Paul | Guitar Lessons and Performance - Paul Elwood

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Take_Me_Out_To_The_Ball_Game music sheet ”

Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is a 1908 waltz song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game before writing the song. The song’s chorus is traditionally sung as part of the seventh-inning stretch of a baseball game. Fans are generally encouraged to sing along, and at many ballparks, the words “home team” are replaced with the team name.

“Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is one of the three-most recognizable songs in the US, along with “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Happy Birthday.” However, most people are only familiar with the chorus. The verses of the song likely failed to gain popularity due to being in third person.

Paul2026-04-22T19:49:03-04:00

House of the Rising Sun

House_of_the_Rising_Sun

“The House of the Rising Sun” is an American traditional folk song, sometimes called “Rising Sun Blues“. It tells of a person’s life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the English rock band The Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in the U.S. and Canada. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the “first folk rock hit”.

The song was first collected in Appalachia in the 1930s, but probably has its roots in traditional English folk song. It is listed as number 6393 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

“A good player can make any guitar sound good.” – Michael Bloomfield

Paul2026-04-20T16:02:24-04:00

Fields of Athenry

Fields_of_Athenry

“The Fields of Athenry” is a song written in 1979 by Pete St John in the style of an Irish folk ballad. Set during the Great Famine of the 1840s, the lyrics feature a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway, who stole food for his starving family and has been sentenced to transportation to the Australian penal colony at Botany Bay. It has become a widely known, popular anthem for Irish sports supporters.

“The Fields of Athenry” was written in 1979 by Pete St John, who stated he heard a story about a young man from the Athenry area who had been caught stealing grain to feed his family during the Irish famine years, and was deported to Australia. A claim was made in 1996 that a broadsheet ballad published in the 1880s had similar words; however, the folklorist and researcher John Moulden found no basis to this claim, and Pete St. John stated that he wrote the words as well as the music.

In 1979, the song was recorded by Danny Doyle, reaching the top ten in the Irish Singles Chart. The song charted again in 1982 for Barleycorn, reaching […]

Paul2026-04-27T15:26:12-04:00

Donkey Riding

“Donkey Riding” (Roud 4540) is a traditional 19th-century Canadian/Scottish folk song and sea shanty, often used as a capstan shanty to work cargo. The lyrics, often adapted regionally, typically feature the chorus “Hey, ho, away we go, / Donkey riding, donkey riding” and describe experiences in ports like Quebec. The “donkey” refers to a steam-powered tractor/winch used for loading timber.

Paul2026-04-20T15:43:19-04:00

Chim Chim Cheree

“Chim Chim Cher-ee” is a song from Mary Poppins, the 1964 musical film, and is also featured in the 2004 Mary Poppins musical.

It won Best Original Song at the 37th Academy Awards. In 2005, Julie Andrews included this song as part of Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs.

The song was written by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman (the “Sherman Brothers“), who also won an Oscar and a Grammy Award for the Mary Poppins score.

The song was inspired by one of the drawings of a chimney sweep created by Mary Poppins screenwriter Don DaGradi. When the Sherman Brothers asked about the drawing, DaGradi explained the ancient British folklore attributed to “sweeps” and how shaking hands with one or touching their sleeve could bring a person good luck. In their 1961 treatment, the Sherman Brothers had already amalgamated many of the P. L. Travers characters in the creation of “Bert”. His theme music became “Chim Chim Cher-ee”.

“It is more important to keep the horse going hard than to always play the exact notes.” -Charles Ives (handwritten comments on a score of the Concord Sonata):

Paul2026-04-16T14:11:23-04:00

Last Dance with Mary Jane

“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” is a song written by Tom Petty and recorded by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was recorded while Petty was recording his Wildflowers album and was produced by Rick Rubin, guitarist Mike Campbell, and Petty. The sessions would prove to be the last to include drummer Stan Lynch before his eventual departure in 1994. This song was first released as part of the Greatest Hits album in 1993. It rose to No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Petty’s first Billboard top-20 hit of the 1990s, and also topped the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for two weeks. Internationally, the song reached No. 2 in Portugal, No. 5 in Canada and No. 7 in Iceland.

