Ron Block, guitar and banjo player with Alison Krauss & Union Station, has posted a number of free tabs on his web site. There are 22 in all, with both banjo and guitar transcriptions included, all available as free PDF/JPG downloads.

Ron has included 3 of his own banjo breaks (Poor Old Heart, Rain Please Go Away), plus classic solos from the playing of his heros: Tony Rice, Clarence White, Don Reno, Larry Sparks, Earl Scruggs and JD Crowe.

Some are typeset in the TablEdit format, while others are scans of handwritten tabs. All are quite legible and should be valuable additions to anyone’s tab library.

Ron asks nothing for these tabs, but requests that pickers honor his request not to post them on other sites. He also promises more to come.

“As time goes on I’ll put more tabs up, and I’ll also transcribe more of my own solos from the AKUS and other recordings. Sometime soon I’ll be doing some guitar and banjo instructional books and videos, so watch for those in the next year or so.”

You can find all the tabs on Ron’s site.

While we’re on the subject of Ron Block… Back in January when Brance interviewed Ron about his then upcoming CD, Doorway, he suggested that while the project wasn’t a bluegrass album by any stretch, that he hoped that bluegrass fans would give it a listen with an open mind. Having listened to it several times myself, I encourage anyone who appreciates his music to give it a shot.

The bluegrass that is included is stellar – as you would expect – and few of the songs are any further outside of the bluegrass mainstream than what Ron records with AKUS.

If you are likely to be bothered by electric guitars or percussion, perhaps you might sample the tracks in the iTunes Music Store, and purchase only the ones that strike your fancy