Paraic
Good to hear from you, appreciate the comments. Hope you can join us again some time in the future !
Cheers
Toby
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I can offer suggestions if you like 
Seriously, you make great choices. It’s a real nostalgia tune- I used it on one of my 8mm movie clips here 
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Man I’m so sad I couldn’t make it! I’ll make sure to watch the whole thing in the next few days, seems like a blast from all the comments I’m reading!
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I am 50 minutes in …
Jason, what a surprising slice of very-old back-in-the-archives retro from you. It was recorded by The Yardbirds as you say – and its pop leaning, a big jump away from blues roots, caused Eric Clapton to leave. It was written by a young Graham Gouldman who went on to found 10CC. The stand-out for me was your vocal, especially strong on the descending lo-oo-oo-ove part, and hitting the final syllable bang on pitch with a very controlled vibrato.
David, quelle surprise with the Whiskey In The Jar. I have an instalment of my Learning Log up ahead which will mention this song. I played it in a busking group and I always used to shout out that it was an Irish song, ‘where they spell whiskey with an e’. You chose some of the more obscure lyrics too which was a real pleasure. The whole thing was a pleasure. Only Love – what a wonderful performance. You rearranged the vocal phrasing brilliantly to suit you whilst being sympathetic to Neil’s original styling. God and steady guitar on both. Bravo.
Toby, you claim some disgruntlement with the set up and sound. Hey ho. That was your head space which is a shame as what seems to come across in the delivery are two rocking songs delivered with a real passion.
Rob, that was your first ever live anything anywhere? Kudos and good vibes. You gave that a great shot and got some groove going. Well done. I am sure that your heart, nestled beneath your zipper, was beating at double speed and your hands clammy. Those feelings won’t necessarily go away but will become more familiar symptoms of the adrenaline and with repeat forays can feed in to the performance. Well done.
Mike – two real treats from you. Every time I come across an Elliott Smith lesson or song somewhere I keep thinking I should investigate further. For you to say he is your favourite acoustic artist makes me think that even more. Lofty praise. Whenever I have watched you play your fingerstyle I also keep making mental notes to myself to get my act together and devote some proper learning time to hone and improve my travis picking. I can sometimes get my thumb to do the hard alternate picking pattern work, at other times not. I haven’t spent enough proper hours really developing the skill. If / when I find myself with time a plenty and devote it to making some steps forward on guitar it will be that and I will be thanking you for the inspiration to get it together.
I’m another who knows 74-75 from its saturated radio play in the UK when it was a hit. I see you have developed the percussive hit to help bounce the song along. Good stuff. A cool instrumental interlude too. Lots to like. RE: Society … you mentioned it as being on the soundtrack for Into The Wild. * Was it you that recommended that I listen to that (and indeed watch the film) back in the old forum? I recall someone suggesting one of my songs would fit as a song on that film. You have a canny knack of choosing songs that suit your vocals and keep pushing your guitar playing along a few notches. Good stuff.
addendum … yes it was … I have just revisited and found it … November 2020 you suggested my song Locked Down And Lonesome would fit on a film like Into The Wild, and B1rdland echoed your sentiment.
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Wow I always feel astonished by people willing to watch OM not live, takes lots of time and dedication to go through our struggles I am sure 
thanks Richard for such a nice words! I vaguely recall the post will have to revisit before old forum is closed down for good!
I hate to tell you Richard but I hope to slightly diverse my vocal picks for perhaps next event 
will see how it goes with bit more than 1 month to go! 
thanks again!
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Thank you Richard and much appreciated…as you might guess one of 4-5 60s songs we’re adding to the band set. This one sounds a lot better in those choruses with some harmonies from Lisa…it’s actually a really fun song to play and sing.
More listening …
Oh yeah … Babylon. You captured so much of what makes this song timeless Stefan … the cool laid-back groove, the intimate vocal, the emotion. What a first performance. Loved it. You’ve played in earnest for what, a year or thereabouts? Good going.
Did something just happen? OMG. Inventively-creatively-tremendously-artistically-stupendously-enjoyable.
Now don’t get me started on that chord progression, it could lead to an ever-expanding topic on chords and keys and fifths and borrowing and minor / major interchange hahaha.
John, you must have been watching and thinking to yourself ‘holy macaroni … how the heck do I follow that?’ But you did it and you did it in fine style. Blackbird is satisfying to play. Make this a return-to tune over the coming years and develop with it, grow into it. You’re doing just great. To choose this piece as a first live performance is a really gutsy one. Bravo. And yes, I have just got to the end and you called it right – play through any fumbles.
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Thank you Richard. The problem was I could not hear 70% of the sound I was playing (and no not volume, content !), so it was literally blind panic playing having reconfigured the whole set up and rewired and re-levelled on the fly, literally as David and Rob were playing - I hit a wall of interference in the green room soundcheck and when Jason finished I was about to stand down. A pro would have smiled and carried on as if nothing was wrong. 
