Range,” Jack said, “I deliberately played my guitar accompaniment with a cowboy twang...and sang it like I was still on my horse. When I finished his song...he seemed emotionally touched. With a big smile he said, "Thank you, thank you, Mr. Skiles." I bet he didn’t play more than four chords then. Here’s a rendition of another old tune written in 1852 My Old Kentucky Home by Lois Armstrong.


New Orleans style Jazz version