Most of Captain Billy’s songs start out on acoustic guitar. Sometimes there is a deliberate vibe we are going for, sometimes it is just noodling until we find something interesting. Who Told You is one of those songs that started with noodling.

I liked the I-vi chord progression used in the chorus. The I-IV progression for the verse flew naturally from that. But I felt like the verse needed to go somewhere after the second time around and stumbled onto that walk up to get back to the I for the chorus. I also wanted a guitar hook line and played around with a bunch of different ideas but liked that minor pentatonic lick. The minor lick shouldn’t work with the major chords which gives a nice tension to the hook.

The final piece is that bridge progression. I’m not sure how I got those chords but I wanted a different feel rhythmically. The key moves from A to G so there is a harmonic change as well as the rhythmic change. Then we get back to the E7 at the end of the bridge to get us back into the key of A. This is a different sort of tension that fits the lyric where the protagonist decides to leave the relationship.

The song was originally written in the key of D. But the melody was too high for me to sing in that key. I played the song at a local open mic and capoed the guitar up to F or F#. That worked for the live performance but sounded weird when it was recorded. So I transposed the chord progressions down a 4th to the key of A for the recording.

I think this is one of our better songs both harmonically and lyrically. And while the feel on a solo acoustic guitar is much different from the studio recording it still works and has good energy. I hope you enjoy it.