song: Shenandoah
artist: Johnny Smith
album: The Man with the Blue Guitar (1962)
origin: Traditional: North American folk song, "Oh Shenandoah" (early 19th century)

electric archtop guitar: Johnny Smith

This is an interpretation of the traditional folk song, “Oh Shenandoah”, which has been around in North American folk music since the early 1800s. Though Johnny Smith's arrangement starts out fairly simple and diatonic, the polyphony increases in during the second round. In the second arrangement he would expand on this concept, although he also omitted the harmonics interludes. What sets this first arrangement apart is the melancholy, which was replaced for a more straightforward grandiosity of the second. Enjoy!