Season 321 - The Discovery Channel

thank you for this week, Linda, and the excellent theme.
Calexico have been my favourite band since forever but I've always been too scared
to try and record any of their songs. til now.
 

Am F G7 C
Aamulla varhain kun aurinko nousi
Am Dm E7 Am
kun minä unestani heräsin
Am F G7 C
Sydämeni oli niin surusta raskas
F Dm E7 A
mmiksi sä kultani hyljäsit mun
Am F G7 C
Sydämeni oli niin surusta raskas
F Dm E7 A
mmiksi sä kultani hyljäsit mun

 
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Hello, Linda ... what a brilliant theme! There are so many songs that I have "discovered" since joining the Seasons, not least because, in the previous few years, most of the music I listened to on the radio came from a classical music station. One of my many discoveries is Leonard Cohen. Well, I mean, obviously I KNEW Leonard Cohen, but I didn't realise that I liked his songs, having always dismissed him as a miserable so-and-so. This is the first song of his that I have attempted.
 
Use Code /Code (#) tags to preserve formatting in text.


Code:
Am      F           G7      C
Aamulla varhain kun aurinko nousi
Am  Dm      E7       Am
kun minä unestani heräsin
Am       F        G7      C
Sydämeni oli niin surusta raskas
F      Dm         E7       A
mmiksi sä kultani hyljäsit mun
Am       F        G7      C
Sydämeni oli niin surusta raskas
F      Dm         E7       A
mmiksi sä kultani hyljäsit mun

^^ like so ^^
:)
 
Ahoy
Being now to the seasons then I have almost the whole world of music to select from.
Today I did a Skip James song that I first heard Beck cover - so this is one or the other? or both?
Anywho
Enjoy
 
All Linda's are pretty much awesome, and Linda Hargrove was no exception. Known as the "Blue jean country queen", cause she wore faded denim and didn't wear make up or do much with her hair, Linda Hargrove was a hot songwriter in the late 70's, as a litany of country and pop artists recorded songs of hers. She was also a fantastic singer and musician, and had several major label albums out as an artist herself, but never had much individual commercial success. She was one of the first female acts to meld country and rock together, as well as other musical genres . It became the norm later, but not so much when she was first doing it. She was in with the "Outlaw" country movement of the 70's, not an "official" member maybe, but the Willie's and Waylon's of the world all had big respect for her. I've been a fan of hers for a long time, but have never done one of her songs, so here's one of hers I really love.

 
Well, we're one day into Season 321 now and the music sounds finer than finer to me. I'm very appreciative of those who have already visited those bands and performers and songs they hadn't gotten to before now. Great listening to all kinds of songs - some new, some old. All brought so so well! Thank you!


Here's today's listen from me. Via the Seasons through a terrific performance by Jon, I discovered Willie Watson. What a treasure he is!


 
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Felt the need to cover a female artist in honour of our host.
Found this Lucinda Williams npr Tiny Desk Concert and this song had me from the first listen.
Just two chords but so well done by her and the three piece band.
Sorry but just me and my Tom Pocket sopranino and some foot tapping.
Would love to play bass like ukefoote...sigh...

 
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I still haven't found what I'm looking for

Gah! I'm going to have to do a lot of digging through my 'back-catalogue.' I've posted over 400 videos to the Seasons. :uhoh:

Of course, on 2nd thoughts, it was a very simple choice - and a very simple choice to for everyone but Wim. Do a U2 number. None of us (beside Wim) ever do, 'cos he's always pretty much first out of the traps with a pretty much definitive version of a U2 number appropriate to that particular season. So none of the rest of us ever cover a U2 number!

Ignore the title of this one. I pretty much found what I was looking for straight away! :-D

That said, although it's just C, F & G the whole way through, it's really quite tricky to keep the beat while coping with all the lyrics that Bono shoehorns into the song. I used a calypso/rasgueado combo strum so I wouldn't lose count. I probably went at it too fast too. :)


p.s., & following on from Wim's 'Schotland' (pretend you're Sean Connery saying 'Scotland' when you pronounce that), this evening's fun fact on The Discovery Channel is that the German for 'smuggler' is 'Schmuggler.'
 
This is a song by an acquaintance, Kristen Ford. She used to be in Boston, but is now based out of Nashville. The chorus of this song really speaks to me. Kristen's original version is here: Kristen Ford - El Camino


 
I have wanted to cover this song, ,for long time and this would’ve been the perfect week but I am sick as a dog!


Janet, what a great song - thanks for putting it on our radar!!!! Wish you felt well enough to bring it! Take good care and thank you for this one!
 
Staring at the rude boys

I love Ruts D.C., and I always thought that this would be a great number for the pUKEs to cover, but I hadn't worked out the chords before we'd split up.

