Home Players' Best of(s)

[P Thought]

I'm coming up on 50 years playing guitar. I've pretty much "taught myself", which to me means taking all the information I can find from other players, books, and TDPRI. My reason for playing in the first place was to accompany myself singing.

Over those years, I've played and sung in front of people now and then, a few times in front of bona fide audiences. I'm not afraid of audiences, but I don't need them, so I only play if anyone asks me to (family included), and since they almost never do, I'm plenty happy to just keep belting 'em out at home.

A few years ago I made a list of all the songs I can play and sing, that I could remember reasonably well. It's still about 75 songs, some of them asterisked now because my memory of them is badly faded, some added since the time I made the list; I learn new ones very slowly. I get up every morning and play my acoustic, and every time I have the house or the porch to myself I play one of my electrics. At those times I work out my songs, kind of rotating through a main two or three at a time, sort of the way I play my guitars.

In case Lucinda or Jackson calls and needs me to open for therm on short notice, or the Chamber of Commerce is hosting the national conference and Peter Frampton cancels, I've been working on a "Best of" list of the songs I know, the ones that sound the best to my everyday audience--which of course is me, myself, and I--which I will drill and have ready at a moment's notice. I made two four-song sets, with a set-breaker between them, and a two-song encore.

Fellow home entertainers, I'd like to see your personal "Best of" lists, please, with songwriters listed, if you know them. Here's mine:

Pony Boy--Richard Betts
Folsom Prison Blues--Johnny Cash
Ripple--Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia
The Water is Wide--P Thought

Everything I Do--Van Morrison

Desperadoes Waiting For A Train--Guy Clark
Crawdad Song--Woody Guthrie
Sugaree--Robert Hunter
Swingin'--John Anderson

One Woman Man--Tillman Franks, Johnny Horton
He Stopped Loving Her Today--Bobby Braddock, Curly Putman

There's my "Best of P Thought" list. What's yours look like?

 

[nojazzhere]

I'm coming up on 50 years playing guitar. I've pretty much "taught myself", which to me means taking all the information I can find from other players, books, and TDPRI. My reason for playing in the first place was to accompany myself singing.

Over those years, I've played and sung in front of people now and then, a few times in front of bona fide audiences. I'm not afraid of audiences, but I don't need them, so I only play if anyone asks me to (family included), and since they almost never do, I'm plenty happy to just keep belting 'em out at home.

A few years ago I made a list of all the songs I can play and sing, that I could remember reasonably well. It's still about 75 songs, some of them asterisked now because my memory of them is badly faded, some added since the time I made the list; I learn new ones very slowly. I get up every morning and play my acoustic, and every time I have the house or the porch to myself I play one of my electrics. At those times I work out my songs, kind of rotating through a main two or three at a time, sort of the way I play my guitars.

In case Lucinda or Jackson calls and needs me to open for therm on short notice, or the Chamber of Commerce is hosting the national conference and Peter Frampton cancels, I've been working on a "Best of" list of the songs I know, the ones that sound the best to my everyday audience--which of course is me, myself, and I--which I will drill and have ready at a moment's notice. I made two four-song sets, with a set-breaker between them, and a two-song encore.

Fellow home entertainers, I'd like to see your personal "Best of" lists, please, with songwriters listed, if you know them. Here's mine:

Pony Boy--Richard Betts
Folsom Prison Blues--Johnny Cash
Ripple--Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia
The Water is Wide--P Thought

Everything I Do--Van Morrison

Desperadoes Waiting For A Train--Guy Clark
Crawdad Song--Woody Guthrie
Sugaree--Robert Hunter
Swingin'--John Anderson

One Woman Man--Tillman Franks, Johnny Horton
He Stopped Loving Her Today--Bobby Braddock, Curly Putman

There's my "Best of" list. What's yours look like?

