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Raise your hand if you are in an acoustic duo!


vanlatte

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Wow, there is a gal around here that does a solo act and she also does the Briteny song; I was amazed at how good it sounded. Whoda thunk a tune like that could translate well to acoustic?


:D

Actually I LOVE it when somebody does something clever like that, take a song that has a lot of instrumentation and pare it down to just guitar and voice. Sometimes its very effective, and I am always on the lookout for songs I can butcher that way.



Check out Sam Bush and John Cowan doing Lowell George's "Sailin' Shoes".

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Semi-acoustic Americana duo here: She plays acoustic and I play acoustic, semi-hollow-body and baritone guitars. We're thinking of adding a guy who can play guitar, banjo and mandolin, freeing me to play Dobro-style slide or bass.


Each of us sings lead and harmony.


Here's our last setlist, though for shorter gigs we usually just a pick a couple of openers and wing it from there.


A Love the Magician, Dave Carter

A Bang the Drum Slowly, Emmylou Harris

D Keep Your Distance, Richard Thompson

D Leaving La. in the Broad Daylight, Rodney Crowell

B Across the Great Divide, Kate Wolf

B Crossing the Bar, Rani Arbo/Tennyson

B Orphan Girl, Gillian Welch

C Dear Mary, Linda Thompson

C Miss Ohio, G. Welch

D I

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I just read your list and fell in love.


I do a lot of the same kind of stuff (and even the same songs).

Some of my stuff:


One To Many Mornings, Don't Think Twice, I Shall Be Released- Bob Dylan

Feels Like Rain, Lipstick Sunset, Just Like Your Dad Did- John Hiatt

I'm Not From Here, Levelland, Lights of Cheyenne, No More Buffalo- James McMurtry

Arms of a Woman, Bottom of the Barrel- Amos Lee

Livin' In The Future, Angel From Montgomery, Hello In There, Sam Stone- John Prine

Crazy Love- Van Morrison

Every Time You Go Away, Sara Smile- Darryl Hall

Santa Fe, Gulf of Mexico, Blue as You, Shimmer- Shawn Mullins

Send a Boat, If I Were You, Enough Rope, Long Black Highway- Chris Knight

Under My Thumb, Dead Flowers- Stones

Mrs Robinson- Simon & Garfunkel

Houses in the Fields- John Gorka

For Free- Joni Mitchell

Shiver Me Timbers, Ol' 55, Heart of Saturday Night- Tom Waits

The Road Goes On Forever- Robert Earl Keen

If I Had A Boat, She's no Lady She's My Wife, Closing Time- Lyle Lovett

It's Hard To Kiss The Lips At Night -Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell

Poncho and Lefty- Townes van Zant

My Ride's Here- Warren Zevon

Tell Everybody I Know, That's Not Love- Keb Mo'

Hard Times, Clapton version

I Wanna Dance With Somebody- Whitney Houston, done as a slow ballad

LA Freeway- Guy Clark

Oh! Darling, Maxwell's Silver Hammer- Beatles (last one is a great audience participation song!)



And a bunch of original and miscellaneous blues stuff.




Man, I would trek half way across the country to hear this.

Oh wait, that is the only way I could hear it. :p Seriously, fantastic set list. Wish we could pull half of those off...

Do you have a recording of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"? I have seen you mention it a few times and I am intrigued.

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My duo consists of vocals, acoustic guitar, and keyboard. We play originals and covers. Some of our covers are:

Rockin' in the Free World - Neil Young
Whatever You Say - Martina McBride
What's So Funny - Elvis Costello
Stay - Sugarland
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around - Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty
Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles
New Year's Day - U2
Soulmate - Natasha Bedingfield
Maggie May - Rod Stewart

All of our songs are performed in a Folk Rock/Country style. Some songs, like Soulmate by Natasha Bedingfield, we perform very different than the CD version. Although it has a different sound, it still sounds good.

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The duo I've just got going ( we've done 3 gigs and have more lined up ) consists of me on guitar/s and the singer who also plays harp. We're doing a wide variety, but no "pop" per se. Or rock. We're choosing to do some jazz standards, some blues and some folk style tunes. No country, rock or pop. It fits in better within the real laid back gigs we've been offered. I also play some latin and jazz instrumentals with a looper, for added fullness and it gives me the choice of adding solos over chords. So far, we're just winging it in terms of song selection. We'll play and see what goes over. We have a real laid back gig in a japanese restaurant soon, and our Irish drinking songs wouldn't cut it there. So, we're like live elevator music there I think. Just back ground ambiance. Other places have asked us to be more "entertaining", but that's not our thing really.We like playing the standards. Here's a few from our list.

