Solo Acoustic Songs

I'm not giving you my set list.

 

Looks good to me. I did pretty well with solo gigs for a long time doing songs hardly anyone does, well, at least on guitar. It worked because I wanted to do those songs and could put them across.

If you're good, especially really good, you can play whatever you want, assuming they are good songs.

 

When I played solo, I played what I liked. Sometimes I got invited back, sometimes I didn't. It's hard for me to recommend a song to you, without more information about the venues you plan to play and the age of the audiences. I didn't see any Neil Young songs in your list, so maybe one of them. I played, and still do, "Heart Of Gold", which always went over well. But, I did the harmonica on the rack thing, which is almost a must for that tune. I never played Marguitaritaville. I think your set is solid, and I like the amount of your own songs that are in the mix. I always had trepidations about playing my own stuff, because I didn't rehearse them enough. Go figure! Go for it.

 

to fill in the missing letters:

Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain - Willie Nelson
Every Day - Buddy Holly
Keep On Trying - Poco
Queen of Hearts - Dave Edmunds
Uncle John's Band - Grateful Dead
Ventura Highway - America
X & Y - Coldplay
Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie

 

I was at an open mic recently, and I tried two songs that I thought might work, and they worked very well! Highly recommended.

Old Alabama - Brad Paisley
Fly Over States - Jason Aldean

 

Early Dan Fogelberg always works for me. As The Raven Flies, The Last Nail, a few others.

 

Wow! Thanks TeleTexas! I used to play "As The Raven Flies". Great tune. I used to play "Face The Fire" as well. Captured Angel was an album that I wore a second groove into. Thanks for reminding me. I gotta dig them out again.

 

OK, I'm going to give you some of my more off the radar tunes I do. Mind you I only acoustic solo at open mike nights and some busking on weekends. All the songs I do are about death and/or despair so they are dark. It hits a nerve with some people but I do them because I love them. I try to keep them simple.

Hurt- Johnny Cash style
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down- Joni Mitchell version (I live in the south)
One Of Us Can Not Be Wrong- Leonard Cohen
St. James Infirmary- traditional
John Barlycorn Must Die- traditional, done in a Traffic version
Hole In The Middle-Emily Jane White
Ain't Nothing To Me- Johnny Winter
Grave Digger- Dave Mathews
Brother Can You Spare A Dime- Gershwin (I think?)
Summertime- Gershwin
Some Early Morning- Dan Tyminsky
I Am The Highway- acoustic Chris Cornell version

Anyway, just some of the odd stuff I do that you don't hear everywhere else.

BTW if anyone here writes darker lyrics for folk, acoustic blues, Americana type stuff I really want to hear from you.

 

I think you can get away with more obscure tunes playing solo. I play old folk-country-blues songs and my own songs as well. They seem to go over pretty well.

One suggestion. Ditch "Wagon Wheel." No one ever needs to hear that song again. It's the "Mustang Sally" of the acoustic scene. "Angel from Montgomery" can be retired as well, unless you're John Prine, Bonnie Raitt or Susan Tedeschi. YMMV.

Guitar Jones. FWIW, Joan Baez did the "Dixie" cover, not Joni Mitchell.

 

You are correct, I was confused. I also do Joan's "Diamonds And Rust".