When outlaw country singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker died last October at 78, he left behind a rich body of work, comprising more than 30 albums. But the only song of his to become a major hit was “Mr. Bojangles,” which he first recorded for the Atco label in 1968. Inspired…
Released as the first single from Ben Harper’s album Both Sides of the Gun, “Better Way” topped the AAA charts in 2006, but the song’s call to stand up for your rights and ideals continues to reverberate. The (Dixie) Chicks have covered “Better Way” as a rocking show finale, as…
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Cash played the original version - which features just three chords - with a capo on the first fret.
“I am an old woman.” So goes the opening of “Angel from Montgomery,” first released in 1971 by John Prine, who was neither a woman nor old. Along with songs like “Hello in There” and “Sam Stone” on his self-titled debut album, “Angel From Montgomery” introduced Prine as a songwriter…
While the guitar playing is superlative throughout all ten of the album’s tracks, the duo’s work on Bob Dylan’s “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)” truly stands out.
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Perfect for beginners, this arrangement uses just a few common chords and a boom-chuck pattern for an energetic and festive feel.
Popularized in the film ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?,’ this classic American folk song has antecedents that trace back over 200 years.
Few tunes enjoy as prominent a status in the blues canon as “Baby, Please Don’t Go.”
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Though the picking is rather straightforward, there are some challenging techniques to deal with.
“Big Yellow Taxi” was the sole single from Joni Mitchell’s 1970 album, Ladies of the Canyon. Though it didn’t crack the Top 40 (it charted at No. 67 on the Billboard singles chart), that doesn’t accurately reflect its success.
Shortly after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, Tom Prasada-Rao, a singer-songwriter based in Silver Spring, Maryland, was watching CNN footage of protests when in a fit of inspiration he penned a new song. In its aching and deeply felt contemplation, “$20 Bill (for George Floyd)” brilliantly captures the grief and rage coursing through the veins of so many in the wake of Floyd’s senseless murder, over cigarettes said to have been purchased with counterfeit currency.
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“Oh Shenandoah,” sometimes called “Shenandoah” or “Across the Wide Missouri,” is an American folk heirloom which, ironically, was most likely written by French-Canadian fur traders in the 16th century.
To make things easier to play on the guitar, I placed the first two bars an octave lower than the strings on the original recording, with the second two bars in the original octave. Play this part kind of languorously, taking advantage of the breathing room afforded by the open strings.
In this acoustic guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play "Red River Valley."
Here is a simple version of "Darling Corey" using two chords, A and G, that will give you plenty of practice switching between those two chords.
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When Jody Stecher first heard this song, he couldn't get it out of his mind.
It might seem incongruous to see “I Feel for You,” a song made popular by the R&B singer Chaka Khan in the mid-1980s, in this magazine. Sure, it’s a classic, but there’s nothing even faintly acoustic about Khan’s version of this Prince tune, with its dominant synth and drum programming.…
“Just a Closer Walk with Thee” finds Dylan and Cash—incidentally, with rockabilly legend Carl Perkins on the electric guitar—putting a country spin on a New Orleans funeral standard.
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Learn a simple arrangement of the classic tune "Stealin'" in this video from Acoustic Guitar's Campfire Songs series.
This folk-rock gem became the official state song of Colorado in 2007.
This tune has been popular for over 200 years and is an instantly recognizable pub favorite.
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It’s been 50 years since James Taylor released what would prove to be one of the most enduring ballads in the folk-pop realm—and, according to recent surveys, an overwhelming favorite of AG readers. “Fire and Rain” is a rather heavy song. Its three verses refer obliquely to a friend who…
Pete Seeger wrote this lovely song in the 1960s, and it may have been the last song he sang. He told banjoist Tony Trischka this was his favorite of his own songs.
When AG recently surveyed readers about what songs they’d like to learn, the most requested selection was “Sultans of Swing.” This came as a surprise, as the track, which the British rock band Dire Straits released in 1978, has not a lick of acoustic guitar in it. But ask and you shall receive, as they say.
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Audiences at the Woodstock Festival in August of 1969 were treated to Arlo Guthrie’s languid folk-country version, the inspiration behind the arrangement shown here.
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