Scott,

I had a few minutes this morning to do a quick recording of the two styles and how it would sound. Nothing special, just me, the keyboard and the recorder. No mic--no effects. I'm sure I'll read some wild comments about wrong key, chords, or something, but I've been there before.

Walkin' The Floor Over You

Gary

ET did it slower on the original recording than he did it live.
It was somewhat faster than Gary's version. I would pick a speed at which I'm comfortable playing it or singing it.
DonM

I agree it's a 2/4 beat. You can do a 2-step to it, but most dancers would be a bit too busy. I don't consider this a good dance song. Plenty of much better country dance songs. And it's not a crooner song, it's die-hard country. If you can't sound like Ernest Tubb, skip it!

I always thought Ernest Tubbs was a sincere place to take a bath.

I put this together last year on the T2. See if it will give you any ideas:
http://www.4shared.com/audio/67bDf6iH/Walking_The_Floor_Over_You.html

Dick

Gary's was fine although perhaps a bit too slow.
Dick's was a perfect tempo, and it's how I remember it.
Either way, I agree with Bill, it's not the greatest song to dance to...at any age.

Here is another version:

Scott-

I think Gary's were both right in the wheel-house for this tune. I could see my crowd dancing to either. The first version Gary did I can see the dancers doing that kind of lazy stroll around the dance floor thing. The second would be more of an actual dance.

I thought Dick's sounded a tad fast..

The styles Gary used were spot on, but I think the Country Shuffle style could be used at a slightly faster tempo for a more hardcore Country crowd who like to line dance...

Or, combine one of Gary's and then the Shuffle to give the tune some lift and a bit of an edge...

Its one of those tunes, its pretty elastic, you could play it as a rhumba and get away with it.

Cheers,

Well, haha, you got a point! But, believe me, I love die-hard country. Yet, last Saturday, at the local dive, I played on the jukebox...

Rolling Stones
Dwight Yoakam
Moody Blues
Hank Williams
Creedence
B B King
George Strait
James Brown
The Raspberrys
George Jones

How 'bout them apples?

Thanks all for the input. The guy that had requested this song is around 80. Upon listening to the Tubbs recording I wondered how they would dance to this. I thought that there may be one of those 1/2 speed trots they might do.

The seniors I'm playing for are quite active and like a lot of fast songs. They always want more fast songs than slow. I have slowed things down a bit from my concert days on a lot of material, but I do play up to 178 and they dance to it. Some who do the Quickstep want me to play around 200 but they are in the minority.

You guys have indicated that almost any speed could work here. I may test some different speeds out, but I'm thinking I will play it at 168, the speed I use pretty much for almost all east coast swing, (I don't consider this song a ECS) which fills the floor. The people I play for are in dance clubs, not retirement homes so they're in pretty good shape.

I'm about to add Jump, Jive and Wail. The recordings are at 200. I'm thinking I'll give 180 a try.

P.S. Having great fun working out stuff on my new T4