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1. The boys sitting up late and playing around the campfire by the banks of the New River in August.
2. Willie Nelson
3. Johnny Cash
4. James Taylor
5. Jimmy Buffett

Not necessarily in that order on any given day.  #1 is always #1 though.

- Zurf

Nice.  Feels good to get a complement.  I got one at a Guitar Center not long ago, not as nice as the one you got, but a guy I recognize from playing local clubs heard me trying out some acoustic guitars and asked me where I was playing out.  I'm not near good enough to play out, but it was nice to be asked.  He invited me to a bunch of jamm sessions, too.  That was kind of him.

- Zurf

Yep.  So long as it's recognizable, and even if it isn't and still sounds OK to you, you don't need to play note for note.  If you do want to play note for note, look to the tabs.  If you just want to play a song that you like in a way that you like, look to the chords and maybe use the tabs to pick up some of the 'signature' riffs to work into your version.  Of course, signature riffs can be strummed too.  Think of "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot for what I mean.  The upstrummed rhythm riff at the beginning is immediately identifiable. 

- Zurf

I don't recommend it. 

The B chord I mean.  You should definitely crap.

No paste.  One of their Silly Songs With Larry is done by a group called New Kidz In the Sink.  And you betcha, I am intimately familiar with them all.  It is very funny stuff.  My kids are the right age to watch it and they love it.  It's one of the few things that I can put on and both the kids like it, and I like it too.  Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato are the main characters.  The carrots are pikers.  Has-beens.  The real up and comers are the squashes.  Bob and Larry had better be careful about the squashes.  And those asparagus seem just a little bit too nice to be real.

- Zurf

Musicians Friend and Music123 both have good prices on beginner guitars.  You can get something that will make a chord for under $100 from either of them.  I have used them both and been pleased with both, maybe a little more pleased with Music123 but that's meant as a complement to Music123 rather than a complaint about Musicians Friend.

- Zurf

It's not so much the song, but how I was reminded of the song.  The song is Earth, Wind, and Fire's Shining Star.  Many of us 'of a certain age' remember grooving to that song on AM radio wondering what the bass line was like.  Then FM came along and WHAT A COOL BASS LINE. 

Anyway, the song isn't so much a guilty pleasure as how I was reminded of it and started grooving.  The song appears on my daughter's Hannah Montana CD that we were jamming this morning while cleaning the house.  Mom is out of the house, and when she's out we jamm!  So, yeah, big old salt & pepper bearded bald fat desk jockey dude was dancing and grooving to a Hannah Montana recording.

- Zurf

My first guitar was given to me by my girlfriend.  She had tried to learn it as a girl and had it hanging around.  I married her, by the way.  I don't recall the brand of the guitar, but I do recall that the neck was warped and I could only get five strings tuned at a time. 

I was given some guitars by a friend as part of a moving deal.  He needed help moving, and I helped.  He had extra stuff and put it in a pile.  Anyone who helped move could take anything they wanted from the pile.  I took three guitars.  All beat up, two of them were 3/4 size.  I gave one of them to my sister so that she could have a guitar for giving lessons on, I gave one to my daughter, and I kept the third.  The third was a Yamaha Classical full size "student" guitar. 

My first guitar I purchased is an Ibanez SG knockoff.  It's on my wall behind me right now.  I never play it, but all the talk of barre chords being easier on an electric got me thinking.  So I'm restringing it today and it will get some use.  It's a beautiful sounding guitar.  Sounds far richer than the meager price tag would have one suspect. 

If you're including basses in the lineup, then my first bass I bought was a home-built bass someone had traded.  I bought it for $25 on a whim.  It was a plywood body that was painted black and had a lightning bolt painted in red on the back with the word "Whizbang" painted diagonally across the body.  I loved Whizbang.  It got me restarted with stringed instruments.  Whizbang fell apart catastrophically while I was playing it.  It was home built, but not well built. 

- Zurf

Jambalaya by Hank Williams.  All C and G7

Horse with No Name someone mentioned above, only four chords.  All chords are two finger chords.  And you only switch back and forth between two of them at a time.  Easy strum pattern too.  A good confidence building song.

Bob Dylan songs have been working for me lately.  Open chords, easy strum patterns.  Songs that tell a story.  Good stuff.  Again, confidence building songs. 

Something that's important to me is that I don't try and cover songs EXACTLY like the "original".  In my perception of things, songs ought to be interpreted.  I blew a poor guy's mind at a guitar shop once.  He was playing some Lep Zeppelin and making a perfect reproduction of the sound.  Perfect.  It may as well have been a record.  So he was a pretty young kid and he looked up at me (not nearly the guitar player, but an older guy) and I could tell he was looking for some sort of affirmation by the puppy dog look he gave.  Anyway I said, "That was brilliant.  A perfect reproduction.  Very well done.  Now play it again the way YOU think it ought to be played."  He did, and it sounded even better to my ears.  The whole point is, don't be afraid to interpret. 

And when you make a mistake, don't be afraid of that either and don't get upset with yourself.  EVERYONE makes mistakes.  I had the good fortune to listen to some raw tapes of a Willie Nelson session.  They played an AWESOME version of a Hank Williams song (don't recall which right now).  Really jamming.  They paused for a moment after the big finish on the song, and then they all busted out laughing.  Seems Willie Nelson played a guitar solo over the harmonica solo, he got some choruses reversed in the lyrics, and the harmonica player stepped all over Willie Nelson when it was time for the guitar solo.  You'd never have known it from the recording, but listening to the laughter and banter after it was all done and then going back, you could pick it up.  EVERYONE makes mistakes.  These guys have been playing together for decades and screw up.  So, take it easy on yourself and keep it fun. 

- Zurf

dguyton -

Thanks for describing your revelation.  I never play my electric, but after a bit of looking, I see that it has a much lower action.  I bought some new strings last night.  I'll restring it, put on the strap, stand up, and give your method a try. 

With some luck and a bit of effort, I'll be playing "Sister Golden Hair" in no time.  (Look at the chords - all barre forms - eek!!)

- Zurf