Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Acoustic acoustics...

Well I finally made the decision to take up the acoustic guitar again. Haven't played it seriously for 7 or 8 years now, too busy and after all; my synthesizers and the band took up most of my time. Now that Solid Air has ceased to be(at least in its last incarnation) I finally have the time to go back to 6 strings, 6 pegs and two hands and a G-string...

In the previous century(I love the way that sounds!) I used to do gigs in small venues. Mixing originals songs and covers, I always tried to find a good mix of songs. Songs that either everybody knew but hadn't heard in years, song that almost nobody knew but which were - in my opinion - absolutely brilliant, and some of my own stuff if it wasn't too bad compared to the covers I played on a night. Songs like 'Don't dream it's over' as well as the works of Loudon Wainwright and Bruce Cockburn are now much better known in my hometown than they were... Possibly because of the way I 'played' them(I ain't going there people! ;-)).

So now I'm back in that saddle, trying to get my fingers flexible enough again to work the songs I want to play. Mind you ; I am definitely not one of those guitar-wizards who can play the intro to 'Oh Well' twice as fast as Peter Green could. I get by and I can support the songs I am singing.

So what's the score Norah? So far I have made a first selection of songs to be played. This is not the definitive set because I always keep tweaking the list until say a week or so before the gig. But this is what I'm thinking of.


Neil Young - Ohio / Southern Man
Tim Buckley - Song to the Siren
Loudon Wainwright - He said, she said
Original song - Somewhere in '06
Queen - '39
Original song - After loving you
Bruce Cockburn - Outside a broken phonebooth with money in my hand
Crowded House - Whispers and moans
Robbie Williams - Better man
Rory Gallagher - For the last time
Pink Floyd - Wish you were here
Tracey Chapman - Fast Car / Revolution
Todd Rundgren - Love of the common man
Fleetwood Mac - Man of the world
Loudon Wainwright - Career moves
John Lennon - Working Class Hero
Neil Young - (keep on) Rocking in the Free World


Added May 11th :

The Church - Under the Milky Way
Michael Penn - No Myth


And on it goes...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Rob.. Just came across a beautiful song by the tragically hip named Long time running. Worth paying attention to.

Grtz Kidvic

Towel master said...

O.K. I'll check it out and get back to you.