Baby Please Don't Go

The Big Bill Broonzy version is the first one that made me think this song might work as a Fingerstyle Five tune because you can hear him playing the changes, as opposed the Lightin' Hopkins version I was more familiar with, which felt much more like just a vamp. But of course this song has been done by zillions of people, and I've included just the tip of the iceberg here. I'm particularly partial to the Mose Allison version, just because I'm particularly partial to Mose Allison, but I also enjoyed discovering the Butterfield version, which feels somehow like a 70s-hippie analogue to how Pentangle interpreted British Isles music in the late '60s. The Muddy Waters version feels like the definitive ensemble way to do it, while the Sonny and Brownie version offers a different groove than most of the acoustic versions out there.

Mickey Baker's here because – well, he's Mickey Baker, of chord book fame, and his jazzy acoustic take is totally different from what you'd expect. And I was just curious to hear how Rod Piazza would swing a tune like this, and it turns out, unsurpringly, that he would swing the hell out of it.