Description
Notes From John
BPM = 91. Shuffle. Kick on every quarter — and then some. Lots of triplet fills.
For the player
The 1996 Blue cut — country shuffle, no warm-up lap. Sit in the pocket under that steel and vocal; don’t invent a second backbeat. Shuffle feel is marked from the top — leave the hats swinging, don’t iron them straight. Kick is on every quarter, and denser in the verses — lock that motor and leave it alone. Open hats are marked; bark the opens where John wrote the circle. Triplet fills keep the swing — don’t rush them into sixteenths. Chorus opens the chart (“Blue, oh, so…”); Verse 1 hits at 0:44 (“Three o’clock in…”); Chorus back at 1:05; Solo at 1:26; Verse 2 at 1:47 (“Now that it’s…”); last Chorus at 2:08. Ride the rit. into the fermata, then the cymbal roll into the final accent — don’t jump the ending. Listen first; the pocket at BPM = 91 is the job, not the count-in.
Drum Sheet Music for “Blue” by LeAnn Rimes
