Hi,
The song of the week is 'Little Willie' in the key of A.

Although 'Little Willie' has much in common with his sister 'Little Maggie', she is much more well-known in the Bluegrass world than what he is. And, 'Little Willie', for some reason that is difficult for me to pinpoint (though I have heard some interesting ideas on this recently that might at least partly account for it) can't, and/or doesn't really want to, keep up to pace with his sister.

Here are two versions of 'Little Willie' to listen to:

Ralph Stanley - with whom the song is quite likely still most closely associated in Bluegrass circles, much as Little Maggie also tends to be (or at least once was): key of B 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpvwPOp4nSQ
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Note: The melody sheets attached here are based upon how Ralph Stanley sang the song on an earlier recording by the Stanley Brothers. On this recording, which was available on youtube for a brief while in the recent past, but is not currently available there, Ralph sang it in the key of A (a whole step lower than B), and this is the recording that I learned to sing the song from. (I have it only on an old grainy cassette tape.)

However, if my memory serves me right - this was many years ago - the first time I heard 'Little Willie', it was sang by Trisha Gagnon, who is (and has been for many years) the bass player for the great BC-based Bluegrass band 'John Reischman & The Jaybirds'.  I knew Trisha before she even played bass, or at least before she played bass in public (I have known her for about 26 years now), and I always loved to hear her sing. When I was a 'rascally kid' - as Trisha well put it when I spoke with her on the phone last week - there was a time when for well over a year, I used to listen to her sing in person usually twice a week, not too far from where I lived (about 15 miles).

At that time, Trisha and her sister Cathy-Anne sang with one of the most aggressively-playing banjo players I have ever heard, Chris Stevens. For reasons that I couldn't explain at the time, but that I think I now have a fairly good understanding of, I found that my best banjo playing tended to occur immediately after I returned home after listening to and watching Chris closely for 2 to 3 hours; so, being the smart boy that I was, I quickly learned to grab my banjo and start playing as soon as I got in the door.

Trisha's voice still sometimes sends shivers down my spine when I listen to her sing: such a haunting sound that I think is so perfectly suited for a song like 'Little Willie'. 

For The Jaybirds' version of Little Willie (key of C), with Trisha singing solo, see the attached mp3 file. 
I assure you, this is really worth taking the time to listen to more than once.

In a previous recent song of the week email ('I Can't Feel At Home In This World Anymore'), I discussed the '2' chord at length - if you would like that email to be sent again to you, just ask me and I will resend it to you - but there is something more that I would like to add to that, and it concerns the use of dominant 7th chords in place of major chords.

Just as one may substitute a dominant 7th chord (usually called just simply a 7th chord) in place of a major chord for a '5' chord (e.g., D7 in place of D when playing in the key of G), so the same is also true for '2' chords (e.g., B7 in place of B when playing in the key of A) 

Notice on the Mac Wiseman live performance included here, Mac is playing a B7 instead of a B: and this is common practice for bluegrass rhythm guitar when a B chord shows up when playing in any key without a capo in which the B chord functions as a '5' chord (key of E), a '6' chord (key of D), a '3' chord (key of G), or, in this case, as a '2' chord (key of A). 

However, B7 in place of B would not work well if the B chord were functioning as the '1' chord (key of B), except when used as a transitional chord to lead from the '1' to the '4' (in the key of B, one might for instance play the first half of the  I'll Fly Away progression as: BBBB7EEBB), and would not always work well for the '4' chord either (key of F#), and would almost never work for the b7 chord (key of C#). Most bluegrass rhythm guitar players need not concern themselves with this since most of them would never consider playing in any of these keys without a capo, and the two latter keys are not among the 8 Major keys that bluegrass songs are commonly played in at jams. But, it is good for all to be aware - regardless of which instruments they play - that there are only certain chords for which it is 'safe' to habitually substitute dominant 7ths in place of a majors. 

When playing in the key of G in standard G tuning, banjo players may often automatically play a dominant 7th in place of a major for the 2 chord (in the key of G, an A7 chord in place of an A chord) without being consciously aware that they are doing so, for the 5th string - the short string - on the banjo is tuned - when in G tuning and when not capoed - to a G note (banjo players rarely ever fret this string), and this is the very note that when added to an A chord makes it into an A7 chord. (This same A7 chord will also often show up in place of an A for the '6' chord when banjo players are playing in C without a capo.)

To make any major chord a dominant 7th chord, all that one does is add to the chord the note that is a whole step lower than the note that has the same letter name as the chord: this is the b7 note/scale degree on the Nashville Number System Chart handout.

I think it sounds best if only some of the players at any given time, rather than all at the same time, in a band, or at a jam, use the dominant 7th in place of the major when playing over '2', '3' and '6' chords. On '5' chords, I like to hear the dominant 7th used even more sparingly.