Memphis Highway

Look out highway
Hear me and my baby come
Right on back to you, where the blues came from
Oh blues, don’t you call my name
Just stop by here take away my pain

“I didn’t pick ‘Look Out Highway’….it picked me when I wrote it. Many years ago I was walking by a church in Memphis and I heard a great beat they were using for a song. That beat lived in my head all these years until the lyrics finally came to me.” (From Charlie’s Press Release)

The intro to Charlie’s Look Out Highway blew my mind, to be fair, so did the whole tune. What was he doing there? Well there were some octave splits, but it wasn’t on an ‘A’ harp in second position like the solos? Over to Steve Williams for his guidance.

“It’s in third position ‘D’ harp in key of ‘E’. Charlie is incredible in third. It always sounds minor when I do it. Charlie has a small solo in the Brothers 2000 and does the same thing – brilliant. I’ve probably already said this but Charlie’s Taking My Time is like a master class in third position ‘G’ harp over ‘A’ key.”

I had only associated playing in third for minor keys and not with major scales. Until now!

I checked in with Memphis Charlie on his motivation for playing in third on the intro.

“No particular reason Shep other than I thought it sounded good.”

It certainly did Charlie.

Here’s my attempt at the opening riff. It goes something like this.

Hear here the original intro and the whole tune: LOOK OUT HIGHWAY.

Charlie also added later, after I had pondered more on the concept of third position in a major key, with, “I didn’t think of Lookout Highway as being major. To me blues are minor.”

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