Runaway Man Blues by Floyd Council

One of my favorite blues men, Floyd Council played second guitar to Blind Boy Fuller on several of his tracks, but only recorded 6 as an artist in his own right.

Runaway is a great example of this slow Piedmont style of finger picking and uses many of the tricks perfected by Rev Gary Davis, who was also a native of South Carolina (BB Fuller was taught by Davis).

The picking style is loosely Travis style alternating bass, but the thumb often breaks away to play single string runs alternating with the forefinger, and now and again simply reverts to monotonic bass style, not alternating between the basses at all.

Like in most blues, the thumb is King and sets the tone. Runaway is played in standard tuning in the key of A, and uses the standard progression of A, E(7) and D7.