Dirt Road Blues Bob Dylan
Words and music by Bob Dylan
Released on Time out of Mind (1997)
Tabbed by Eyolf Østrem
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The guitars in the original recording are playing high up on the fretboard,
so I originally suggested a capo on the 5th fret and the chords E, A, and B.
Then it is possible to play the little lick that runs through the whole song:
with E with A
: . . . : . . . : . . . : . . .
|-3b------0-----0-|-----------0-----||-3---------------|------------------|| |-0-----------2---|-----0---2-------||-2-------5---2-5-|---------2-5------|| |-1---------------|-----------------||-2---------------|-----4------------|| |-2---------------|-----------------||-2---------------|------------------|| |-2---------------|-----------------||-0---------------|------------------|| |-0---------------|-----------------||-----------------|------------------||
Note 1: it is mostly played on the E, but can occasionally be heard for the other chords too.
Note 2: It is played with the tone on the 2nd fret, 2nd string, although the 3rd fret falls more naturally, to me, at least.
Note 3: It's easier and sounds better if the initial bent note is moved to the second beat,
so that the first beat gets a clear bass note.
Another option is to use the 076750 shape for the E. The open third string can be left
sounding, since it produces the same clash as the first note in the lick, which leaves
you with enough fingers to play a modified version of the lick, combined with the bass figure:
: . . . : . . .
|-----------------|-----------------| |-----7b--5-----5-|-----------------| (or 8 or 8b on the first note on this string) |-------------7---|-----------------| |-6---------------|-6---------------| |-7---------------|-7-------5---7---| |-0---------------|-0---7-----------|
For the B I'd suggest to leave out the lick an instead do the bass:
[B7]: . . . : . . . : . . . : . . . [E]:
|(3)--------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|---- |-0---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|---- |-2---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|---- |-1---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|---- |-2-----------0---|-2-----------0---|-2-----------0---|-2---0-----------|---- |---------2-------|---------2-------|---------2-------|---------3---2---|-0--
It may be easier to make an interesting solo-song out of it with no capo and something
like the following bass line, which can be combined with a variant of the lick, an octave
lower (or just play the bass line ? that's much easier...):
with A with D
: . . . : . . . : . . . : . . .
|-----------------|-----------------||----------------|-----------------|| |-----------------|-----------------||(3)-------------|-----------------|| |-5b------2-----2-|-----------------||-5b-----2-----2-|-----------------|| |-2-----------4---|-----------------||-0----------4---|-0---------------|| |-0---------------|-0---------------||----------------|--------0---3----|| |-----------------|--------0----3---||----------------|-----------------||
with E
: . . . : . . . : . . . : . . .
|-0---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|---- |-5---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|---- |-7---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|---- |-6---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|---- |-7-----------5---|-7-----------5---|-7-----------5---|-7---5---3---2---|-0-- |-0-------7-------|---------7-------|---------7-------|-----------------|----
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