Crowd pleasers

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by Bob from Brooklyn

It doesn't kill anyone to sprinkle in a few of the overplayed standards into your setlist. In the meanwhile you get to play some of 'your' music to an attentive audience.

Yep. That's what we do: about 20% originals, 20% hits, and 60% other covers we get a kick out of.

I like the way you think.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by leew3

We learned it in response to a couple very persistent and loyal fans. I wouldn't have thought of it either, and frankly would prefer to skip it, but here we are.

Ever hear Toots and the Maytals' version?: Country Roads

Love that guitar!

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by rllink

. . . Also though, Will The Circle Be Unbroken, and that one isn't one of my favorites but I can do it. But I don't know what it is about that song.

Even though it's about a funeral, it's hopeful — a precious commodity in the Age of Snark.

[capefisherman]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

Omigosh! I compromise. I'll happily play lead, but I refuse to sing it or learn it.

And thanks for the reminder. I just changed my universal acoustic song to "Angel from Magaritawheel" — counterpart of the electric "Smoke on the Stairway to Freebird."

Hahahaha, love it!

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by leew3

Sweet Caroline-every time! (though Wagon Wheel is a close second)

Lots of Neil Diamond songs that were huge hits, don't get played much now, but I bet an audience would love to hear.

Kentucky Woman
Cracklin' Rosie
Cherry Cherry
Song Sung Blue
Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show
Forever in Blue Jeans

[reeve21]

Everybody loves CCR.

My buddy's band does a medley of Green River--Suzie Q--Green River.

He switches from acoustic to tele for that one. His band mate plays a strat and they really get grooving on it (helps to have a good drummer!).

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Everybody loves CCR.

My buddy's band does a medley of Green River--Suzie Q--Green River.

He switches from acoustic to tele for that one. His band mate plays a strat and they really get grooving on it (helps to have a good drummer!).

Yup, we have plenty of Creedence and Van the Man tunes. They make their own two-act genre.

"Lodi" is fun because I play the lead on mandolin. The hook after "again" is sublime. And I play harp on "Down on the Corner." Nice fit.

A good drummer? It's been years. Maybe someday.

[leew3]

I forgot to add Moondance, Brown Eyed Girl (yeah, I know) and Into the Mystic from Van the Man.

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

Yup, we have plenty of Creedence and Van the Man tunes. They make their own two-act genre.

"Lodi" is fun because I play the lead on mandolin. The hook after "again" is sublime. And I play harp on "Down on the Corner." Nice fit.

A good drummer? It's been years. Maybe someday.

Lodi, great choice! Harp and mandolin, great stuff!!

The drummer I speak of plays in at least 3 bands that I've seen him with, probably more. He also sings lead and high harmonies, plays some sort of synthesizer/keyboard sounding thing with mallets and pulled out a beat up old trumpet to play the riff on Low Rider the other night. You would love this guy! Pat Metheny sums it up in 8 seconds.....

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Lodi, great choice! Harp and mandolin, great stuff!!

The drummer I speak of plays in at least 3 bands that I've seen him with, probably more. He also sings lead and high harmonies, plays some sort of synthesizer/keyboard sounding thing with mallets and pulled out a beat up old trumpet to play the riff on Low Rider the other night. . . .

Low Rider! Too much fun! I can do the guitar and harp parts, but not all at the same time. Gotta work on that.

(But I don't drum. Sorry.)

[EZYPIKINS]

Gptta say, I played with the same drummer for over 40 years. He and I still talk on the phone at least once per week.

If you find a good drummer. Try not to lose him/her.

Have played with some not so good ones, what a nightmare.

A good drummer does much more than keep a beat.

He'll tell you when to start, when to change, when to build and drop out.

And a good drummer will tell you, that song you're doing, because you love it soooo much. Just isn't working.

Id doesn't matter how much you love it. If you don't do it well, don't do it in front of an audience.

A crowd pleaser for me is something like Mrs. Robinson.

[rabbuhl]

People seem to like "I Can See Clearly Now".

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

This is another perennial topic. It depends on the crowd, location, venue, etc.

The public at large don't know what they like - they know what they know. They typically don't want a challenge; they don't want to hear originals or anything from the current century.

Whenever this comes up I just shake my head at the bizareness of continued public consumption of pop songs that are 50, 60, 70 And 80 years old. Except for the Happy Days phase of the 70's when music from 20 years earlier had a brief resurgence, I can't recall getting in to "old" popular music as a young person. Certainly not fom the 1920's, 1910's, or earlier when the AGF generation was young.

Boomers listening to and playing the old chestnuts completely reminds me of my parents watching the Lawrence Welk show back in the day. Yeah it's that cool.

The thing is, if you like Americana (what the 70's country rock, outlaw country, alt country, etc. has become since 1995) there are scores of great current people in that genre - Jason Isbell, Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Sierra Ferrell, etc.

The older cats were better than Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, and they would probably tell you this themselves. Way better.

[Bob Womack]

This one is obscure as all get out but people love it. We are talking about Jimmy Reed's song "Baby What You want Me to Do" from 1959. It premiered in July of 1960 and the Everly Brothers covered it in October of that same year. So, we play a version that was filtered through the Everly Brothers to make the voices equal and then filtered again through the British band Wishbone Ash in 1973 to bring it down to a really, really lazy tempo and add lap steel and dual lead guitars.

Now, unlike WA's Ted Turner, I have discovered the tone control on my lap steels so my tone isn't so darned screechy. For some reason people seem to love this song performed this way.

Bob

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by Joe Beamish

The older cats were better than Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, and they would probably tell you this themselves. Way better.

"Better" is certainly a subjective term. And there's no doubt that today's greats are standing on the shoulders of their musical forebearers.

But I've listened to a lot of Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, John Duffy, David Grisman, Tony Rice, Del McCoury, Norman Blake, Sam Bush, and more. No doubt some of the old cats still with us would say they were better than the younger generation. OTOH many of the older guys will and have said the opposite.

Most of the new generation of players I've seen and heard are very gracious and grateful towards their musical predecessors.

But an honest listen IMO reveals that today's young players play cleaner, faster, more imaginatively, with better use of dynamics, countermelodies and harmony. It's a natural progression in any field where participants are building on tradition while pushing the boundaries.

The same reason why today's athletes are continuing to break records.