eric clapton

Playlist #267

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Happy Monday, folks! We’re well into June now, and school continues for…reasons? I’m not really sure anymore. But I’m getting stuff done and prepped for next year, so that’s good. Anyway, some coworkers and I are going to get together this week and next to play some music! Here’s our setlist.

  1. Santo & Johnny, “Sleepwalk”: It’s an instrumental that you’d probably recognize if you heard it. One of the guys I’m playing with plays pedal steel guitar, which makes this a perfect song for us.
  2. Iron & Wine and Calexico, “History of Lovers”: Some of these songs are ones I’ll sing, like this one. I tried to choose songs that were (A) easy to play and (B) could or did feature pedal steel in them already. This one fits both criteria! And it’s fun.
  3. Wilco, “Jesus, Etc.”: Another of my choices. I wanted a Wilco song, and had it narrowed down between this one and “California Stars.” Kinda tempted to ask if we can change it to “California Stars” now, though, ’cause it’s such a fun song.
  4. Bruce Springsteen, “Stolen Car”: Dunno how all my choices got shoved into the beginning of the set, but that’s okay (it’s probably just down to the way I searched them up on my phone when putting together the playlist). This one falls under the “easy to play” side of things, since it’s just a two-chord song (just G and C. Now you can figure out how to play it yourself. This is educational).
  5. The Eagles, “Take It Easy”: Not one of my picks, surprisingly enough, though one that I am clearly well aware of and already know how to play. I’ll do some backing vocals on it, though, although I’m not sure I can get as high as the “eaaasy” as I ought to. We’ll have to see.
  6. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, “Built To Last”: For some reason, my brain always thinks of this as “latter-day Tom Petty,” but it’s from the first half of his career. The ’90s was also only six years ago, as far as my brain is concerned, so ignore that. It’s another easy one to play, and I love playing it.
  7. Hank Williams, “Hey, Good Lookin'”: The last of my suggestions. If you’re looking for a good pedal steel song, you can’t go wrong with Hank.
  8. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Lodi”: My only challenge with this song is going to be hitting that key change for the last verse. I’ve never been able to pull off the key change. I’m gonna have to practice.
  9. Eric Clapton, “Lay Down Sally”: Another super-easy one to play, and it’s a lot of fun.
  10. The Band, “The Weight”: The biggest challenge with this one is going to be hitting those backing vocals and not sounding like a wounded cat.

Playlist #124: Home

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Happy Monday, folks. By tomorrow, the wife and I will be homeowners (and the sister-in-law)! We’ve been renting the same townhouse for almost 14 years now, so it’ll be strange to leave it and call some other place home. There’ll be new traffic patterns to learn, a new (slightly longer) route to work, and I’m sure a whole host of challenges and foibles associated with moving into a new place. But I’ll have music to keep me going there, including this week’s playlist.

  1. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, “Our House”: We’ve only got the one cat, and she won’t really be allowed out (we don’t really have a yard, per se. We’re moving into a condo), but this still feels fitting.
  2. Hem, “Home Again”: Our intention is to move into this place and just settle in. I don’t see us moving again for a very, very long time, if ever.
  3. Iron & Wine, “Walking Far From Home”: I’m hoping to find some walking trails or something close by so I can start exercising again. I will miss having the park right across the street where I could go do that.
  4. Norah Jones, “Long Way Home”: As I mentioned above, this new home will put us slightly further out from work, but that was the trade-off: live further out, find a place you can afford.
  5. Eric Clapton, “Back Home”: We really do like the place. It’s got plenty of very usable space, it’s in a nice neighborhood, and I think we’ll settle in very well there.
  6. Sheryl Crow, David Alvin, Phil Alvin, & Taj Mahal, “Home Again”: This is from the Ghost Brothers of Dark County original soundtrack, that stage play that John Mellencamp and Stephen King collaborated on.
  7. Healthy White Baby, “Home”: Great band, absolutely terrible band name.
  8. Simon & Garfunkel, “Homeward Bound”: A classic.
  9. Jack Johnson, “Home”: If our homes feels as comfortable and laid back as a Jack Johnson song, I’ll be content.
  10. Aretha Franklin, “Bring It On Home To Me”: God, this woman could just SING.

Playlist #14

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This week is my father’s birthday! For the playlist, I chose songs from bands we’ve seen play live. Going to concerts was how my father and I bonded (rather than sports, or cars, or reading interests, or stuff like that. I don’t think he was particularly ready to have an indoor son), and we’ve seen some great shows over the years.

  1. The Doobie Brothers, “Black Water”: The first concert I went to was in the 5th grade, and it was to see these guys. In hindsight, I think this show was more for my dad than for me; I mean, I liked “China Grove,” but I wasn’t really familiar with much of the rest of their stuff. It was still a good time, though.
  2. Genesis, “I Can’t Dance”: We saw Genesis on the tour for the We Can’t Dance album down in Dallas, TX. I remember us trying to walk to the stadium where the show was held, then deciding it would work better to drive ’cause it was just too damn far.
  3. Eric Clapton, “Stop Breakin’ Down Blues”: We caught Clapton on the tour for Me and Mr. Johnson, where he did a bunch of old Robert Johnson tunes. Billy Preston played keyboards on the album and the tour. It was pretty fantastic.
  4. John Mellencamp, “Rain On The Scarecrow”: Mellencamp was touring for his greatest hits album when we caught him. He did a little acoustic set in the middle of the show, and this was one of the songs they played during that part.
  5. The Rolling Stones, “Honky Tonk Women”: Caught them in Norman when I was in high school. Nearly got crushed trying to get to our seats by the press of drunk Boomers. Good times.
  6. ZZ Top, “Sharp Dressed Man”: Dusty Hills, the bass player, just passed away last week. These guys put on a damn good show.
  7. Crosby, Stills, & Nash, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”: Caught them at the Civic Center Auditorium in Oklahoma City back in high school. These guys can harmonize, and Stephen Stills may be one of the best guitar players I’ve ever seen, hands down.
  8. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Don’t Do Me Like That”: Tom Petty was one of my favorite artists growing up. I only had a couple of his albums when he went on the Into the Great Wide Open tour, but we managed to get front row center tickets to the show. I sang along at the top of my lungs to every song, and Tom Petty gave me his guitar pick at the end of the show. Just awesome.
  9. Chicago, “I’m A Man”: Now, I haven’t ever seen Chicago in concert. Not sure I wanna see a Terry Kath-less Chicago anyway. But I know they’re one of my dad’s favorite bands, and I know he saw them back in the ’70s, so i really couldn’t resist putting at least one Chicago song on the list.
  10. The Beatles, “Norwegian Wood”: Again, I’ve obviously never seen the Beatles in concert. They were done a good decade before I came along. But we grew up listening to them. Dad and I used to go see a Beatles cover band called Tribute 1964 every time they rolled into Norman (which, when I was in high school, was an annual occurrence). I would have been remiss in not putting a Beatles song on this list, and I know dad likes to play this one on the guitar.