Orange Blossom Special - guitar chords and comments

Lyrics without distraction HERE

This bluegrass classic is now fully credited Ervin Thomas Lidel Rouse (1918 - 1981), but was claimed cowritten by Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise (1915 – 1996), after a nightly jam session in Jacksonville, 1938. Wise was the first one to *record* it, but Rouse had years in advance already written "South Florida Blues", which the Special was based on. For a long time, the song was regarded an old standard with unknown author.   The "Orange Blossom Special" was a real coast line, renowned to be the strongest freight train ever ... at that time. It was closed down in 1953.   E.T. Rouse was a man of no ambitions. He started 8 years old as a vaudeville fiddler, formed a duo with his brother Gordon for many years, and ended up performing in roadhouses down in the swamps. He also wrote the bluegrass standard "Sweeter than the Flowers".

E                                               E7
look yonder coming  coming down that railroad track
A                                               E
look yonder coming  coming down that railroad track
          B7                                       E
it's the Orange Blossom Special  bringing my baby back

Like most bluegrass music, the harmonies are simple. But the fiddling interlude, characteristic for the song, is rather tricky. In his famous 1965 cover, Johnny Cash dropped the fiddle and used harmonica/saxophone instead. Myself I yodle it ...
... thus I've never played this song on stage