I, too, am what most folks would call "self-taught" on guitar, although before I ever touched a guitar I had almost a decade of formal organized choral music, piano lessons and violin study.....in addition to performing in musical theater productions.....so my "background" in music was more extensive than some. Many guys say seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan inspired them to pick up guitar, but I was already interested because of folk music, and The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Hoyt Axton. But The Beatles turned my world around, and made me focus on Rock.
While I've almost exclusively been involved in bands and "ensemble" efforts, lately I've been adapting to solo material. I have about 140+ titles on my list, although quite a few I would need a lyric sheet to play accurately. A partial list of current favorites for solo gigs is.......
Every Breath You Take
Walk On By
The Look of Love
Here Comes the Sun
Never My Love
Ain't Even Done With the Night
Solitary Man
Little Bit Me, Little Bit You
I Can See Clearly Now
Homeward Bound
ETC......
While most of my songs are in their original keys, some I have "pitched down" a step or two to make them easier to sing, especially since I'm going for a lower keyed (pun acknowledged) type of performance.
I'm doing these with a Godin Multiac Encore Nylon guitar, so the "flavor" is somewhat different from the usual steel-string acoustic.
I look forward to others posting song lists, to give me other possible ideas of stuff to learn.

 

[chulaivet1966]

I'm coming up on 50 years playing guitar. I've pretty much "taught myself", which to me means taking all the information I can find from other players, books, and TDPRI. My reason for playing in the first place was to accompany myself singing.
A few years ago I made a list of all the songs I can play and sing, that I could remember reasonably well. It's still about 75 songs, some of them asterisked now because my memory of them is badly faded, some added since the time I made the list; I learn new ones very slowly.
Fellow home entertainers, I'd like to see your personal "Best of" lists, please, with songwriters listed, There's my "Best of P Thought" list. What's yours look like?

Howdy PT....
Sheesh....'75 songs'....my list will be nothing compared to yours....I'm ashamed.

I'm playing with some musician buddies and they want to do One Woman Man.
They just sent me the lyrics/arrangement sheet yesterday.
I'm not a country guy but we have a good vocalist and I don't have to sing so I'm cool with it.

I'm mainly a song writer and really don't perform anymore but I'm working with some buddies as we speak.
Although, I do have my personal set list to play along with and it's about 30 songs. (if interested, I'd post the list?)
I can play them all fine.....but, ask me to sing (to my expectations) and play severly reduces that amount.

If I have to perform for an actual audience (terrifying thought at the moment) here's my embarrassingly short list:
1) Black Friday_Steely Dan
2) Levee Song_Darden Smith.
3) How Long_Ace
4) It Don't Come Easy_Ringo Starr
5) 24 Hours At A Time_Marshall Tucker.

Yeah...that's it for me.

Have a great day....supposed to be 104 degrees here so I'll be practicing in the Wolf's Den (basement studio)

 

[Toto'sDad]

I'm coming up on 50 years playing guitar. I've pretty much "taught myself", which to me means taking all the information I can find from other players, books, and TDPRI. My reason for playing in the first place was to accompany myself singing.

Over those years, I've played and sung in front of people now and then, a few times in front of bona fide audiences. I'm not afraid of audiences, but I don't need them, so I only play if anyone asks me to (family included), and since they almost never do, I'm plenty happy to just keep belting 'em out at home.

A few years ago I made a list of all the songs I can play and sing, that I could remember reasonably well. It's still about 75 songs, some of them asterisked now because my memory of them is badly faded, some added since the time I made the list; I learn new ones very slowly. I get up every morning and play my acoustic, and every time I have the house or the porch to myself I play one of my electrics. At those times I work out my songs, kind of rotating through a main two or three at a time, sort of the way I play my guitars.

In case Lucinda or Jackson calls and needs me to open for therm on short notice, or the Chamber of Commerce is hosting the national conference and Peter Frampton cancels, I've been working on a "Best of" list of the songs I know, the ones that sound the best to my everyday audience--which of course is me, myself, and I--which I will drill and have ready at a moment's notice. I made two four-song sets, with a set-breaker between them, and a two-song encore.

Fellow home entertainers, I'd like to see your personal "Best of" lists, please, with songwriters listed, if you know them. Here's mine:

Pony Boy--Richard Betts
Folsom Prison Blues--Johnny Cash
Ripple--Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia
The Water is Wide--P Thought

Everything I Do--Van Morrison

Desperadoes Waiting For A Train--Guy Clark
Crawdad Song--Woody Guthrie
Sugaree--Robert Hunter
Swingin'--John Anderson

One Woman Man--Tillman Franks, Johnny Horton
He Stopped Loving Her Today--Bobby Braddock, Curly Putman

There's my "Best of P Thought" list. What's yours look like?

