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Folsom Prison Blues

folsom prison blues
“Folsom Prison Blues” is a song by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, based on material composed by Gordon Jenkins. Written in 1953, it was first recorded and released as a single in 1955, and later included on his debut studio album Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! (1957), as the album’s 11th track. The song combines elements from two popular folk styles, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash continued to use for the rest of his career. It was one of Cash’s signature songs. Additionally, this recording was included on the compilation album All Aboard the Blue Train (1962). In June 2014, Rolling Stone ranked it number 51 on its list of the 100 greatest country songs of all time.

Cash performed the song live to a crowd of inmates at California’s Folsom State Prison in 1968 for his live album At Folsom Prison (1968), released through Columbia Records. This version became a number-one hit on the country music charts and reached number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the same year. This version also won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, at the 11th Annual Grammy Awards in 1969.

Original 1955 recording

Cash was inspired to write this song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force at Landsberg, Bavaria (itself the location of a famous prison). Cash recounted […]

2026-02-11T12:45:13-05:00
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California Dreamin’

“California Dreamin'” is a song written by John and Michelle Phillips. Of the Mamas & the Papas, released in December 1965.

It’s a well-loved example of the music of the 1960s counterculture era. In 2021, Rolling Stone placed the song at number 420 in its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.

The song was written in 1963 while John Phillips and Michelle Phillips were living in New York City during a particularly cold winter, and the latter was missing sunny California. John would work on compositions late at night and brought Michelle the first verse one morning. At the time, John and Michelle Phillips were members of the folk group the New Journeymen, which evolved into the Mamas and the Papas.

California Dreamin’

Use the downloadable tabs and the attached mp3 file & video to understand how to play “California Dreamin'” by the Mommas and Poppas for solo guitar.

2026-02-07T10:43:52-05:00
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Come Together

come together
download the lead sheet with lyrics for “come together”

“Come Together” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on the band’s 1969 studio album Abbey Road. It was also a double A-side in the United Kingdom with “Something”, reaching No. 4 in the UK charts, as well as No. 1 in the Billboard Hot 100.

The song has been covered by several other artists, including Ike & Tina Turner, Aerosmith, Eurythmics, Michael Jackson, Joe Cocker, Arctic Monkeys, and Gary Clark Jr.

In early 1969, John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, held nonviolent protests against the Vietnam War, dubbed the Bed-ins for Peace. In May, during the Montreal portion of the bed-in, counterculture figures from across North America visited Lennon. Among the visitors was the American psychologist Timothy Leary, an early advocate of LSD whom Lennon admired. Leary intended to run for Governor of California in the following year’s election, and he asked Lennon to write him a campaign song based on the campaign’s slogan, “Come Together – Join the Party!” The resulting chant was only a line long: “Come together and join the party”. Lennon promised to finish and record the song, and Leary later […]

2026-02-07T13:46:43-05:00
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Ladies of the Canyon

Ladies of the Canyon is the third studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released on Reprise Records in 1970. It peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard 200, and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. The title makes reference to Laurel Canyon, a center of popular music culture in Los Angeles during the 1960s, where Mitchell lived while she was writing the album. Specifically, Mitchell lived and wrote at 8217 Lookout Mountain Avenue, the house which is the subject of Graham Nash’s “Our House”. The album includes several of Mitchell’s most noted songs, such as “Big Yellow Taxi”, “Woodstock” and “The Circle Game”.

The album is notable for its expansion of Mitchell’s artistic vision and its varied song topics (ranging from the aesthetic weight of celebrity, to observation of the Woodstock generation, to the complexities of love). Ladies of the Canyon is often viewed as a transition between Mitchell’s folky earlier work and the more sophisticated, poignant albums that were to follow. In particular, “For Free” foreshadows the lyrical leitmotif of the isolation triggered by success that would be elaborated upon in For the Roses and Court and Spark. The sparse, alternative-tuning laden sound of later records comes to the forefront on “Ladies of the Canyon”.

