Week 55: Make Me A Pallet On The Floor



Sam Chatmon

The Song

Make Me A Pallet On The Floor is one of the quintessential blues standards. Versions of the lyrics can be traced back to the late 1800s; the first printed version was in 1911, and it has been covered by literally hundreds of artists, all of them putting their own spin on it. Mississippi John Hurt recorded the most commonly covered version, in his New York sessions in 1928, though he recorded it as “Ain’t No Telling”. It’s his version that Sam plays on this recording.

The song predates blues, and as such isn’t strictly a blues song but it has become synonymous with the genre. It’s played as a 16 bar, using the I, IV and V chords, with a brief foray into the major III chord. Sam downtunes his guitar quite deep – it’s in a standard tuning, but tuned to around C#. It uses the open common C, F, G and E chords, and consists of a single progression played as the intro and the verse.

Sam is a great player in the Piedmont style, so the guitar work is very organised even through it sounds a bit raw. His thumb alternates the bass on the beat, playing with a bit of a bouncy feel, and he usually strums the chord shape on every second beat with is thumb. In between his fingers are picking out the higher notes of the chords, either played as double and triple stops or as individual melody notes. The key to getting it right is that alternating bassline, once you have that down play chord notes on the beat with occasional ‘up strums’ with your fingers leading into the next chord.

In the intro and occasionally in the verses, Sam plays around with the 3rd fret B string, using it as a tension note and bending it as required. Every repetition of the progression is slightly different, so learn the changes, get the bass right and play it in your natural style. This is a great song to develop a solid right hand technique, it will really test your thumb out!



The Lyrics

F C Oh make me down a pallet on your floor F C Yes make me down a pallet on your floor E F Just make me down a pallet on your floor C G C Oh make it so your man will never know Don't ever drive a stranger from your door Don't ever drive a stranger from your door Don't ever drive a stranger from your door He may be your best friend you don't know Just take one pillow off your feather bed Just take one pillow off your feather bed Just take one pillow off your feather bed And put it on your loving daddy's head He's a country man and he just done moved to town He's a country man and he just done moved to town He's a country man he just done moved to town He done sold his cotton now he is walking round Just make him down a pallet on your floor Just make him down a pallet on your floor Just make him down a pallet on your floor And send him back to the fields so he can raise some more

The Intro



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The Progression

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The Outro

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Biography More about Sam Chatmon

Sam does a nice little run to end the song over the last 2 bars of the progression>