I hardly play anymore, but back when I played and sang a lot, I'd memorize what I was going to play work up a little accompaniment, do the songs, then promptly forget them. Way back, I used to know and be able to play well over a hundred songs maybe a lot more than that. One day, they just started slipping away, now I remember a few from the past, but mostly they have faded away. Funny, some days, I remember quite a few, sometimes hardly any.

 

[drewg]

I'm coming up on 50 years playing guitar. I've pretty much "taught myself", which to me means taking all the information I can find from other players, books, and TDPRI. My reason for playing in the first place was to accompany myself singing.

Over those years, I've played and sung in front of people now and then, a few times in front of bona fide audiences. I'm not afraid of audiences, but I don't need them, so I only play if anyone asks me to (family included), and since they almost never do, I'm plenty happy to just keep belting 'em out at home.

A few years ago I made a list of all the songs I can play and sing, that I could remember reasonably well. It's still about 75 songs, some of them asterisked now because my memory of them is badly faded, some added since the time I made the list; I learn new ones very slowly. I get up every morning and play my acoustic, and every time I have the house or the porch to myself I play one of my electrics. At those times I work out my songs, kind of rotating through a main two or three at a time, sort of the way I play my guitars.

In case Lucinda or Jackson calls and needs me to open for therm on short notice, or the Chamber of Commerce is hosting the national conference and Peter Frampton cancels, I've been working on a "Best of" list of the songs I know, the ones that sound the best to my everyday audience--which of course is me, myself, and I--which I will drill and have ready at a moment's notice. I made two four-song sets, with a set-breaker between them, and a two-song encore.

Fellow home entertainers, I'd like to see your personal "Best of" lists, please, with songwriters listed, if you know them. Here's mine:

Pony Boy--Richard Betts
Folsom Prison Blues--Johnny Cash
Ripple--Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia
The Water is Wide--P Thought

Everything I Do--Van Morrison

Desperadoes Waiting For A Train--Guy Clark
Crawdad Song--Woody Guthrie
Sugaree--Robert Hunter
Swingin'--John Anderson

One Woman Man--Tillman Franks, Johnny Horton
He Stopped Loving Her Today--Bobby Braddock, Curly Putman

There's my "Best of P Thought" list. What's yours look like?

A lot of good advice here for a home player like me. A strategy and plan (play acoustic every morning, electrics when the house is empty).

I’ll have to get back to you on my best of drewg list…

 

[Toto'sDad]

I have mentioned this before, but the truth is, since my son passed, music just isn't the same for me. It's been over eight years now that he's been gone, but there is still a before and after for me with the music. I am one track minded and can usually only obsess about one thing at a time, it's golf that occupies me now. My wife and I are getting ready to head out, it's going to be too hot for our Wednesday round so we're going today while it's cool.

 

[P Thought]

I am one track minded and can usually only obsess about one thing at a time, it's golf that occupies me now.

I have to obsess vicariously about golf, through my son who hits the ball a long ways, and whose handicap is now like 2/10 of a hole over par. My own handicap is more of a story problem: old, fat, can't drive, can't putt, never could break 80 even sometimes on 9-hole tries, bad back, everything hurts, sorry equipment, bad attitude. . . .

So how about that set list? Buck's gone, you know, what if Dwight Yoakam calls on you to fill the gap?

 

[Stringbanger]

I have 37 set lists of ten songs each. Probably about 98% of them are written down in 3 ring notebooks with words and chords.

Now granted, due to old age, I have forgotten the lyrics to most of them.

The two sets listed below are the ones that I have mostly memorized. Once they are completely memorized, I will move on to the next two sets.

You know it’s funny but, when I was in my 30s, I had a repertoire of about 80-100 songs that I could play any one of them at the drop of a hat. Back then, I was playing every day, so that made it easier I guess.

Now, 30+ years later, I don’t have the recall I once had, nor do I have the brain storage room. So I find that I am relearning most of the songs I used to know.