Asked if the song was about drugs, Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell said, “In the verse there is still the thing about an Indiana girl on an Indiana night, just when it gets to the chorus he had the presence of mind to give it a deeper meaning. My take on it is it can be whatever you want it to be. A lot of people think it’s a drug reference, and if that’s what you want to think, it very well could be, but it could also just be a goodbye love song.” In the rest of the interview, Campbell said that the song was originally titled “Indiana Girl” and the first chorus began, “Hey, Indiana Girl, go out and […]

Paul2026-04-20T16:04:40-04:00

wildflowers

“Wildflowers” is a song written by Tom Petty and the opening track from the album of the same name. The song became quite popular in concerts, and though it was not initially released as a commercial single until 2020, it charted at #16 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart, at #11 on the Billboard Rock Digital Song Sales and at #3 on the Billboard Lyric Find. AllMusic describes it as having a simple but effective folk-based chord progression, with a sprightly, almost country-oriented rhythm.

The song has gone on to become one of the most beloved in Petty’s catalog. Petty also stated “Wildflowers” was easy to write and compose. It was one of the non-singles which were included on the compilation The Best of Everything (others were “Southern Accents“, “Square One“, “Angel Dream” and “Dreamville”).

On August 20, 2020, a posthumous release of the home recorded demo version of the song was released as a digital single alongside a music video. The video contains never-before-seen footage shot by Martyn Atkins during the recording of “Wildflowers”. On the same day, it was officially announced that on October 16, a posthumous album titled Wildflowers & All the Rest would be released. It is a comprehensive […]

Paul2026-04-20T16:21:34-04:00

Crazy

Crazy chords, lyrics and notation

“Crazy” is a song written by Willie Nelson and popularized by Patsy Cline in 1961. Nelson wrote the song while living in Houston, working for Pappy Daily’s label D Records. He was also a radio DJ and performed in clubs. Nelson then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, working as a writer for Pamper Music. Through Hank Cochran, the song reached Patsy Cline. After her original recording and release, Cline’s version reached number two on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles, also crossing to the pop chart as a top 10 single.

Cline’s version is considered a country music standard and, in 1996, became the all-time most played song in jukeboxes in the United States. “Crazy” was covered by many artists; different versions reached the charts in a variety of genres. The song was featured in television shows, while many publications have included it in their all-time best songs lists. The Library of Congress inducted Cline’s version into the National Recording Registry in 2003.

Whether or not you’ve had the start you would have liked, the ending is up to you

Paul2026-04-19T17:57:26-04:00

Panama Red

“The guitar is your first wings. It’s assigned and designed to unfold your vision and imagination.” – Carlos Santana

Paul2026-04-16T14:13:52-04:00

Franklin’s Tower

“Franklin’s Tower” is a song by the American rock band the Grateful Dead, written by Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, released as the second from the band’s eighth studio album Blues for Allah (1975) in January 1976.

Background and composition

Taking inspiration from Lou Reed‘s hit “Walk on the WIld Side“, Robert Hunter and intended the song to be a lullabye birthday wish for his son. The track is shrouded in unusual, yet symbolic imagery, as Grateful Dead biographer David Gans wrote in his book The American Book of the Dead: “The song paints landscapes and offers timescapes where the four winds blow around a structure that contains a bell with magical properties so powerful that an unnamed brand of salvation may be obtained by its ringing.” According to Hunter, the lyrics contain references to Benjamin Franklin and the Liberty Bell.

“Playing scales is like a boxer skipping rope or punching a bag. It’s not the thing in itself; it’s preparatory to the activity.” – Barney Kessel

Paul2026-05-02T07:50:26-04:00

About Paul

Background and composition