The Music Thread

Something different for the Music Thread.
As a "weekend warrior" working musician (by that I mean somebody who still plays gigs out and about most every weekend... maybe 70-80 gigs per year) I play with 2 or 3 different groups, but I also do a lot of solo/duo type gigs. The solo/duo stuff is of the coffeehouse/wineries/restaurant/brewpub type venue.

When doing these gigs you invariably get the ubiquitous "request" to play certain songs. With the jazz band it's usually stuff like The Girl From Ipanema or Take Five, that sort of thing. No problem. We accommodate. With a Bluegrass band it's always Fox on the Run, Rocky Top, Foggy Mtn Breakdown, Dueling Banjos, etc. You get the idea.

Most bands really don't like playing all of those type requests... but a good band should most always try placate the audience, within reason. (Some bands don't think playing "Free Bird" or "Mustang sally" as within reason, hahaha).

On a solo, singer-songwriter gig... you get these ubiquitous requests too... So I decided to formulate a bit of a medley which tries to wrap all the "usual" requested tunes into one big ball - mashed together - and present it early on in the gig... usually first set on a solo gig.

Mind you, I don't actually play the entire song and then quickly move on to the next. No, I take snippets of each song and find a musical segue to move from one to the other. I usually just play/sing the most recognizable part of each tune - probably the chorus or refrain, or perhaps the 1st verse - then the chorus, and move on to the next song.

Here's the mash-up-medley I've come up with which I do on my solo gigs. I call it "The Most Requested Songs Medley".

In order I do:

Margaritaville
Country Roads
Rocky Top
Free Bird
Wagon Wheel
Sweet Caroline

Is there something else you would suggest I add? Another song which you always hear some drunk in the back of the bar holler out?
 
Centerpiece said:
Something different for the Music Thread.
As a "weekend warrior" working musician (by that I mean somebody who still plays gigs out and about most every weekend... maybe 70-80 gigs per year) I play with 2 or 3 different groups, but I also do a lot of solo/duo type gigs. The solo/duo stuff is of the coffeehouse/wineries/restaurant/brewpub type venue.

When doing these gigs you invariably get the ubiquitous "request" to play certain songs. With the jazz band it's usually stuff like The Girl From Ipanema or Take Five, that sort of thing. No problem. We accommodate. With a Bluegrass band it's always Fox on the Run, Rocky Top, Foggy Mtn Breakdown, Dueling Banjos, etc. You get the idea.

Most bands really don't like playing all of those type requests... but a good band should most always try placate the audience, within reason. (Some bands don't think playing "Free Bird" or "Mustang sally" as within reason, hahaha).

On a solo, singer-songwriter gig... you get these ubiquitous requests too... So I decided to formulate a bit of a medley which tries to wrap all the "usual" requested tunes into one big ball - mashed together - and present it early on in the gig... usually first set on a solo gig.

Mind you, I don't actually play the entire song and then quickly move on to the next. No, I take snippets of each song and find a musical segue to move from one to the other. I usually just play/sing the most recognizable part of each tune - probably the chorus or refrain, or perhaps the 1st verse - then the chorus, and move on to the next song.

Here's the mash-up-medley I've come up with which I do on my solo gigs. I call it "The Most Requested Songs Medley".

In order I do:

Margaritaville
Country Roads
Rocky Top
Free Bird
Wagon Wheel
Sweet Caroline

Is there something else you would suggest I add? Another song which you always hear some drunk in the back of the bar holler out?
Click to expand...
Add a warning for when you're going to play it if I'm there to give me time to escape. I think The Rev. Billy C. Wirtz did a song called Stairway to Free Bird.

Not sure who wrote it but here's a version by him.



 
Centerpiece said:
Something different for the Music Thread.
As a "weekend warrior" working musician (by that I mean somebody who still plays gigs out and about most every weekend... maybe 70-80 gigs per year) I play with 2 or 3 different groups, but I also do a lot of solo/duo type gigs. The solo/duo stuff is of the coffeehouse/wineries/restaurant/brewpub type venue.

When doing these gigs you invariably get the ubiquitous "request" to play certain songs. With the jazz band it's usually stuff like The Girl From Ipanema or Take Five, that sort of thing. No problem. We accommodate. With a Bluegrass band it's always Fox on the Run, Rocky Top, Foggy Mtn Breakdown, Dueling Banjos, etc. You get the idea.

Most bands really don't like playing all of those type requests... but a good band should most always try placate the audience, within reason. (Some bands don't think playing "Free Bird" or "Mustang sally" as within reason, hahaha).

On a solo, singer-songwriter gig... you get these ubiquitous requests too... So I decided to formulate a bit of a medley which tries to wrap all the "usual" requested tunes into one big ball - mashed together - and present it early on in the gig... usually first set on a solo gig.

Mind you, I don't actually play the entire song and then quickly move on to the next. No, I take snippets of each song and find a musical segue to move from one to the other. I usually just play/sing the most recognizable part of each tune - probably the chorus or refrain, or perhaps the 1st verse - then the chorus, and move on to the next song.

Here's the mash-up-medley I've come up with which I do on my solo gigs. I call it "The Most Requested Songs Medley".

