Brian Smalley “Gentle On My Mind"

John Hartford wrote music in the same way that Mark Twain wrote fiction. More often than not, Hartford had tongue planted firmly in cheek when he sang his songs like “Don’t Leave Your Records In The Sun” or “Granny Wontcha Smoke Some Marijuana.” And even when he wrote this one that I’m playing for you now, “Gentle On My Mind,” he managed to throw a monkey-wrench in there to keep it from being saccharine sweet. When he penned the line, “…it’s knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds and ink stains that are dried upon some line that keeps you in the back roads by the rivers of my memory that keeps you ever gentle on my mind…” he’s really saying ‘I’m glad you let me sleep with you, even though I refuse to commit.” It’s one of the most left-handed love songs I’ve come across. After all, It was 1967, and free love was the thang. He makes no bones about it, consider verse three, “…Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines and the junkyards and the highways come between us, and some other woman cryin' to her mother cuz she turned and I was gone…” Not a song you dedicate to your wife!
But it is an amazing piece. Hartford called it a word movie, painting the scene with mental pictures. Imagery. Glen Campbell’s cover won 4 grammy awards. (What Elvis did for Jerry Reed, Campbell did for Hartford.)
My arrangement is an attempt to make the guitar sound like a banjo. In the attempt, the song became something other. I realize some folks don’t did the dissonance, but this is exactly why I am happy with it. A bittersweet melody. Woody and crisp. Doesn’t get any better.

[@harrietbarbir8579]

great guitar playing, Brian and cover of this song. I know it’s Glen Campbell’s version i know but something in the guitar reminds me of Gordon
Lightfoot.

[@guitaleleoeuvre]

So much better than the version I did a couple weeks ago!