If any of you have ever come across a '5' chord (C5, E5 etc), aka a 'power chord', and wondered what that was; well, it's just the 1st and the 5th of a chord with the 3rd omitted (so just C&G and E&B in the case of C5 & E5).
What's interesting about these 'chords' (strictly speaking, they're just intervals) is that without the 3rd of the chord to tell you whether it's major or minor, a '5' chord occupies this indeterminate position: neither major nor minor and yet both. So quite often, where a '5' chord is being played, one source will tell you it's a major chord, while another will say it's minor. A lot of Ramones chord charts differ like this (check out the chord charts for Rockaway Beach on ultimate-guitar.com for example).

I spent a lot of time puzzling over how to play the intro/chorus on this number until I realised you need to play D5, E5, F5 (that's 22xx, 44xx and 55xx on a uke).

 
Every Little Raindrop

Bliss Blood plays uke and fronts bands with different names and songs, usually a jazz backup, but sometimes blues, cabaret, or rock. The Moonlighters made a couple of decent albums between 1998 and 2010 that I am aware of. (Other bands use the name as well)

On this take I didn't repeat the last 2 verses, as it is a little high for me today (and I didn't want to take the small amount of time needed to do it in a different key, as I like the fingering this way.) ( I am fingering C-E7-A7-D7-G7, but am tuned in Bb)


 
Mad World

I spent a quite a bit of time teaching ukulele for Mind, the mental health charity, and this was one of the numbers I taught them. The administrators had kittens when they found out, but the clients loved it!

I have to confess though that I included it by mistake! I wanted an example of a song that used the melodic minor scale, and thought that this was an example. It's only recently I realised that it actually uses the Dorian mode.

The Dorian mode is one of the three minor modes, Phrygian and Aeolian being the others (Aeolian is also what we'd call the natural minor scale).
This number is in D Dorian. That is to say, it doesn't use any sharps or flats: so while it uses all the same chords as the key of C major (aka C Ionian mode), the root chord of D Dorian is Dm and the root note of the melody is D.

 
Dust in the Wind.

I stand to be corrected (as always! :D ), but I don't think anyone's ever done this on the Seasons. And certainly not in a reggae style. I hope Wyld Stallyns would approve. ;)

I'm using my Argapa (pron. 'are-ee ah-pa, Swedish for 'angry monkey'!) piccolo for this one. Tuned to D, it weighs maybe 6oz. I love that uke!

 
Here is one for YOU!
YOU the Seasonista.

I dont believe this has been brought to the seasons by anyone. It is a Mr. Rogers song but it could be a jazz standard IMO. I had to bring it to YOU!

 
I have never attempted anything quite like this. This a piece from Ricochet by Tangerine Dream. It is the only album of theirs that I have ever listened to and I love it . I intend now to go "Discover" and listen to more because I had forgotten how much I enjoy electronic music and electronic prog rock. Condensing several huge Moog synths and several sequencers and assorted late 70s paraphenalia into the four strings of a wooden "Toy guitar" lol, was a challenge,so I have not slavishly tried to "cover" the piece (which is over 40 minutes long anyway ,so Pabrizzer would be having conniptions :biglaugh:) but tried to capture the feel and the key riffs of the first 16 minutes..or side 1 as it was known . So ,a First Ever Tangerine Dream entry from me, a discovery in the future (already happening) of their back catalogue,in all their various line ups and a rediscovery of this most excellent prog rock electronica mood piece from the late 70s.


 
God gave Rock & Roll to you

Testify! :D

I don't know if the series ever aired elswhere, but following Jack Black's 2004 'School of Rock', (or allegedly, quite co-incidentally), the UK's Channel 4 put out this reality TV show called 'Rock School', in which Kiss's own Gene Simmons is tasked with turning a group of unlikely school kids into a fully-fledged rock band. The first school he was sent to was a C16th foundation called (believe it or not) "Christ's Hospital", a boarding school where the kids still adhere to the Tudor school uniform code of 1553!
I mention this 'cos in episode 1, Gene Simmons introduction to the school community is via a packed-out school chapel into which he wanders, strumming a guitar singing 'God Gave Rock'n'Roll To You'.
Much as I enjoyed the show and Gene Simmons performance on it, I don't particularly like Kiss's version of this song - or more particularly, I don't particularly like the lyrics they put to it. Far too preachy; far too much of the 'hard work brings its own salvation' sermonising for my taste. So here I went back to the original Russ Ballard lyrics he wrote for Argent way back in 1972 (Russ Ballard went on to write hits for groups as diverse as America and Hot Chocolate).
All that said, I never imagined I'd ever be covering a song Kiss & Gene Simmons made famous, not now, not any time ever. So I blame you, Linda, for this racket :rotfl:
 


I did a challenge to write a song with ten words included in the lyrics, so I wrote about Evelyn Nesbit.
 
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