Thursday, March 5, 2015

Little Georgia Rose

Little Georgia Rose is a Bill Monroe song which tells the story of a beautiful young lady who lived in Georgia.   It is really a great bluegrass song if you can forgive the somewhat unenlightened view of adoption portrayed in the lyrics. 

Most of the versions that I sampled on line are in a higher key than G usually around B-flat to C.  People like to emulate Bill Monroe's fabulous tenor singing voice and style. For example, I like the way he slides up to the pitch  on "way dow---wn in the Blue Ridge Mountains."     Bill Monroe's version .  That to me is a characteristic of Bill's vocal style.  

Ricky Skaggs and Travis Tritt also have a great version:  Ricky Skaggs and Travis Tritt version .

I believe that at the Tuesday Bluegrass jam at McClafferty's, we play this song in the key of G, which makes it a little easier for most of us.


My Little Georgia Rose  
Written and recorded by Bill Monroe

G                   C     G
Now come and listen to my story
                       D7
A story that I know is true
        G         C         G
About a rose that blooms in Georgia
                          D7       G
With a hair of gold and a heart so true

    C                      G
Way down in the Blue Ridge Mountains
                              D7
Way down where the tall pines grow
G                          C
Lives my sweetheart of the mountains
G        D7             G
She's my little Georgia rose

                    C     G
Her mother left her with another
                         D7
A care free life she had planned
    G        C    G
The baby now is a lady
                   D7        G
The one her mother could not stand

Repeat #3

                      C       G
We'd often sing those songs together
                          D7
I watch her do her little part
      G                C       G
She'd smile at me when I would tell her
                D7       G
That she was my own sweetheart

Repeat #3