Brentcgp wrote
I'm just interested to see what diversity we have on the Forum (Im brand new here).
Errrmmmm.... ja..... I'm not sure what I play actually.
I don't play live very often. When I do it's open mic sessions. I don't write my own material, but I do try to do covers that you don't usually here at this kind of club or event. Even if I like a song but I know it's getting played I'll tend to avoid it. I tend to go for songs with a good story in them - though not exclusively. And I suppose my "style" is a sort of finger-picked, folky thing.
Some songs I have performed in the real world in the last while....
* Spenser The Rover. This is a traditional English song, revived in the 70s by John Martyn. I do (as Martyn did) very non-traditional things to it with a stomp box.
* Beeswing. Richard Thompson. Fantastic story song. In a pretty traditional English folk style. This is in drop-D.
* Ye Jacobites By Name. Traditional Scottish melody with words by Robbie Burns. My own arrangement, probably has stylistic nods to Thompson and Martyn. No overt story. Burns was a brilliant poet so this song about Scottish revolutionaries has a long shelf life. Find your own interpretation. Stomp box gets used.
* Poor Old Tom. Peter Case. One of the best songs about the lot of the fighting man who gets thrown on the scrap heap when the fighting is over. Finger picked. Regular tuning, but capoed up to suit my voice.
* White Winos. Louden Wainwright III. A touching tribute to his mother, but it has a pretty freudian bad joke in the last verse. Simple finger picked song - almost like a nursery rhyme. I use a partial capo on this so I can play with regular "D" fingering but still get the low bass note for the root chord.
* Dark As A Dungeon. Merle Travis. Likens working in a dangerous coal mine to an addiction. This is a country song from the days when "country" was "white man's blues". Simple strummed thing.
* Sam Hall. Traditional. Used to be popular in English music halls. No guitar at all. Teach the audience the structure and get them to join in, hiss, jeer etc.
* Galway To Graceland. Richard Thompson. Dark song about the pitfalls of idol worship. Has a story, but no happy ending. Another one I play with the partial capo.