Friend Of The Devil - Grateful Dead
Silver Stallion - Highwaymen
Amarillo By Morning - George Strait
This Old Cowboy - Marshall Tucker
Magnolia - J.J. Cale
Behind Your Eyes - Charlie Daniels
Picking Up Strangers - Johnny Lee
Highwayman - Highwaymen
Such A Lonely One - Prairie Oyster
You Should Have Been Gone By Now -Eddie Raven

Mollena - James Hunter
Say We’ll Meet Again - Lindsey Buckingham
Find Another Girl - Jerry Butler
I Was The One - Jimmie Dale Gilmore
What Does It Take - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
Fat Boy - Billy Stewart
Things - Paul Westerberg
Crocodile Rock - Elton John
Cradle Of Love - Johnny Preston
Dreamin’ - Johnny Burnette
I Will Follow You - Ricky Nelson

 

[Dave Hicks]

Deep River Blues - Doc Watson version *
Dink's Song - anon
Hesitation Blues - Hot Tuna version *
Four Strong Winds - Ian Tyson
Long Distance Call - Muddy Waters
You Ain't Goin Nowhere - Dylan
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Dylan

* more or less

 

[Toto'sDad]

I have to obsess vicariously about golf, through my son who hits the ball a long ways, and whose handicap is now like 2/10 of a hole over par. My own handicap is more of a story problem: old, fat, can't drive, can't putt, never could break 80 even sometimes on 9-hole tries, bad back, everything hurts, sorry equipment, bad attitude. . . .

So how about that set list? Buck's gone, you know, what if Dwight Yoakam calls on you to fill the gap?

Dwight ain't gonna call, I'm too pretty, he couldn't stand me being up there next to him on the stage!

 

[Kandinskyesque]

I've been entertaining me, myself and I at home nearly every day for the past 5 years with this set in this order. It takes about 90 minutes with about a pint of coffee for company.

Moon Over Bourbon Street (Sting)
They Can't Take That Away From Me (Gershwin/Various)
Is This Love (Bob Marley)
Cruel (Prefab Sprout)
May You Never (John Martyn)
Me and Mrs Jones (Billy Paul)
Message In A Bottle (Police)

Then break out the plectrum tin for...

A Day in the Life (The Beatles)
Quicksand (David Bowie)
Heaven Help (Lenny Kravitz)
Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead)
The Weight (The Band)

 

[brookdalebill]

Mine are :
Instrumentals :
Moonlight In Vermont (based on Johnny Smith’s, but in E instead of his C)
Christmas Time Is Here
Satin Doll
Stompin’ At The Savoy
I Dream Of Jeannie Theme
Flintstones Theme
Dusty

Though I’m a working player, I play these at home for fun.

 

[Skyhook]

What's yours look like?

Oblivion (Terrorvision)
Let me Entertain You (Robbie Williams)
Fields of Gold (Sting)
The Riddle (Nik Kershaw)
Put a Tail on your Kite (Gunbunnies)
If I had a Hammer (Trini Lopez)

 

[catdaddy]

With a flat pick:
Willin'- Lowell George
Drive My Car- Lennon/McCartney
Kind Woman- Richie Furay
Pleasant Valley Sunday- Goffin/King
Political Science- Randy Newman
Wicked Game- Chris Isaac
Dark As A Dungeon- Merle Travis
Dixie Moon- Catdaddy
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere- Bob Dylan
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place- Mann/Weil

Fingerstyle:
Cocaine Blues- Lester Randal Bullock
Hesitation Blues- Cassidy/Kaukonen
Freight Train- Elizabeth Cotten
Mississippi Blues- Willie Brown
Hemingway's Shotgun- Eric Taylor
Bone By Bone- Catdaddy
Rag, Mama, Rag- Blind Boy Fuller
Everyone Says I Love You- Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar
Origin Of Species- Chris Smither
Dear Prudence- Lennon/McCartney

 

[telleutelleme]

I Don't think i'll go to Mexico
Lord I Hope this day is Good
Seven Spanish Angels
Here there and everywhere
Una Mas Cervsa
Look What I Found
Blue Eyed Elaine - modified for my late wife's name and Green eyes
Some Blues tunes