Above and beyond as always, Richard, despite all that is going on you give of yourself to watch the ‘concert film’ and offer feedback and encouragement thoughtfully. You are truly a remarkable man, words express my appreciation inadequately.
As for your feedback …
Oh good, glad to have delivered a surprise. Subsequent to the OM, after a few folk mentioned Metallica playing it, I shared some renditions in What are you listening to. I think fair to say, but maybe I’ll draw some friendly fire, covering Think Lizzy’s intrepretation, which I base on the lyrics. No idea where Lizzy’s lyrics came from since the other more folk/traditional artists, The Pogues and Dubliners, and a few others have different lyrics which is what I assume led to the ‘obscure lyrics’ comment.
As for ‘rearranged the vocal phrasing’ of Only Love … it’s probably not quelle surprise for me to say ‘rearranged’ is not really the appropriate word. To me that would imply a measure of thoughtfulness and intent in the phrasing, which naturally was not there. I just sung it the best way I could and still try to maintain the strumming pattern, not add or subtract beats, sing with reasonable pitch and tone, and try to make it feel good. One might call it a happy accident that it worked out well, and I’ll accept that slowly slowly my ability to play and sing gets just a little better.
Thanks again!
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@Richard_close2u Thanks for the listen and the comments Richard. David Gray has to be one of my favourite artists.
I’ll have been playing a year this coming May.
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Thanks Richard. As further motivation to spend some time with Elliott Smith, in one recent video Justin mentions that he has Elliott in his top 3 all time songwriters. Also the favourite artist of Sean Daniel (notable acoustic player and Youtuber).
I’m privileged in having lots of opportunities to pick up the guitar throughout my day, giving lots of opportunity to automate that bouncing thumb technique. It’s really all about hours invested for finger picking I think.
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Back to the final listen through …
@Mari63
I vaguely know John Cougar Mellencamp as he had a big hit with Jack and Diane. It had a lot of radio play in the UK and the DJs did use the ‘Cougar’ part of his name all the time. Iin that song I was always intrigued by the line “Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone” and its ambiguities.
A fine performance all-round, most impressive were the transitions. You effortlessly and seamlessly went from energetic strumming to pumping 8ths then, with great aplomb, straight back in to arpeggiated picking. That takes some work to get right and it is all too easy to go from strumming to picking and end up hitting the wrong strings in the transition. You didn’t, you hit them bang on. Good stuff.
@skeletor83
David, I’m not even going to go within a mile of technique critique and thoughts of ambitious song choice. I’m simply going to commend you for giving such an enjoyable account of your guitar journey and an absolutely full-tilt 100%+ energetic frenetic rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza. As someone on the mic said - performance with a P.
@JakAngelescu
Jak & Holly.
You look very comfortable, settled and relaxed playing and singing together and the smiling and fun show you’re enjoying it. Jak, I notice you switched between classical position for the 1st fingerstyle song and conventional for the strummed 2nd song, that’s a great versatility to have for the song’s needs. All three songs were performed really well. Good stuff.
@Rossco01
Back to Jason for the closer … Not Blur - Song 2 (I think Toby’s ribald comment got missed in the flow of things) but The Housemartins. I love me some Paul Heaton songs … catchy melodies, great harmonies and gritty kitchen-sink drama lyrics. One of my favourites … “I want my sun-drenched wind-swept Ingrid Bergman kiss, not in the next life, I want it in this…”
You did great on this one too. Your performance-confidence has grown so much in the last year or two.
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@Richard_close2u Thank you for your feedback. Yes,it was my first live performance and one that I certainly learn from.
The good thing, is that I feel more confident in my playing and I am looking forward to perform again at another OM.
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Wonder who the other 2 are? I’d put money on Neil Young being one of them.
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Thanks so much for listening to all of us, Richard, and your comments and insights. Yes Jack & Diane was a mega hit here as well, I remember being at some community thing and somebody playing it when I was a teenager - took me many more years to learn it! Lyrics were my first interest for guitar songs when I was growing up, and that line also got me, too. And I agree with David, you’ve got so much going on and yet you still have the heart to encourage us. You’re definitely one of the good guys, Richard.
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I’m pretty sure Justin says in his Looking for Saturday Night lesson that Tom Waits is one of his top 3 fave songwriters, so now just to confirm NY or ??? as the last one.
OK, so based on that, Mike’s comment and my speculation Justin’s top three songwriters could be:
Elliot Smith, Tom Waits, Neil Young
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Had to go looking while I’m having my breakfast …
Justin says in his Between the Bars lesson “ I love Elliott Smith, he might be my favourite writer after Neil Young.” I think I’m going to have to check out Elliott Smith now!
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Ooo,this video makes me nostalgic happy and longing for the past 
… what a lot of sweet children, having so much fun with each other (where did it go wrong with you . 
…)
Very nice to see, I have to check out some more of that 8mm you posted. 
… 
…have been “waiting” for a while, thanks
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