Songs you like to play real slow?

[Riverwolf]

I play most every song slowed down, picking notes and such.
I like to play slowed down but it does cause problems at jams sometimes.
I came across this video and now have reworked my version of CCR's
"Have you ever seen the rain?"

[mdhttr]

Have been playing Glen Campbell's "Galveston" slow ever since I heard this:

[steve223]

Great version of that song!!

[Mr. Jelly]

I like to play all my songs with a fair amount of air in them. Give them more swing or funk but mainly more texture / feel. I often feel most all songs are played too fast.

[The Bard Rocks]

It can be fun to slow a song way down or play it much more up-tempo than usual - catches attention. But if you do it too much, the audience will rebel.

[Ten]

I love this slowed down version of Jolene: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CMrfM711vXI

I also like playing Nine Pound Hammer slow sometimes, but hey, Townes Van Zandt did it slow and that pretty much makes it ok in my book.

[Dryfly]

Wow, both of those are great. I'll give them a try.
Boy you're not kidding about not going over in a jam!
Have learned that the hard way.

A few I've heard done slowly and try to imitate are:
Lightfoots: Did She Mention My Name & Song For A Winters Night

All Of Me, Pancho & Lefty.
There are many more.

[Triumph1050]

"Why Me Lord".... Kris Kristofferson

[zmf]

Originally Posted by Riverwolf

"Have you ever seen the rain?"

Yeah. I like that.

[BrunoBlack]

I like this version of “Just Dropped In”, a Mickey Newbury song that was famously covered by Kenny Rogers. I started playing this again - slow - after hearing it played as a lead-in for the HBO show True Detective.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Dryfly

...A few I've heard done slowly and try to imitate are Lightfoot's: Did She Mention My Name & Song For A Winter's Night...

Our band does a "dialogue" arrangement of "Winter's Night" that's kinda like "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" in reverse: first (slow) verse is solo female vocal over fingerpicked guitar, male vocal/full band parallels Gord's original for the next two verses, closes as it began with solo female vocal/fingerstyle guitar on a reprise of the first chorus...

On the flip side (literally) there's the disco version of "If You Could Read My Mind"...

[reeve21]

I like to play The Entertainer (Scott Joplin, theme to "The Sting") slow, but only because I can't play it fast

See here for how it should be done (by the great Richard Smith, with Tommy Emmanuel looking on).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCGGG9piAGY

[Jobe]

Ha! This topic really hits home for me. For some reason I tend to slow tempo on every song I enjoy playing. It may go back to my beginning stage when it took an hour and a half to complete a chord change. But it has stayed with me over all these years. When I learn a new song I think to myself, "You got this" but when I do a self recording I realize I have slowed it down. My best friends wife will fall asleep when I play. No kidding. But she says it relaxes her. Cold Rain and Snow (An old blues tune) I like to slow down on purpose. Whenever I see sheet music that says 'slowly with feeling' I have found my wheelhouse!

[jseth]

I will vary tempos frequently, from my version of a tune and the "original"...

A couple I have slowed WAAAYYYY DOOOWWWNNN are:

"Don't Get Around Much Anymore" (Ellington/Strayhorn) - this is a natural for me. I understand the dynamic of playing songs briskly and the pressure that performers feel about keeping things "upbeat" - after all, I have been playing in bars and restaurants, etc. for 50 years! - but this tune always struck me a a blues... I mean, come on! The guy's so ripped up that he can't even leave his house! So I play it REAL slow, and I love it this way; makes much more sense to me.

The other notable tune was a hit by Creedence Clearwater Revival back in the early 70's; at the time, I was scrambling to try to write songs, sell them, get a record deal, etc... and I heard this tune and just thought "(&!(!!!, Fogarty - there's another hit for you...", but I didn't really like the song all that much. Now, after all these years of singing, playing, scuffling for gigs, writing songs... the song means something altogether different to me. I'm talking about "Lodi" - and I do it very slow, with an almost gospel-type feel, playing instrumental breaks between every bridge to the form of the song (a la Ry Cooder in the live version of "Dark End Of The Street" he did in the late 70's).

People don't even recognize the tune until the first "Stuck in Lodi, again" line...

[Mandobart]

I play everything too fast. Blame it on my bluegrass upbringing. I know some songs are supposed to be andante, but it just sucks the life out of them, to me. I'm not a dirge guy.