Songs for acoustic guitar, lead female and male BV anyone?

[Victorthesecond]

So, I am utterly fed up with our unreliable drummer and now looking at a simple duo - me (BV and guitar) and lead vox by our lady singer. Her voice suits a more relaxed style - not rock songs, but more chilled, maybe a bit bluesy now and then. Not strong enough to be like Amy Winehouse. Our bass player may stick with us, but we're happy to be just us two if need be. I've had too much hassle in my life trying to keep everyone in a bigger band happy.

Just two of us means less gear to lug around and a much stripped down / faster stage set up as well, always an advantage. We're wanting to move away from doing "party / function music" and move to a more ambient set, maybe at nice local pubs, cafe bars and restaurants.

We have a few ideas, but I'd really welcome any thoughts on what you folks might see as something that fits the bill.

Look forward to reading the suggestions - and thank you for taking the trouble to reply!

Mike

[gr81dorn]

The plus side is there have been a ton of great female singers and Male/Female duos in recent years from whom you can at least draw inspiration for arranging if not straight up covering them.

Civil Wars, She & Him, Shovels & Rope, Jenny Lewis (see her Jenny and Johnny album), everything Norah Jones does, Adele has some fun stuff to play, Obviously Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings come to mind, too.

I did a Male/Female duo for a few years and once you kinda figure out how to work together to make your talents and sounds work off one another, then you can start applying your style to songs that don't otherwise seem like they'd it and they can take on a new life.

I love the Civil Wars (RIP). They did some incredible covers of stuff the likes of Michael Jackson to Portishead and in their style, so it just worked awesome.

Sounds like a fun project for you. Get creative, play well and have a good time, that's all a crowd tends to want from their performer anyway.

[phade314]

I've been checking out Mandolin Orange lately, they are an exceptional male/female duo, and pretty chill.

[Victorthesecond]

Great ideas, thank you so much! We want to try and be a bit quirky and different without being so odd that no-one knows what we're playing, so some of these sound great!

[beatcomber]

Some Ian and Sylvia, perhaps? "Four Strong Winds" is one of the prettiest songs ever.

[Kycatzrock]

Sugarland, Jewel, Miley Cyrus, Adele, Lee Ann Womack, Martina McBride..

[Tycobb73]

Anything you want, just change the key and make it your own. I do a few female songs. Any song the 2 of you want to do i would give a go.