The Glade 4.0

So, I have not had the heart to play in a couple of years...

I'm trying to ease back into it, and I need some help picking out some songs based on my strengths/weaknesses. I am a mediocre guitar player (mostly basic strumming but some arpeggio, not good at solos, walk-downs, or palm muting...) and an alto/mezzo soprano vocally. Much much stronger vocally than I am with guitar skills.

Some songs I have liked to play and sing in the past (and actually pull off really well):

Burn One Down--Ben Harper
Bobby McGee---Janis Joplin
You Were Meant For Me--Jewel
Broken Hallelujah---Rufus Wainwright
Hurt------Johnny Cash
Our Town---Iris Dement
The Way I Am----Ingrid Michealson
Can't Let Go----Lucinda Williams
Let Me Down Hard---John Eddie (He actually like my version better than his own and extended an open invitation to me to sing with him in concert, but I was too shy and too self-deprecating to ever take him up on it.)

I'm at the point now where I'm almost too discouraged to even sing or play at all, I am so hard on myself. And learning anything new on guitar right now is almost enough to make me throw in the towel.

I really need to get back into it and any suggestions based on the info I've given would be soooo appreciated.

I really need this right now. Any song suggestions?

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Can't go wrong with Tom Petty songs. Very easy to play and sing, and are always very fun.

Another very fun one that isn't too difficult is Renato Russo's cover of Madonna's "Cherish."

I also really enjoy playing/singing Neil Diamond's Cherry Cherry (in the style of his more upbeat live performance, instead of the studio cut).

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

"Down In A Hole (unplugged)" or "Don't Follow" by Alice In Chains.

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The Dude abides.

Numbuk: Actually thats pretty good...I had forgotten about Tom Petty. Everyone likes to sing along with his stuff as well.
I listened to that song and at first I couldn't get the sound/style of Madonna out of the way, but halfway through I found myself thinking that might actually be fun to play. I'll give it a shot after the kids wake up. Thanks!
Screeling....Down In a Hole would definitely be a challenge. I wonder if I could pull it off? I also wonder if I can talk Nitefox into singing harmony? Hahaha! Thanks for the suggestions.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Much <3 for Alice in Chains....

I'd sing harmony with you, LK.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

More Chains - Heaven Beside You, Nutshell

Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter. Learning the guitar intro and outro will make you better at improvisational playing.

Skynyrd - Simple Man, Sweet Home Alabama, and my fav. The Ballad of Curtis Lowe

Here's two songs you can learn the instrumental parts too (not a big fan of the vocals) that I found greatly improved my soloing ability on acoustic. I learned on electric which babied my fingers, because all that speed didn't translate well over to acoustic:

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

My contribution to this thread is Days of the New:

Touch, Peel and Stand
Shelf in the Room


And because I like Godsmack... these too:

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Poison
"Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
"Something to Believe In"

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Raell Kromwell

I know nothing about guitar, but I'm a mezzo-soprano and I know what I like to sing.

How about 'Angel from Montgomery' by John Prine? Bonnie Raitt's is the best version, but I've heard it by its author, John Denver, Susan Tedeschi, and Dave Matthews as well. An amazing song. I can't sing it without getting weepy.

If your low-end mezzo has some power behind it you could do any of Melissa Etheridge's stuff, too.

Sarah McLachlan is well within your range... her early stuff is guitar-centric.

Annie Lennox and Stevie Nicks are mezzo/contraltos, but I don't know if there's guitar stuff available.

I've been on a heart breaker kick lately, the ones that make you cry.

Sarah McLachlan - Arms of an Angel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVbkz_3lO3c

Stan Rogers - First Christmas - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chTMOuuU ... re=related
Baritone range, but you could probably make it work, its adaptable
Likewise, his Mary Ellen Carter is inspiring - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-aEcPg ... re=related

Tanya Tucker - Delta Dawn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3SfcANH-9A
don't laugh, it still holds up. She actually has a number of good songs for an acoustic set, early career especially.

Crystal Gayle - Don't it make My Brown Eyes Blue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0aT0GXW8jw

Bobbie Gentry - not ode to Billie Joe, though its good, but Son of A Preacher Man - best version I ever saw personally was done by a very gay man with a great country tenor - put an entirely new light on the song.
http://s0.ilike.com/play#Bobbie+Gentry: ... 4dadf923eb

Patsy Cline, Crazy, or I Fall to Pieces, or Walking after Midnight, or even Sweet Dreams of You. her voice was great, her personality sold the songs, and she died way too soon.

Last, but definitely not least another song done by Stan Rogers, and many others, but here done by Holly Hanson - Witch of the West Mer Lands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve798ajDV7c


Good luck LK, and post a recording of yourself doing some singing soon, I'd love to hear it.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I love Days of the New.


Some more suggestions would be Collective Soul. "December" and "Heaven's Already Here" specifically.

It's slightly out of my range to sing, but "To Be With You" by Mr. Big is also a very simple one to play (and the solo is not too difficult to learn at all either).

"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield is also fun. I played that one at my wife's last campout/family reunion when we were sitting around the fire.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Sweet! I am really excited, ya'll! Thanks for the suggestions. Some of them I used to do a lot of, and totally forgot about. Others, I will need to do some you-tubing for. I'll work on these for awhile and maybe I'll have something worth posting a link to in a week or two.
Thanks!

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth