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Thread: It's all in the message ...

  1. #1
    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
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    Default It's all in the message ...

    I was answering another question and thought this might be fun. I was wondering if anybody else played tune sets that had story lines or messages in them?

    Our group plays "the elopement set," "Haste to the Wedding," "Saddle the Pony" and "Off She Goes." Another person I know had a "murder set" which ended with "I Buried My Wife and Danced on Her Grave."

    Set lists with a message, anyone?
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    Registered User AnneFlies's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    I like the road tunes, and although I'm not proficient enough yet to play a set, I find I like to learn tunes with "road" in the title.

    Coach Road to Sligo
    Tar Road to Sligo
    Paddy on the Turnpike
    Top of the Cork Road

    Good topic, Randi! I like the elopement set!

    Anne.
    A "Not Ready for Prime Time" player

  3. #3
    Professional Dreamer journeybear's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    Yes! Not a set, but a stretch in the set that is all about money (or the lack of it) and work. This is for my power duo The Steves (the bass player is also named Steve; the name was a natural), which plays all original blues and rock. When putting together the set list, adjusting for variations in tempo, key, theme, and humor level, I noticed that I had put a few in a row that dealt with these themes. I've always been fond of thematic continuity when coordinating set lists - they don't have to be all on a theme, but I like it when A leads to B, something else about B leads to C, and so on. This set is essentially about two hours' worth of music repeated once to fill a four-hour shift, taking into account factors like audience turnover and audience unfamiliarity with the material, there was no need to come up with a full set list.

    Since these are not well-known songs, I'm going to go into a bit more detail than would be needed if these were in the common lexicon. Sorry in advance for the TMI. The set starts with some songs that serve as statements of purpose (or would, if people were to stay and listen all the way through from the start) and show a range:

    1) ''Well, Whatever,'' a blues shuffle that, along with the memorable catch phrase, features probably my most impressive lead (there's a point where it drops three octaves in three bars, with style and flair), so it gets things rolling with a bang; the set shifts 2) ''Soft-Spoken Man,'' a rocked-out blues with a rocked-out twist, whose lyrics serve as a personal introduction, of sorts;
    3) ''Car Trouble,'' a slow blues everyone should be able to relate to, dealing with this all-encompassing subject with with some humor and surreal imagery thrown in. The last verse is set in the workplace, which led me to
    4) ''Job Hunt Blues'' (medium tempo blues);
    5) ''Money Blues'' (one-chord blues stomp, very Zep-like);
    6) ''Coffee And Willpower'' (jug band style blues, about - well, here's the second verse: ''It takes coffee and willpower to get me through my day at work (2x) / On Stage I'm like a hero but my boss treats me like a jerk''). A bit of humor in G after four songs in E, the last two of which are deadly serious.

    At this point, I realized I had started strong and gotten darker and darker. ''Coffee And Willpower'' was a step towards the light, but not enough. So I put in ''Strollin','' a happy-go-lucky Western swing style number that really broke it up. It's a good thing to take the audience on a little journey, but now and then you need to change things. People will get fidgety, maybe or maybe not knowing why, and will welcome a different mood. The trick is knowing when to shift gears and doing it before they lose interest. There's no set formula (pun intended), and you may have to vary things in response to audience response, but by being attentive you should be able to arrive at a good working order.

    (Thematic continuity is something I pay attention to when grouping my songs for albums as well. Those three songs (4-6) belong on my album ''Workaday World'' (as yet unreleased)).
    But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller

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  4. #4
    '`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`' Jacob's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    Whiskey Before Breakfast
    Farewell to Whiskey
    Whiskey Welcome Back Again

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  6. #5
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    The Woman I Never Forgot
    Drag Her Round the Road
    The Ladies' Pantalettes
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    Behind the Bush in the Garden
    Haste to the Wedding
    You Married My Daughter but You Didn't
    Growling Old Man Grumbling Old Woman
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  8. #7
    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    Not "tunes", (i.e. the same word/noun/verb appears in all the tunes.)

    But I do like how context/juxtaposition can change one song into something completely else. A novelty song becomes really creepy because of the next song of the medley which follows it.

    "Little Red Riding Hood" - Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs
    "Murder In The Red Barn" - Tom Waits

    or (similarly)

    "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" - I like Pigpen's version on the first Dead album
    "A Little Rain" - Tom Waits
    "In Germany Before The War" - Randy Newman

    so.... what would follow up
    "Young Blood" - The Coasters

    Sort of cinematic.....it's like the first song of the set, is what the serial killer is singing, or saying in order to pick up his victim, but you don't realize it until the next revelatory song/part of the "story".

  9. #8
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    You could have a 'Goat' set. Plenty tunes to choose from here:

    http://www.thesession.org/tunes/inde...rt=0&name=goat

    Might as well start with 'Tom Billy's'!
    David A. Gordon

  10. #9
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    oh dear - double post.

    Better go and learn 'The night we had the goats'!
    David A. Gordon

  11. #10
    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    So many goats, so little time ... wait, that came out wrong! I was thinking of a Boy's Night Out set featuring tunes with "Boy" in the title... Boys of Ballysodare, Boys of Malin ... (boys of blue hill, but that's a hornpipe ... ) or a farmer's set, Stack of Barley, Stack of Wheat ...
    --------------------------------
    1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
    1923 Gibson A-1 snakehead
    1952 Strad-o-lin
    1983 Giannini ABSM1 bandolim
    2009 Giannini GBSM3 bandolim
    2011 Eastman MD305

  12. #11
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    My favorite is the one-sided pre-nuptial agreement genre. Think Banks of the Ohio and go from there.

  13. #12
    Notary Sojac Paul Kotapish's Avatar
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    Default Re: It's all in the message ...

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeEdgerton View Post
    My favorite is the one-sided pre-nuptial agreement genre. Think Banks of the Ohio and go from there.
    Mike, one of the best bits of advice I ever got was:

    "If you ever find yourself in a folk song, stay away from the river."

    Holds true for "Banks of the Ohio," "Banks of Red Roses," "Cruel Sister" (aka "Wind and Rain"), "Omie Wise," and even for more modern inventions like Neil Young's "Down by the River."
    Just one guy's opinion
    www.guitarfish.net

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