The Flatpick Guitar Magazine Records CD, Hot and Spicy, is an incredible collection of tunes from our very best flatpickers. Some of it may even be a little over the top in the taste department, but what do I know? But, I do know that every time I listen to it, the tune, Forked Deer (pronounced Fork-Ed Deer) just stands out as the most tasteful music on the CD, to me. The other stuff will knock your socks off, but Forked Deer you just want to listen to, though it does go on some. As soon as you realize that it is Tim Stafford and Jim Hurst playing it, that’s all you need to know. The guys are just too good to be true.

Last January, I took to transcribing the four Stafford breaks because I wanted to learn them. He’s capoed to the second fret. Yesterday, I decided to finish the project off be transcribing the three Hurst breaks - he’s not capoed. The thing is, there’s a break for almost every key you can think of. Even if you just pick one break, you learn a lot about how the greats play the guitar. At least, I do.


I have included an exported MIDI of the tab below. It sounds better than when the tab is played directly in TablEdit, but again, it is still nowhere near the actual sounds of guitars. I have included a fictitious third rhythm guitar track just to put the melody in context. It may be confusing what the chords actually are, since I write them referencing the soloing guitar, so Tim’s Capo 2 D chord is written as “C” since it is out of C position. Anyway, it ain’t that hard.

Play MIDI of the tab


Download: Forked Deer - Stafford/Hurst tab here     (Note: If you have not downloaded this tab since 11/11/05, you do not have the latest version)

(in TablEdit Format, which you can download a free viewer for)

Enjoy!