Which songs are you playing live that you and the audience seem to like most?
Which songs are you playing live that you and the audience seem to like most?
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison
We have a couple of different people that play with the band - or have played with us over time. Each of them have a few that seem to work well - but honestly I believe a lot of it is in the presentation.
Young guy that was with us until recently did a lot of the band and levon helm material along with ray charles and some Little feat. Mix in some Phish and trey anastasia and it was a cool mix with some of the classic rock/blues we do.
examples -
Spanish moon for sure -
*Slippin’ & Slidin’ - (C)
*Down South In New Orleans - The Band/Bobby Charles (G)
*Get Me Back On Time, Engine Number 9 Wilson Pickett (Eb)
Goin’ Down - Freddie King (D)
*Up On Cripple Creek - The Band (G)
*After Midnight - Eric Clapton (A)
*One Way Out - Allman Brothers Band (A)
*Big River - Johnny Cash/The Grateful Dead (A)
*Whiskey In My Whiskey - The Felice Brothers (D)
!!*Not Fade Away - Buddy Holly/Grateful Dead (E)
*Hurricane - Levon Helm (G)
*Dixie Chicken - Little Feat (G)
*Spanish Moon - Little Feat (Am)
*Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding (G)
*I Got A Woman - Ray Charles (E)
*Key To The Highway - (A) --maybe with a little faster groove (Basement Tapes)
*Don’t Ease Me In - (E)
*Deep Elem Blues - (E)
*Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash (E)
these are from a set list - not all of what he did - just some of the ones that worked well
other guys - doing come of the regular ones we seem to gravitate to -
If you love me like you say
crossroads - we do maybe 3 different versions
Wait on Time -A
Early in the Morning-Bb
T Bone Shuffle G
If You Love Me like You Say -C
Change My MindC
The Thrill is Gone Am
Too Hot to HandleG
Black Cat BoneC
Good Time Charley
I Feel Good C
Hoochie Coochie Man
Nasty Habits C
Sick & Tired - A
Pride & Joy E
Tore Down C
Mustang Sally C
Lights On, Nobody Home
Bluesman for Life Bb
Have You Ever Loved a Woman - C
I Can’t Take It - C
I Can Tell -G
Wrap it Up Bb
Rock Me Baby - G
Got My Mojo Working - E/C
I Smell Trouble -G
Born In Chicago - A
Think About It - Gm
maybe some of the ones that T Bone did when he was with us -
Garbageman blues
why I sing the blues
back door man
Tore Up
Mojo (got my Mojo working)
and then most of the slide stuff - including a lot of different Allmans we do -
and some of these -
X A One way out,
X C done somebody wrong,
X D statesboro blues,
A stormy monday,
D midnight rider,
A/D southbound,
a you dont love me,
X A crossroads,
B have you ever loved a woman,
X A born undr bad sign,
X G further on up the road,
A old love,
C tore down
A i know a little,
A call me the breeze,
A T for texas,
A Evil ways,
X D black magic woman,
A cold shot,
E gimme back my wig
and some of the funky stuff too -
play that funky music, brick house, and a bluesy version of lets get it on and aint no sunshine
just some of them - again - presentation seems to make them or break them.
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
Little Queenie,Move with Me,Gloria,Route 66,Money.
I have decided to be happy because it's good for my health.
Running on Empty, My Old School, You Make Lovin' Fun, Cruel to Be Kind, My Favorite Mistake...
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Creedence, Tom Petty, Old Time RnR, La Grange. That's some of the stuff I sing. There's always the bar band staples, but I'm tired of those.
People REALLY like the CCR stuff!
"don't worry, i'm a professional!"
You know those hundred songs you gotta know to play the clubs? We know 'em.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
What, no Beatles? Led Zep, Stones, Pink Floyd?
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison
Beatles are tough to pull off, because they're almost sacred. IMHO...
We do some Stones with my band - Dead Flowers, Wild Horses, Honky Tonk Women. I've always wanted to do more Stones.
Led Zep - the voice is generally too high for me. And the Floyd just puts people to sleep. I've done Another Brick in the Wall but you have to have a band who are willing to really commit to that ending solo, and it's kinda boring for everyone but the guitarist...
I've been working more and more Americana into my bands' material, and it's been going over well. In Crossfyre with Mikey and Chuck, we would play anything and everything - the downside of that is that we did not have any true identifying genre to sell the band.
It's a tough balancing act. If I never, ever, ever, ever played Sweet Home Alabama again, it would be just fine with me. Same thing with Gimme 3 Steps. I'd say the same about all Skynyrd but then there is Simple Man, and Tuesday's Gone, both of which I love to sing and play.
OK, here's one we always HAVE to do - and done right it can kick azz but it's also too easy to go nuts and make it suck...Johnny B. Goode...it always turns into a Back To The Future wankfest and if you go back and listen to the CB original, it's much more subtle.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Medleys can be very cool -
we have done Shaky ground into superstition, into we like to funk - into play that funky music and back
also did a pretty cool not fade away into who do you love, into a peter gunn thing, revolving around how many people were dancing, did a little shaky ground and anything else that worked in there (different mix of guys - so it has a different groove).