In order I do:

Margaritaville
Country Roads
Rocky Top
Free Bird
Wagon Wheel
Sweet Caroline

Is there something else you would suggest I add? Another song which you always hear some drunk in the back of the bar holler out?
Click to expand...

The “those fuckin’ songs” list compiled by a friend of mine includes all of those plus:

Wonderwall
Livin’ On A Prayer
Sweet Home Alabama
Semi-Charmed Life
Mr. Brightside
Friends In Low Places
Teenage Dirtbag
Shallow (from A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga- seems to have fallen off a bit lately)
Santeria/What I Got
Tennessee Whiskey
Don’t Stop Believin’
Piano Man
Africa
What’s Up (4 non-blondes)
A Tom Petty hit of your choice
A Taylor Swift hit of your choice

Personally I’d include “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star as one that’s a little lesser known but has absolutely never failed to get a positive response.
 
Who remembers Sting at the Dean Dome when the crowd chanted for him to play "Roxanne" and he mumbled into a hot mic something along the lines of "I'm a slave to that fucking song."? Am I remembering that story correctly?
 
Ddseddse said:
Who remembers Sting at the Dean Dome when the crowd chanted for him to play "Roxanne" and he mumbled into a hot mic something along the lines of "I'm a slave to that fucking song."? Am I remembering that story correctly?
Click to expand...
My understanding is that Van Morrison feels the same about Brown Eyed Girl.
 
Centerpiece said:
Here's the mash-up-medley I've come up with which I do on my solo gigs. I call it "The Most Requested Songs Medley".

In order I do:

Margaritaville
Country Roads
Rocky Top
Free Bird
Wagon Wheel
Sweet Caroline

Is there something else you would suggest I add? Another song which you always hear some drunk in the back of the bar holler out?
Click to expand...
Is it sort of like this?

 
Carolina Fever said:
I feel like the songs on each album Swift has put out since 2020 all sound the same throughout the album. I actually liked her new album more than any other she has out put since then, but the songs still all sounded similar.
Click to expand...
I'm no Swiftie but I've purchased two of her albums since 2020: Showgirl and Midnights (3am ed). To me they sound completely different. Midnights is more moody and reflective with a definite producer influenced sound to it. Showgirl is brighter, happier with a totally different vibe than her 2022 release. I enjoy them both btw.
 
superrific said:
Is it sort of like this?

Click to expand...

Yes and no.
This mash up is brilliant and incorporates a gazillion songs - which happen to have the same or very similar 4 chord format. It’s perfectly executed too. But they do them all in the same key. In the original versions, one song may be in Bb, and another in E and so on… but in their mash up, all the tunes are in D major. Very clever no doubt. And transposing them all to the same key of D makes it all sail along smoothly as if one, long song.

It’s a similar idea as mine, but yet different. The tunes that get requested all the dang time at a bar or club don’t necessarily have the same chord structure, and they’re all in different keys, different grooves, etc.

I tried to find creative ways to hook them all together even though they are in different keys. Segueing from one tune to the next - even tho in different keys and different grooves is the tricky part. But I get it to work.
 
Based on responses, I think I should prolly add:
Stairway, Brown Eye girl and maybe Tenn Whiskey

But I gotta draw the line somewhere I guess.

Of course it’s easy when doing a solo gig because you can do whatever the f*** you want, and you don’t have band members grumbling “don’t tell me we’re gonna play that shit!?”

I got one guitar player colleague with whom I do a lot of gigs - he’s older than dirt - and he knows all the signature licks and riffs of every friggin song there is. So when some drunk requests a song, no matter what it is, this guy lights into it, note for friggin note. It’s funny sometimes, but it gets on my nerves because now the drunk wants to hear the whole damn song, and I ain’t feelin’ it.
 
Centerpiece said:
Yes and no.
This mash up is brilliant and incorporates a gazillion songs - which happen to have the same or very similar 4 chord format. It’s perfectly executed too. But they do them all in the same key. In the original versions, one song may be in Bb, and another in E and so on… but in their mash up, all the tunes are in D major. Very clever no doubt. And transposing them all to the same key of D makes it all sail along smoothly as if one, long song.

It’s a similar idea as mine, but yet different. The tunes that get requested all the dang time at a bar or club don’t necessarily have the same chord structure, and they’re all in different keys, different grooves, etc.

I tried to find creative ways to hook them all together even though they are in different keys. Segueing from one tune to the next - even tho in different keys and different grooves is the tricky part. But I get it to work.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I didn't think yours would be all that similar. I just wanted an excuse to post that, which is weird because I don't even like it that much.

In addition to the key-standardizing, they are also emphasizing different aspects of the different songs, which makes it a bit disingenuous but it's parody so duh.
 
superrific said:
Yeah, I didn't think yours would be all that similar. I just wanted an excuse to post that, which is weird because I don't even like it that much.

In addition to the key-standardizing, they are also emphasizing different aspects of the different songs, which makes it a bit disingenuous but it's parody so duh.
Click to expand...
Yup. Parody. My mash up is certainly not that. But I’ll give it props for production value for what it is. Though it’s not my jam either.
 
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