Lots of fumbled chord changes. I chose the song to practice the F barre chord. 7 months in. Need to work on this one. As always all constructive criticism welcome and appreciated.
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Mike, good idea to stretch yourself and pick a song to work the chord changes. And what a great song. I think chord and progression wise lots sounded right to me but some chords seemed a bit off. Maybe need to check the progressions or wait for somebody else with a better memory of the song to come along and confirm that.
Then I would suggest focusing first on clean chords and clean changes, then putting the sections together and being able to play at a slow tempo smoothly through the song before working in the singing. If you want to practice the singing part I’d try singing along with the original.
I think that will help you get on top of some of the more demanding chords and changes. Get it all up to a consistent level of performance, start to finish.
Thanks David much appreciate the feedback. When you said the above, did you mean you felt some of the chords were the -incorrect- chords, or that some of the chords were “missed”? If you mean the former, I did play a Cadd9 in place of a Cmaj. Maybe that is what sounded wrong. I’ve heard some folks say they can be used interchangeably, where others say sometimes they can, sometimes not a good idea. If that is what you meant, good ear!
David has already said what needs to be said but also to me your guitar sounds out of tune, either it needs tuning or there’s maybe an intonation issue.
Well done singing and playing and your strumming isn’t bad, occasionally a bit inconsistent but not way too bad.
Have to agree with David some of the chords seem off progression wise.
Intro is based on D Dsus4 and Dsus2
Verse is G D/F# Em F C then a D Dsus4 dance x2
Verse penultimate line F C D the let D ring out over “Oh” then F C D for “And a bird you cannot change”. Listen to the original for feel of the strumming, old faithful works quite well for most of it DDUUD but you’ll need go with the flow with the rhythm over the D and sus chords.
Difficult to emulate on a solo guitar as most of the time there are three guitarist playing, so you will have to compromise. A reason why a lot of Skynyrd tab is well off the mark. The above is from the “pronounced” album songbook (the Hal Leonard version) but cannot duplicate here due to copyright.
I can’t add to the suggestions made by David, Darrell and Toby, but I surely can encourage you to stick with your plan Mike.
Thanks all. I did simplify (simplify button) therefore going G D Em - F C D. Doing this brings the song to “beginner” vs intermediate level. The later might be too much for me at this point. However, I’m up for the challenge and will see where it takes me.
I look for songs where I can incorporate one or two barre chords and/or chords I struggle with a bit. Might have bit off more than I can chew with this one.
I’m going to work on incorporating your suggestions.
Thanks batwoman, appreciate it!
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update - I realize I should check the tuning on my guitar every time I use it. However I probably check it every other or every third time. After reading some of your responses I checked and my guitar was in fact out of tune. Typically when I check it one or two strings may be slightly out of tune, or none at all. This time 3-4 strings were substantially out of tune.
The weather where I am has recently seen it’s first few days in a while of very warm weather with changing humidity. My guess is this is what has probably made the sudden change.
Anyway, thanks so much for the advise and the thoughtful and careful listening to have noticed and tipped me off. Again, this is my first summer (started with guitar last Christmas time give or take), now that I have been bitten by the weather influencing the guitar tuning bug, I won’t let it happen again.
I think the reason I did not notice it myself was my haste to make the recording. Live and learn!
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Thanks for the update, Mike.
I think the simplified chords should be fine as you have them. If you are not familiar with the Dsus2 and Dsus4 check those out and work on them. Like all things guitar it takes some practice but not too difficult as things go.
I’d suggest a plain old C rather than a variant. Will serve you well to be able to play F C D smoothly.
Have fun working the song and look forward to a second rendition in due course.
I would add, listen to the original and focus on the rhythm before trying to sing along. Get the playing down solid then add the vox.
This may help expand on that.
https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/singing-playing-at-the-same-time-te-901
Will be interested to see how this develops. 
Good effort Mike.
Some great advice from others. Keep at it and it will get there. Slow and steady wins the race.
Hi Mike. I can’t add to the excellent advice you’ve been given by the others, so I’ll just say well done, it’s good to challenge yourself and stick to your plan.
Oh, and just keep in mind the guy who said “can’t understand this, it was in tune when I bought it!” 