Misty
One Note Samba
Black Orpheus
When Sonny Gets Blue
What A Wonderful World
Hit The Road Jack
I'm Gonna' Move ( to Kansas City )
Fly Me to The Moon
Moon Dance
The Way You Look Tonight
Autumn Leaves
Up On The Roof
It Hurt's Me Too
Breezin'

etc, etc. etc,

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If I could ever make a duo pay I would do one but I can make 3/4 of what I make as a duo at least, solo. Hence, I have never been able to make one work financially.

 

 

 

Yep, I make better dough solo. And I really like the freedom of a solo gig- I play what I want if I want when I want how I want in the key I want.

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I do the duo thing - although it's indie-folk-pop originals with some covers mixed in...

 

Mix is:

 

1) Female singer / keys / acoustic guitar

2) 'lead' (clean tones mostly) electric guitar and acoustic guitar / some "drumming" on acoustic guitar using delays at times

 

Some of the covers we do:

 

(keep in mind, we play like restaurant dinner crowds / coffee houses heh, not bars usually)

 

Jewel - Who will save your soul

Extreme - More than words

Fiest - 1234

Christina Aguilera - Beautiful

Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway

Colbie Calliat - Bubbly

Melissa Etheridge - I'm the only One

Miley Cyrus - See you again (yes, acoustic lol, and it KILLS)

10,000 Maniacs - Because the night

Carrie Underwood - Before he cheats

KT Tunstall - Black Horse

Tom Petty - Free Fallin

One Republic - Apologize

Sara barellis - Love Song

Coldplay - In My Place

Beatles - Let it Be

Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles

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In an acoustic duo that plays when we're booked... which is an average of twice a week.

The songlist with the acoustic duo varies WILDLY. Here's a smattering:

American Girl
Pony
Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy
867-5309
Sweet Caroline
Somebody Like You
This Is How We Do It
The Waiting
Ring of Fire
Poker Face
Your Body Is A Wonderland
The Middle
Beverly Hills
Come A Little Closer
Dancing In The Dark
Memory
Runaround Sue
Gangsta's Paradise
Folsom Prison Blues
Jesse's Girl
Badfish
Angel Eyes
Unwell
Take Me Home Tonight
Lovin You Against My Will
Regulate
Use Somebody
Sugar, We're Goin Down
Swing Life Away
Gin and Juice (Gourds style)
Show Them To Me
F**k Her Gently
Ticks
3 AM
Shake It
Let's Get It On
Drift Away
500 Miles

... it's a total mish mash.. I love it. :)


Also.. often times, I'll bring my laptop, and pull up Ultimate Guitar at the gig, putting the laptop on a stand next to me. If I've got Wi-Fi.. I'll use it to pull up chords when people request stuff we don't know. My duo partner will play a song, while I pull up the request on UG.. as long as I've heard it, I'll do a quick once over, and pull it out of the blue. We've done "Good Girls Gone Bad", "Party In the USA", "Always Something There To Remind Me", "Bartender", and quite a few others this way, just by me winging them on the fly.

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Also.. often times, I'll bring my laptop, and pull up Ultimate Guitar at the gig, putting the laptop on a stand next to me. If I've got Wi-Fi.. I'll use it to pull up chords when people request stuff we don't know. My duo partner will play a song, while I pull up the request on UG.. as long as I've heard it, I'll do a quick once over, and pull it out of the blue. We've done "Good Girls Gone Bad", "Party In the USA", "Always Something There To Remind Me", "Bartender", and quite a few others this way, just by me winging them on the fly.



That's way cool. Personally I could pull something like that off but the other half, not so much. :cry: Eh. :poke:

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I'm playing in a trio (female singer, guitarist and me on keyboards). Anyone else playing in a vocal/guitar/keyboard setting?

 

 

I am getting together with 2 other girls hopefully sometime next week to see if we can start a similar trio. It will be two acoustics and keys with 3 vocals.

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I mostly do a solo gig - but a good friend of mine sits in often and we do stuff like:

Romeo & Juliet- Knopfler
Long Monday, Spanish Pipedream, Souvenirs, Hello in there - Prine
Whole bunch o Buffett
Walking in Memphis
Sam Smith, Norma, Railroad Line, The Barn song - Gibson Bros (bluegrass)
Fear of Falling
Wagon Wheel
Roller Derby Queen, Carwash Blues, Rapid Roy - Jim Croce
If You could read my mind
Perfectly good guitar, Gone, Buffalo River home - John Hiatt
If I had a boat, Bears, She's no lady - Lyle Lovett
Lawyers Guns & money, Tenderness on the block, Poor pitiful me - Zevon
Please come to Boston
Whole bunch o Eagles
I feel Lucky
Dixie Chicken
Cover of the Rolling Stone
Beer in Mexico - Chesney

You get the idea

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Here is a compilation of 3 different acoustic acts, two of wich I am in now. Currently working on oldies/doo wop stuff since I got a request to record some for a compilation. It is amazing how some of the oldies stuff carries over to todays crowd!

Rod

SET LIST FROM LAST GIG

1. LOW
2. EVERY ROSE HAS IT

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