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
I'd really like to get away from playing the geezer stuff - the audience will die off eventually, but nobody wants to see 50 year olds play whatever the latest fashion is.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
We are rehearsing a "new" repertoire, trying to not play the traditional covers and some own songs and without drummer, a challenge!
Last rehears a few weeks ago we recorded a few of the new ones,
here´s one :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmPrqyp6--0&feature=plcp
Thank´s Bob for you´r many songs.
PF is, generally, just not bar music. People want high energy music for the most part, and if you can dance to it, even better.
One of These Days, maybe, or Lucifer Sam could go over well, but 99% of the audience wouldn't recognize either.
This is a tune that goes over really well, and nobody knows it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmGM1HTvE94
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
These lists are good for those of us who play in an amateur band that rehearses once a week and only play out every other month or so.
Thanks!
I don't play out. Wish I had time to.
Got them Statesboro Blues
Here's a copy of the setlist I sent a drummer for a gig we did over the summer. It was an hr & a half:
Blue Moon Of Kentucky (C)
A rockabilly or two-step feel,
after Wanda Jackson/Carl Perkins
Big Boss Man (E)
A Jimmy Reed Country Blues
I Am A Witness (G)
Straight ahead shuffle
It Takes A Lot To Laugh,
It Takes A Train To Cry (E)
A blues stomp or train feel
St. Louis Blues (G)
Another shuffle, country style
She Belongs To Me (G)
Country feel
Simple Twist Of Fate (G)
Ballad
St. James Infirmary (E-)
A dirge w/a rubato intro; just follow me & come in when it feels good
Every Day (I have the blues)
(F or Eb)
Swing shuffle; here’s where we pick up the tempo
& start revving up the set a bit
Wave (D)
Bossa Nova
The Days Of Wine & Roses (F)
Probably going to swing this one, but maybe another bossa
On Green Dolphin Street (C)
Swing shuffle, after Ahmad Jamal’s version
Comin’ Home Baby (G-)
Bright rock/bossa feel
Mr PC (C-)
Fast Swing
Stella By Starlight (Bb)
Bossa feel w/a rubato intro until bar 17
We are about the audience smiling and dancing----so,we try to do songs no one else in the area is doing.
Hanky Panky
Love Potion #9
Crying Shame
Sleepwalk
Last edited by refin; 09-15-2012 at 10:00 AM.
"My flesh and my heart fail...but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
PS. 73:26
MY JAMS--
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...&content=music
Boy, I love that song. I've been working on refining my playing on that one for years...
Back on topic, I find that I have to tailor the set based on locale and venue - and then once the sets are "set up," I end up having to call audibles during the evening to accommodate requests for songs I'd hoped not to have to do.
Like Sweet Home Alabama (dodged that bullet the other night...but oddly enough we had to play Mustang Sally TWICE!!)
We've been requested to learn 3-5 more R&B numbers so we'll do that over the winter. The parties we play are always fun and casual, and the patrons are generally easy to please, but I hate to say "no" to a long string of requests.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
In the Blues Band (guitar, bass and drums with vocals) we play the classics from the 1960's USA electric blues guitar players. Heavy on Magic Sam, almost everything he did. Plus Otis Rush, Albert Collins, Freddie King and T-Bone. Not to mention Johnny Guitar Watson!
In the Jazz Band (organ trio no vocals) we play mostly from the 1960's Bluenote catalogue. Especially Grant Green, Kenny Burrell and Jimmy Smith. And we add in some Wes Montgomery tunes too.
The song list always seems to be evolving as does the gear used. We play different tunes every week just to touch them all. For the blues gigs I mostly play a Strat. The jazz gigs I used to play a 175 but have been using a Tele more and more. Something about a Tele.......
The songs they like the most are the ones that are better known. At the top of the fave list would be the Albert Collins classic "Don't Lose Your Cool" and Wes Montgomery's "4 on 6".
Last edited by buckaroo; 09-17-2012 at 07:03 AM.
Our band just learned a couple of the best (albeit well trodden) 2 chord tunes---"Tulsa Time" and Feeling Alright" (Cocker version).It's amazing how well those go over.
"My flesh and my heart fail...but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
PS. 73:26
MY JAMS--
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...&content=music
"Domino" has always worked really good.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Gone to Carolina - Shooter Jennings
Drink in My Hand - Eric Church
I Feel Alright - Steve Earle
Somethin to do with my hands - Thomas Rhett
I want you to want me - Dwight Yoakam's version of the Cheap Trick tune.
Drift Away (John Kurtz version) is a new favourite of ours - we morph it into Can't Always Get What You Want after a bit of an extended jam...
Rollin in the Deep - Adele
The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Mistreated - Deep Purple
I Kissed A Girl - Katie Parry
Bad For You Baby - Gay Moore
Black Magic Woman - Fleetwood Mac
Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin
Medley of :
Get Ready (Rare Earth)/ET (Katie Perry) We Will Rock You and Tie Your Mother Down (Queen)
all seem to go over well any place we play.
We have been doing heavier stuff and it seems as soon as we learn a new song, the other bands copy it. Really trying to get away from the same old carp here.
HIM version of wicked games
Voodoo godsmack
Bad company 5 finger death punch