Nitebob wrote
This is not an attempt to revive a dead thread. But let's say one does want to go the me and my guitar route...Is there any specific artist I can buy dvd's of and see. This will obviously be more vocally oriented as I will possibly never be able to play as good as half of you guys, any artist that excells in this area? Vocals and acoustic...Thanx again... Looking forward to my first open mic night in Pretoria, if it works well I'll be seeing you at TJ's...
Well now... there are a surprising number of people operating in that way, some of them do only solo shows, some alternate between working solo and working with a band. The approaches and skill levels vary. At one end you get guys with considerable technique EG Bruce Cockburn and Martin Simpson (who both work with bands as well as solo). At the other end you get the likes of Loudon Wainwright who is a competent player but not a great, and whose live show doesn't rely on his guitar work (and I've seen him live, and he can do an hour plus show no problem and you don't notice the time going by or find yourself longing for a guitar solo).
For me, unless you're in the Steve Newman or Michael Hedges or Andy McKee world of instrumental playing, the key is to have good songs. Songs that work well solo and not just with a band. I look for songs which have a good story or otherwise create a picture in the mind. (Martin Simpson picks good songs with strong stories in them, so it's a double whammy because he's a fab story teller and also a great guitar player).
Don't just watch the DVDs! Think of a song you might like to do and figure it out on the guitar. If your version is not identical to the original then so what! Try and get the essence of it.
I have my own arrangement of the Bee Gees "New York Mining Disaster". I don't know if the chords I use are the same as the original (I've never checked), but they work. I added on my own little instrumental ending and an instrumental break in the middle. I was really trying to come up with something that sounded like Martin Carthy. I failed (no surprise), but I came up with something that is still recognisable, respects the original (it's a fab song) but has my own stamp on it and can be played on one guitar. That's fun.
You can do a lot with a voice and a guitar and some determination. There was, of course, the 60's stuff - Dylan, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger... though it hasn't all aged well, but it shows that the format you're contemplating can pack a punch.
A pity you weren't at my last show at TJ's. Gil Hockman did an excellent poet and a one man band sort of set. No flash playing. Very enjoyable set and he completely captured the audience's attention - and held it. He didn't do it on that night, but on his CD he does a Snoop Dogg number - more proof of what you can actually do with one guitar. His version of James Phillips' "Shot Down" shows how you can pack a punch and have great dynamics without big solos or a band behind you.
Simon and Garfunkel... there's some stuff you can do there (they usually toured as two voices and a single guitar). Beatles songs, Kinks songs. Just take some songs you like and try to play them on the guitar and see what happens.
Some songs I've done that with (to various degrees of success). I'm not saying you must play these, but just an indication of what you can get up to.
* Tit-willow (Gilbert and Sullivan)
* Dedicated Follower of Fashion (The Kinks). Works perfectly well as a sing and strum along piece.
* Ooops! I Did It Again (I tried this as a joke, not many people got it. The idea isn't mine)
* Coconut (Harry Nillson). One chord! Quite an entertaining song.
* Hide Your Love Away (Beatles) in fact I do that very close to the original, I just leave out the flute solo
* Lola (The Kinks). Works well with a hearty strum. No need for fireworks as it's such a great story and is packed with great double entendres ("I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola")
Deefstes does a great Weird Al Jankowicz song about a guy with a murderous psychopath for an ex-girlfriend. He does an early Bee Gees song too - there's a whole bunch of great Bee Gees songs from the 60s that you could do on a guitar (probably that's how they wrote them in the first place). Loads of great country stuff. Take a dip into the songbooks of Hank Williams or Merle Travis ("You load 16 tons, what do you get?")
You can have so much fun.
Otherwise just watch some MTV Unplugged (except the Springsteen one, which is great, but not actually unplugged).
In the 80s Bruce Springsteen reworked some of his big, brash hits for just him and an acoustic. Those might be on youtube. I remember "Born To Run" and a great reworking of "No Surrender".
