Love the top one.  Sounds like an Elevators/The Tornadoes mash-up. 

I've decided what to focus on with my next big acoustic push.  I stumbled on an artist called Chris Knight during some early-hours Youtube hopping recently (it may have been the bit at the bottom of the page on Amazon - people who bought this also bought these - that made me look him up, I forget).  Three weeks later I now own most of his catalogue, and I'm currently riding a huge wave of infatuation, soaking up a minimum of four of his records per day, with the albums Trailer Tapes and Trailer Tapes 2 emerging as particular favourites early on (which are fully acoustic, and basically two sets of demos).  It's modern day Nebraska era Springsteen for me - every song is a story.  He's got a great voice but not a great singing voice (in interviews he's pretty much a real-life Bad Blake), and his guitar playing is adept/functional, so it's an odd one to aim for perhaps, but if I can play ten of his songs by the end of the year I'll be a happy man.  Its not an obsession I'll be moving on from any time soon.

I don't know whether anyone has been following the beef between Sun Kil Moon and The War on Drugs but the guy from Sun Kil Moon has written a song about it.

http://www.stereogum.com/1710145/sun-kil-moon-war-on-drugs-suck-my-cock/mp3s/

It's quite amusing but does give a very good taste of the music on his last albumBenji which I guarantee will figure in everybodies AotY lists come December.

https://soundcloud.com/hardlineent/donald-spence-late-shift

I just bought this guys album...postage cost more than the album itself but fuck it, that's what birthday moneys for, right? I know that punk rock singer turned acoustic is such a cliché but I still love this an ungodly amount.

Great tune. Love any old crackly blues from around the 20s. I'm entirely self taught myself (if we're not counting the occasional youtube vid or a mate scrawling some chords on an envelope for me on day 1), and I have a love/hate relationship with it: I love having my own style, but realise that I'm probably doing a good amount of things 'wrong', or at least they could be done better.

Fuck that though, I got chastised in a spanish guitar shop on Leicester Sq once for 'holding my hand wrong'. Dick head.

Anyway, my playing's getting better atm, I feel - hit a plateau a while back but started reaching some new heights with general syncopation. Must post some more stuff here at some point, but it's still not great.

Still at work atm, long day, just me and one other person in the office, some nice blues playing, beers in the fridge, fresh pack of baccy. Good times.

Anyway, I remembered how much I like this tune, not acoustic, but a good'un nonetheless:

Have you seen him live cocko? He's v. good. Also very tall, blocked my fucking view when he came off stage to watch the next act.

Not strictly acoustic but I feel more at home in this thread than the main music one - had this circulating in my head for the last 3 days after someone introduced me to it. Great to pick along to with a 3rd fret capo, best lady at your side:



Combine with some Buddy for max-romance:



Yeah in a proper 50s croon mood at the moment. A little relaxation in a storm of work chaos.

Haha, yeah I thought you'd appreciate those - read your 'dad' post (was you I think) saying that yer ol' man's a big Buddy fan, figured you'd be the same.

Got to say I've really got into Buddy over the last couple of years, dude's just full of hits and feels. May not have ever given him a fair listen were it not for Roky ofc - kinda cringe at the 'buddy on acid' tag he gets but I guess it's somewhat fitting, for a lot of his solo work anyway.

Ah man, the apartment tapes are incredible, just love everything on there. His stuff with the Crickets is aces of course but there's just something about him on his jacks in an apartment with a guitar and a tape recorder.

Have got a big love for Dearest & Love is Strange (both identical chords, as it happens - capo 1st for LiS, 4th for Dearest... same chords as You're the One actually...anyway). Don't think he wrote either, Bo Diddly to thank for LiS, not sure about Dearest, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, they're such obvious picks that I'm going for another, but I could literally pick any track from that album and it'd be gold:




Gonna check that McCartney cover out now...

An old friend came up on random play earlier. Then noticed he's doing a few new bits, fuck it sharing him 

I was sent a few data cds around a decade ago from a guy who lived in Kansas that I 'met' on a music forum.  It was so chock-a-block with stuff I became massively keen on that I didn't get time to give the Malkmus album repeated listens.  He was particularly keen on me giving him a fair go, but that was a bit of a golden period for American indie bands (he picked the assorted albums exceptionally well), so my head was turned.  There was an album by a band called The Unicorns on there that I lost when my old mp3 player crashed.  I'll probably pick it up again.

Gave my guitar an mot yesterday at the local shop (folkies, kilburn). The guy doing it was some kinda French/spanish/Mediterranean so I felt safe handing over my Portuguese flamenco guitar for some new strings, a fret wipe/polish and a heightening of tension around the first fret.

I'm pleased to say I'm totally enamoured with the work he's done. The sound is crisp like I've never known it, and aside from new string retuning, which can't be helped, it's been the best £30 I've spent that hasn't got me high.

When I arrived to pick her up, Jose/Manuel/Pierre was quite complimentary, saying that "this guitar, she 'as 'ow you say, potential", and asked me how long I'd had it. "'bout 6 years, got it from that Spanish guitar shop down leicster square" I says. "ah yes, I see, I see. Good guitar. I think maybe just another 5 maybe 10 years until the wood 'as, how you say, aged enough for the sound and resonance to mature, then she will be a beautiful guitar".

Fuck. Potentially 10 more years before it reaches expectation.

Anyway, a highlight of the weekend.

Oh absolutely, I've been playing the crap out of it for near the last 2 year's now, coinciding with a sharp drop in vidjagaming (I'd played a lot before then too, but it wasn't a focus). I'm very much enjoying every second with the thing.

As for harps (harmonicas), I've two, one an E and the other an A. I didn't realise at first that for crossharp, I.e. blues harmonica, you don't buy the key that you're in, you buy the middle chord (i have no technical training so excuse the terminology). That being, I bought an E harmonica for blues in E, whereas I should've bought an A (E A D). Anyway, all good regardless, now I've two.

I can do a very basic blues thing on them but nothing of note really. My bro has both of them atm. The last one I got (the A) was around the £30/35 park, a Honer, or whatever it is, I think. Best thing I can say is decide what kinda thing you want to do with it, cross-harp or more traditional, sea shanty stuff (fucking love sea shanties). You can no doubt do both on the same harp, but for blues you should check what kinda key you want to play in. Once decided, get harp, find blues backing track on YouTube, then jam away. It's just suck - blow - suck and bend on the 4th hole. Riff and play around with that all day.

I've got harmonicas in C, D and G.  I've learnt bits and pieces I wanted to play from here.

Nothing to write home about, but I do play a mean version of the intro and harp solo from Springsteen's The River.  Neil Young's Heart of Gold is a great one to make you feel like you're sounding good.  Same goes for Dirty Old Town.

Obviously I bought myself a neck brace thingy, even though I struggle to play guitar or harmonica separately.

Just play Bob Dylan songs, then it doesn't matter what notes you hit.

Rory Gallagher doing a couple of sweet acoustic numbers - first is one of my favourite Blind Boy Fuller tunes: