Song Help Request Cool "Americana" songs for the ukulele

shanifawni

shanifawni

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So at this lil gallery(The Future) I sometimes put artwork up at and play music at, in the Metro Detroit area, I've signed up yet again to play music. One of the nights available was themed as "Americana Night" so I was like sweet! I'll play some tunes on my dulcimer (and a lot of the songs in the mountain dulcimer books are Americana-like)

but the set i have to play is pretty long, and of course i GOTTA play my ukulele, so what songs would you suggest? or maybe an artist i should check out?

I already have some songs picked out, but would like any suggestions. I tried Wikipedia-ing Americana music and their suggestions of Americana music seem really broad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americana_(music)

some help/suggestions would be stellarr, thanks guys!
 
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"Windfall" by Son Volt would work well.
 
Would any of Ken Middleton's stuff be appropriate?
 
What's your artwork about? Might be kind of cool to have songs that complement your paintings (especially if they all follow a theme)
 
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Americana lives somewhere between country and folk rock. Artists like Joe Ely, Guy Clark, John Hiatt, Steve Earle, John Prine, Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Townes Van Zandt, and Gram Parsons are good examples of the genre.

Here's a great list (pay attention only to the first 100) of Americana songs:

http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_songs-Americana.html

You should definitely do some Lucinda Williams and Nanci Griffith, you'd sound amazing singing their songs.

One song that should be on this list that I think you should do is, "You Can Sleep While I Drive," by Melissa Etheridge.
 
Yeck, I didn't even know Americana was a genre, but the first song I thought of was "City of New Orleans". The second was "Me and Bobby McGee". Don't know if either of these fit your needs, but I like the songs....
 
COOL, thanks everyone. I will definitely be checkign these people out sometime tonight.

Citrus said:
What's your artwork about? Might be kind of cool to have songs that complement your paintings (especially if they all follow a theme)
Click to expand...

I don't do paintings, I mostly display a few photos. It's a mixed artist show so there will be more than one artist. Sometimes I do illustration too, but probably will not. I don't actually think I'm displaying artwork the night I'm playing, I'll have to double check, but if I do, I'm thinking about my photography being music-themed.

seeso said:
You should definitely do some Lucinda Williams and Nanci Griffith, you'd sound amazing singing their songs.

One song that should be on this list that I think you should do is, "You Can Sleep While I Drive," by Melissa Etheridge.
Click to expand...

thank you Seeso! very informative! I will check them all out, and I've heard of Melissa, a friend of mine really liked her and I miiightve heard a song by her, it was good.

ihavenotea said:
Have a great show!
Record a couple numbers from your set and post them later!
Click to expand...

Thankss Gregory! I will try, I'll have to convince someone to take video for me. haha.
 
doh! yeah I had actually looked at some of your art after i made that post and switched "paintings" to "artwork" the on the first part but i missed the second one, I'm just surrounded by painters (mom, and a bunch of friends all painters) you'll have to excuse me.
Is there any particular theme for the museum on that night that you know of?
 
its Americana night, lol. she usually doesn't theme the artwork of the gallery because so many people show at once (it'd be hard to coordinate). but i do have to double check to see if i'm showing that night or not...i thought i wrote it down.
 
Well, a couple good questions are "who's in your audience" and "what do you want to do to them" you could break their hearts, make them get lost in reveries, or make them dance. A couple suggestions I've got are
All I want is you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQES...145D5DE4&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=15
for toe tapping cuteness

chords here
http://www.911tabs.com/link/?4727449

for something a little more low key and touching might be Neil Diamonds a "Heart of Gold"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh44QPT1mPE#t=1m48s
http://www.911tabs.com/link/?1610856
unless you happen to play harmonica you might have to come up with a substitute or leave out the harmonica parts for these songs, I personally whistle when I play the first one, but they're still nice without them

also would like to know what music you're comfortable with, how you consider yourself as a vocalist/instrumentalist, you wanna make sure you're showing them what you can do, not what you can't do

also... kick some musical butt!

gah I keep having to edit my posts, I should have though about just checking out the vids in your signature for your abilities, you're an amazing singer! I think either of the songs would work out very well for you, but it sounds like you prefer a little slower pace so heart of gold would probably be best
 
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Citrus said:
for something a little more low key and touching might be Neil Diamonds a "Heart of Gold"
Click to expand...

Fail! It's Neil Young! Be happy Russ Buss didn't see this post, he'd have a brain aneurysm.
 
:(
DOH
funny thing is I typed neil diamond in to youtube thinking neil young, needs more name differentiation, Diamond needs to at least change his name to something that would make him sound cool like Maximus. How could somebody named Maximus Diamond not be wearing a tuxedo and scoring hot women all day?
 
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