Of all of Mitchell’s work, this album is the most related to her long-standing friendships and relationships with Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young (whose rock arrangement of “Woodstock” was one of their four radio hits […]

2026-02-03T16:51:52-05:00
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Our Song

“Our Song”
is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the third single from her debut studio album, Taylor Swift (2006). She wrote “Our Song” for a high school talent show during ninth grade and included it in the album after it became popular among her classmates. The lyrics are about a young couple using regular events in their lives to create their own song. Produced by Nathan Chapman, “Our Song” is an uptempo banjo-driven country track incorporating fiddles and drums. Big Machine Records released it to US country radio on September 10, 2007.

Music critics lauded Swift’s songwriting on “Our Song” for incorporating conversational lyrics and a memorable hook. It featured on Rolling Stone‘s 2019 list of the best country songs by female artists since 2000. Peaking atop Hot Country Songs for six weeks, the single made the then 17-year-old Swift the youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a number-one single on Hot Country Songs. “Our Song” peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified four times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It peaked at number 30 on the Canadian Hot 100 and was certified platinum by Music Canada.

Download the “Our Song” PDF with tabs

Use the downloadable tabs and the attached mp3 file & video to understand how to play “Our Song” by Taylor Swift for solo guitar.

2026-01-28T10:45:42-05:00
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Hurt

Hurt part 2

hurt

“Hurt” is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from its 1994 studio album The Downward Spiral—where it is the closing song on the album—written by Trent Reznor. It was subsequently released on April 17, 1995, as a promotional single from the album, wherein it was issued straight to radio. The song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Song in 1996. In 2020, Kerrang! and Billboard ranked the song number two and number three, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Nine Inch Nails songs.

In 2002, American country singer Johnny Cash covered “Hurt” to commercial and critical acclaim. The related music video is considered one of the greatest of all time by publications such as NME. Reznor praised Cash’s interpretation of the song for its “sincerity and meaning”, going so far as to say “that song isn’t mine anymore”.

2026-02-10T12:03:54-05:00
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Long train runnin’

If you’re a serious student of guitar (like me) you might consider playing extemporaneously over a backing track as part of you practice regimen. It doesn’t have to be complicated- the best ones to get started with are simple, like a 1/4/5 change you can run your blues riffs over.  Don’t forget to experiment with your phrasing, voicing and texture. “Texture” in music refers to how melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements combine and interact, creating the “feel” or density of the sound, like layers in fabric, described as thin/thick, light/heavy, or sparse/dense. In practical terms, that might mean playing more than one note at a time, bending a note while holding another one, or finding the note you want an octave above or below your current position. Really though, the list of things you can do to add texture to your playing is endless. 

If this sound interesting to you, just reach out. I do a free half hour online lesson to see if we are a good fit.

2026-01-22T15:49:06-05:00
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Growing Up (part 1)

Download the PDF here:Growing Up 

“Growin’ Up” is a song by American musician Bruce Springsteen from his 1973 album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J..

It is a moderately paced tune, concerning an adolescence as a rebellious New Jersey teen, with lyrics  written in the first-person. The lyrics feature a chorus that is progressively modified as the song continues, with the first chorus being “I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said ‘Sit down,’ I stood up,” while the second chorus switches to “clouded warmth…’come down,’ I threw up” and the third finishes the song with “mother breast…’pull down,’ I pulled up.”

An acoustic version of the song, part of Springsteen’s 1972 audition for CBS Records, appears on Tracks, 18 Tracks, and Chapter and Verse.

During the Born to Run tours and following Darkness Tour, Springsteen often performed an extended version of this song, extending it with a long, sometimes exaggerated and/or fictional biographical narration of his youth and his passion for guitar playing.

The song was featured on the soundtracks of the films Big Daddy (1999) and Gracie (2007).

David Bowie recorded a version of this song in the early stages of the Diamond Dogs sessions with Ronnie Wood on lead guitar. In 1990 this was released as a bonus track on the Rykodisc reissue of his Pin Ups album, and in 2004 it appeared on the […]

2026-01-29T08:15:54-05:00
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