View the full lesson at Open D Tuning | JustinGuitar
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Police Dog Blues by Blind Blake is one of the best. Also, Dust My Broom Elmore James. Dark was the Night Cold Was the Ground Blind Wille Johnson. Tons of ragtime stuff. More modern. Stones Stret Fighting Man. Little Martha, Allman Brothers. Even Flow, Pearl Jam. There’s a ton! You
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1-4-5 Blues Shuffle - Definitely worth exploring and is a great starting spot for anyone interested in adding a slide later on.
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A number of Dylan songs are in open D, especially songs from Blood on the Tracks.
(Some are in open E tuning, which you can mimic by tuning to open D and placing a capo on fret 2.)
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I was going to mention Dylan as well - for sure Simple Twist of Fate and Shelter from the Storm are in open D capo II. Joni Mitchell has at least a dozen songs in open D, often w/capo: Big Yellow Taxi, Cactus Tree, You Turn Me On I’m a Radio, Both Sides Now, Court & Spark, Chelsea Morning. No discussion of alternate tunings is complete without her. BTW, Dylan’s Tangled up in Blue emerged from him dousing himself in Joni’s album Blue.
https://jonimitchell.com/music/viewalltranscriptions.cfm?sortby=by%20Tuning
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Here are some notable songs that use Open D tuning:
“Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell
“The Weight” by The Band
“Statesboro Blues” by The Allman Brothers Band
“Even Flow” by Pearl Jam
“Street Fighting Man” by The Rolling Stones
“Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Come On in My Kitchen” by Robert Johnson
“Cinnamon Girl” by Neil Young
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Here’s a couple in Open E (capo at 2nd fret)
She Talks To Angels - The Black Crowes
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh (talk-box solo played on guitar in standard tuning)
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Hello and welcome to the Community @chriz13
Thanks for contributing.
A few from your list need correction I’m afraid …
The Weight is standard tuning.
Simple Man is E flat tuning - as per standard but a semitone down on all strings.
Cinnamon Girl is double drop D tuning.
Come On In My Kitchen is open G or open A or somewhere thereabouts in pitch.
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Are we collecting a list here?
Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks album was already mentioned, but without special mention of “Buckets of Rain” - recorded in OpenE but to me that’s the same tuning plus potentially capo.
Townes van Zandt - Colorado Girl
Chris Smither - Leave the light on
Wow, this is a great site. Lots of cool information about open tunings in general and of course of Joni Mitchell’s extensive use of them. Tabs (free) for all her songs, too, it looks like.
Glad you like the site. Joni’s website may be unique… one of her fans started it in the mid-90s and other fans have contributed to it; it was not put together by a record company or employees of the artist.
The tabs have been worked out and shared by a handful of her long-time fans. Also Justin does a good lesson on the song Coyote. This clip is a collection of short overviews of 15-20 of her songs/tunings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyDW7lslN5Y