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I couldn't find the one I was looking for.  It was about his Dad coming home off the road on Friday night with a bouquet of roses and glint in his eye, taking his Mom to dinner, basically a real cool song praising his Dad for being an "everyman" sort of hero. 

But I did find "Dad's Got That Look", which I performed for my own father-in-law on the event of his 70th birthday, about two months before he passed. 

It's in C and has kind of a cajun beat.

http://www.folkmusic.com/lyrics/dads-got-look

Sorry for your loss too Gabby.

Also Doc Watson - but I can't find any wild-picking stuff on Youtube for him right now.  I swear he can get 40 notes out and barely move his fingers. 

- Zurf

Each can be moving and memorable, but my personal preference is for good lyrics.  I like folk and country music mostly because I can understand the lyrics and they tend to be different from the one-track minded lyrics extolling the prowess or experience of the singer.  I heard a lyric the other day about a guy who had a dream that he had gone to hell and had a conversation with the devil.  Upon waking, he decided that he ought to take a good look at how he lives his life.  Then he came out with the lyric "some get spiritual when they see the light and others when they feel the heat."  Now that's just good stuff right there.  Good story-telling put to music is what I like, I guess. 

- Zurf

I've been doing that too.  I use the same song over time so that I can hear progression more easily.  My voice is coming along well compared to where it was two years ago.  I'm still not satisfied with the results usually, but compared to two years ago, I can really hear a tremendous difference.  It's very encouraging to be able to do this for yourself, especially if you don't get the chance to play with others often. 

- Zurf

How freakin' cool is THAT!?

- Zurf

Well I guess my answer is just another form of all the answers above - which come down to practicing (and not just practicing, but practicing slowly enough that you are practicing the right things). 

Here's what I did.  It may or may not work for you, but it has worked for me.  I took a song I wanted to learn and wrote down every chord change.  For instance if the chord progression was D - A - D - G and then repeat, that meant the chord changes were D to A, A to D, D to G, and G to D. 

I practiced each of the chords individually until I could get a good clean sound out of them.  Then I would practice each individual change (D to A, for instance) about twenty times.  Then I'd do the next one (A to D in the example) about twenty times.  I'd do this as long as I could stand doing it.  At this point, I wasn't trying to keep time yet, just get from one chord shape to the next one and get a good, clean sound on each. 

Do that until you become smooth.  It may take a night or may take every night for two weeks.  You're not on a time-table, just do it until it's clean.  Then I introduced time using a metronome.  Downstroke, downstroke, downstroke, downstroke - nothing fancy.  One stroke per beat.  String the changes together IN TIME one per beat as slowly as you need to go to get it clean. 

By this point, you've NAILED those chord changes and can use them in any song that comes along.  Now start worrying about introducing the rhythm.  Do the rhythm and whatever strum pattern you want to use IN TIME.  Slowly as you need to go to get it right.  Accuracy first, speed comes from accuracy. 

Then you're there. 

This is a very, very slow way of learning your first songs.  BUT doing it this way, you absolutely nail down the chord changes that you can use any time you need to change between those chords AND you absolutely nail down your strum pattern and can do it fast or slow or however you need to use it for any given song you do in the future. 

My usual comment is not to be surprised if you have to make chord changes thousands of times before you get it clean.  Twenty times per set, maybe five sets per night, for maybe a couple of weeks when you're first starting.  Some folks want to sound like the record right away, but you have to understand that those guys on the records have been practicing hours per day for decades to sound that good.  It's not something you're going to get in a couple months unless you are absolutely exceptional beyond belief - like Evginey Kissin with piano.  Maybe you are, but I've not met anyone like that in a lifetime around musicians.  That said, nearly anyone can learn to be a good, solid guitar player in time with dedicated and careful practice.  Some faster than others, but as the skills are learned they can be applied to all sorts of songs and styles.  So stick with it and be patient with yourself.  The Eureka! moments when you hear a song and think "I can do that!" will come. 

- Zurf

I sent my stuff via e-mail.  You've got Mekidsmom's facebook contact already, haven't you?

I'm glad you're safe Pix.  It's a shame what the folks in Bladen County are going to have to go through.  We just last August finished the recovery from flooding in our home - it was a fifteen month effort!  I wouldn't wish it on anyone. 

- Zurf

Welcome to the forums.  Many here like country music.  I look forward to your participation.

I was camping with the family, so I have no idea what sort of storms hit the rest of the country.  In the valley where we were it was amazing!  We had camped next to a beautiful little trout river that overnight turned into a raging torrent that submerged islands and bent trees.  The roads were over-run.  I had to ford streams in several places where they had crossed the roads and was blocked by one because it was too much of a risk and I waited it out.  Then we had severe fog roll down off the mountain faster than I'd ever seen - and THICK too.  Wind had kicked up so that it was howling through the trees.  It ripped some of them right out of the moist ground and snapped the trunks of some full grown trees.  We saw some hail.  What ought to have been a 45 minute drive took close to three hours because of the detours for downed trees and waiting out stream crossings on the road.  Then it was over.  After about 18 hours or torrential rain, the wind blew the clouds out and we got a deep blue sky.  So we did the only sensible thing we could do at that point, which was to light a campfire and have some s'mores. 

It was all very exciting. 

- Zurf