Downingtown Acoustic Jam

I discovered the meetup.com website last week. I forget where I heard about it, but it sounded interesting - you can find groups of like-minded people for all sorts of hobbies and activities. I went to the site, typed in my Zip Code and "guitar", and immediately found some interesting local groups.

The first was the Downingtown Area Acoustic Jam Group. It's a group that gets together once a month on Sunday afternoons and plays folk and acoustic rock songs. It sounded great, and there was a meeting last Sunday. I signed up, and Darling Wife wanted to come along and watch/sing.

We went, and it was great fun. Everyone was very friendly. This group limits attendance to 18 people in a meetup, and 18 signed up and were there (they said they usually get around 12-15.) Most people had guitars, some also had 12-string guitars, one guy also had a mandolin, one guy also played flute, one guy just played harmonica, and Darling Wife was just there to sing along. Everyone sat around in a big circle.

I had printed out the tabs (lyrics and chords) to 26 songs that they sent around. It went around the circle, people taking turns picking the next song (and if it wasn't from the set list, the person distributed tabs.) It sounded good, and the songs were pretty standard acoustic stuff - Dylan, Crosby, Still & Nash, the Eagles, Beatles, etc., etc. And we played for three full hours! The surface of my left-hand pointer finger felt like hamburger - I've been doing a lot of playing, but I guess I've never done three solid hours of chords on the acoustic, and I was sore.

There were players of all levels. A couple of the players were really good, most were good enough, and some were barely keeping up - but it's okay, there were enough people that no one person would make or break the sound (which overall was just fine.)

Looking through my tabs, here are the songs I can remember playing, and there may have been more (and in no particular order):

• Lemon Tree  (unknown - traditional?)
• All I Want is You  (U2)
• Pay Me My Money Down  (Springsteen, from "The Seeger Sessions")
• Johnny B. Goode  (Chuck Berry)
• Bad Moon Rising  (CCR)
• Dark Hollow  (Bill Browning)
• If Not for You  (Bob Dylan)
• Moondance  (Van Morrison)
• Old Time Religion  (Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger)
• Peaceful Easy Feeling  (The Eagles)
• Smackwater Jack  (Carole King)
• Can't You See  (Marshall Tucker Band)
• Your Cheatin' Heart  (Hank Williams)
• Old Time Rock and Roll  (Bob Seger)
• Blowing in the Wind  (Bob Dylan)
• City of New Orleans  (Arlo Guthrie)
• Country Roads  (John Denver)
• House of the Rising Sun  (The Animals)
• Knockin' on Heaven's Door  (Bob Dylan)
• Let it Be  (The Beatles)
• Teach Your Children  (Crosby, Still, Nash & Young)