WORRIED  MAN  BLUES
​Beginner                                  BA1 - Unit 1             (Practice) Song-Melody

      Traditional American
Accordion Notation  
​Although you may be a "beginner" on the button accordion, you already know lots of tunes, perhaps including Worried Man Blues.   If so, you already have a sense of how long to hold each treble note, and where to put the emphasis.  You just need to get use to it on the button accordion.
Either row:  Buttons 5 to 8*   
​  
(Place first finger at button 5 and little finger at 8, covering all the notes without having to change your finger positions.)
​
Chorus:

5      5      5      5     5*     6       7*    7      7     7     7*       6
It  takes   a   wor-ried  man   to  sing   a   wor-ried   song

6     5*     5*    5*   6*      6       5*     6      7*    6     5*       5
It  takes  a   wor-ried  man   to   sing   a   wor-ried   song

5     5      5      5    5*      6      7*    7      7     7      7*      6
It  takes  a   wor-ried  man  to  sing   a   wor-ried  song.

 6      6*     6     7*        6     6      7*      8*      7     7*      6
I’m  wor-ried now,    but    I   won’t  be   wor-ried   long
​


For most (though not all) performances, the Verses follow the notation give above for the Chorus.

Embedded youTube VIDEOS
Ten videos in keys of:  A=3   C=1    D=1   G=5     
Key: A

Group:  Stanley Brothers

​Posted by:  drwierd
Key:  A

Group:  Nashville Jam

​Posted by:  Music City Roots
​
Key:  A

Singers:  Jim and Jesse McReynolds

​Posted by:  Edmund StAustell
Key:   C

Singer:  Carl Martin ?

Posted by:  Carl Martin
Key: D

Group:  The Kingston Trio

​Posted by:  The Kingston Trio - Topic

In some of the choruses, the Trio changes the rhythm a bit.
Key:  G

Singer:  Lukas Simpson

Posted by Lukas Simpson
Key:  G

Group:  Papa Pider's Jazz Band

Posted by:  Papa Pider's Jazz Band -
​                                                   Topic
Key:   G

Singer:  Dean Barber

​Posted by:  Dean Barber
Key:  G

Performers:  Raymond Crooke and
                     Lew Dite

Posted by:  raymondcrooke

​Well done.
Key:  G

Performers:  Michael & Dianne Porter

​Posted by: Dianne Porter
BACKGROUND MATERIALS, INFORMATION & LINKS

LYRICS        Chorus




                      Verses:
 It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
 It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
 It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
 I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long

I went across the river and I laid down to sleep
When I woke up, there were shackles on my feet

Twenty one links of chain around my leg
And on each link, the initials of my name

I asked the judge what’s gonna be my fine
Twenty one years on the Rocky Mountain Line

If anyone should ask you who composed this song
Say it was me and I sing it all day long
Background:
Click HERE for Wikipedia background information.  This opens in a separate window to make it easy to return to this site.