The title track from Jason Isbell’s new solo acoustic album, Foxes in the Snow, is one of its happiest—an unabashed celebration of love and intimacy amid many songs that traverse much darker emotional terrain. Set to a bouncy minor-key groove, “Foxes in the Snow” also features some fine picking and is very fun to play, with a melodic solo that could stand on its own as an instrumental.
As Isbell explains in this interview, he uses hybrid picking extensively— playing with a flatpick plus his middle and ring fingers—and “Foxes in the Snow” is a great example, showcasing his agility and crisp tone with both pick and fingers. You can play the part with regular fingerpicking, but it’s worth exploring it hybrid style.
The song is in the key of D minor, uncapoed. Take a look at the chord shapes, and in particular note the three variations on G: two Gm voicings plus a G7 (the under-lying harmony is still minor, but this voicing has no third).
A lot of the song hops back and forth between Dm and A7, as shown in the intro notation. This is essentially an alternating bass pattern, with bass notes on strings 5, 4, and 3. Throughout the song, you can play all the bass notes with the pick or, if you prefer, grab some (especially notes on the third or fourth string) with your middle finger.
During the solo, the picking pattern pauses at times for single-note melodic phrases, as in the pickup measure and bar 4. Elsewhere, you pick the melody while keeping the alternating bass going, as in measures 5–6 and 13–14 on the G minor chord. Playing the melody requires some different fingerings (especially on the G chords) than the ones you use when accompanying the vocal. Experiment to find fingering combos that feel comfortable and allow you to clearly deliver both bass and melody notes.
Due to copyright restrictions, we are unable to post notation or tablature for this musical work. If you have a digital or physical copy of the May/June 2025 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine, you will find the music on page 50.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, founding editor of Acoustic Guitar, is a grand prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and author of The Complete Singer-Songwriter, Beyond Strumming, and other books and videos for musicians. In addition to his ongoing work with AG, he offers live workshops for guitarists and songwriters, plus video lessons, song charts, and tab, on Patreon.
