Three Chord Thursday: locations

Each Thursday, since the lockdown, we gather for one-hour in Zoom to sing and play songs that require only three chords to accompany, in the so-called Three Chord Thursday at Three. For Thursday July 2nd and September 24th, 2020, the theme is location. We will travel the world virtually with songs about location because we can’t easily go anywhere. During this time of corona, travel has been severely impacted. What do you miss? Where would you like to go?

Register in advance to get the Zoom meeting ID and link by e-mail, unless you have registered between 7/30/2020 and 9/4/2020. Enter Zoom at anytime but we start promptly at 3 pm EDT (8:00 pm BST or 7:00 am HST) with a warm-up followed by our famous sunglass ritual and an anonymous poll. We aim to fit as many songs in one hour. Free for anyone anywhere in the world to join.

To get into the line-up (the order of songs and performers), please either e-mail the host or fill out the Google form to request a song or songs you’d like to perform, indicating your preferred key or song sheet. If you choose more than one song, you are more likely to get a chance to perform. Some songs are more suitable for tagging (different performers sharing the singing in sequence.)

Performers, please say something interesting about the song while the song sheet is prepared for sharing on screen. Afer the song ends, as soon as the screen is UNSHARED, would all participants please UNMUTE and applause, show support/appreciation.All participants will receive an email with link to video recording afterwards.

For this session, we are generously relaxing the three chord rule. Below are mere examples to ignite your imagination. Feel free to add to this list. Bolded titles below link to song sheets that can easily be transposed from that webpage. Notice the two chord songs about Texas! For part 3 of this theme (a date yet to be scheduled), will someone do a song from the Bay area?

1. All My Exes Live in Texas
2. Amarillo – (qualifies for Aug 27, 2020 non-lexical vocables)
3. America – Simon & Garfunkel – Bruce C. (MI) (qualifies for Sept 3rd Same Word Title)
4. Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen (p. 25 of Two Chord Song booklet) **
5. Blue Hawaii – Elvis — Annie L. (CA) – Sept 24th
6. Breakfast in America – Supertramp – Beth A. (MA) – Sept 24th (relay/tag)
7. By the Time I Get to Phoenix – Glen Campbell
8. California Girls – Beach Boys
9. Canada – songs from Bytown Ukulele Group jam session 1st July 2020
10. Carolina in My Mind – James Taylor
11. Charlie on the MTA – Kingston Trio — reserved for tagging
12. City of New Orleans – Arlo Guthrie – Kevin & Mary (NJ)
13. Deep in the Heart of Texas – Gene Autry ** Anne, Adrienne (TX), Lyn (MA)
14. Do You Know the Way to San Jose – Dionne Warwick
15. Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding –
16. El Paso – Marty Robbins – Mike S. (FL) – Sept 24th – in D
17. Ferry Across the Mersey
18. Fields of Athenry – Sue B. (UK)
19. Galveston – Glen Campbell – Eve M. (TX) (part 3 – TBA)
20. Galway Girl – Steve Earle
21. Girl from Ipanema
22. Havana – Camila Cabello
23. Homeward Bound – Simon & Garfunkel
24. House of the Rising Sun – Chris A. (MA) – Sept 24th (2-page in Em)
25. Kokomo – Beach Boys
26. Last Train to Clarksville – The Monkees – Emily S. (FL) – (part 3 – TBA)
27. Massachusetts – Bee Gees – Patty D. (MA)
28. My Tomato – Mike S. (NJ)
29. New York Boy – Neil Diamond
30. New York Mining Disaster – Bee Gees
31. Old Cape Cod – Patti Page
32. On Broadway – Barry Mann – Andi R. (PA) – Sept 24th
33. One Night in Bangkok – Murray Head
34. Please Come to Boston
35. Rio – Duran Duran – Anne, Adrienne (TX) – Sept 24th
36. Rivers of Babylon – Boney M – (qualifies for Aug 27, 2020 non-lexical vocables)
37. Rocky Mountain High – John Denver
38. Rose of San Antone – Lyn -Sept 24th (1 page PDF)
39. Sands of Waikiki – Mark S. (CA) (1 page PDF) (part 3 – TBA)
40. Streets of Laredo – Johnny Cash **
41. Streets of London – Ralph McTell – Bruce C. (MI) in C – Sept 24th (9-page PDF)
42. Sweet Baby James – James Taylor – Steffi (MA)
43. Sweet Home Chicago – Pat B. (CT) in D – Sept 24th
44. Tennessee Waltz – Patti Page – Maureen D. (MA) in C
45. Wagon Wheel – Old Crow Medicine Show – Rachel (MA)
46. Waltz Across Texas – Ernst Tubb ** Maureen D. (MA) – Sept 24th
47. Waterloo – ABBA – Pat B. (CT) in F
48. Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
49. Yellow Rose of Texas ** Trudy – (part 3 – TBA)

** Two chord songs

There are too many songs about a location or more than one location. We may have to do a third session of songs with only one word in the title, such as these below. More than one composer and artist have claimed these one-word titles, that is, different songs for the same title.

1. Africa – Toto
2. Allentown – Billy Joel
3. Belfast – Boney M
4. Budapest – Jethro Tull
5. Graceland – Paul Simon
6. Illinois – Dan Fogelberg
7. Kashmir – Led Zeppelin
8. Katmandu – Bob Seger
9. Mexico – James Taylor
10. Ohio – Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young
11. Panama – Van Halen
12. Vienna – Billy Joel
13. Woodstock – Crosby Stills, and Nash
14. Xanadu – Rush
15. Zanzibar – Billy Joel

For July 2nd, 2020, the line-up will start in Europe, over to Ireland and then across America, ending in Boston.

1. Waterloo – Pat (CT)
2. Fields of Athenry – Sue (UK)
3. Wagon Wheel – Rachel (MA)
4. City of New Orleans – Kevin & Mary (NJ)
5. Texas (TBA)  – Adrienne, Eve, Anne
6. Tennessee Waltz – Maureen (MA)
7. America – Bruce (MI)
8. My Tomatoes – Mike (NJ)
9. Massachusetts – Patty (MA)
10. Sweet Baby James – Steffi (MA)
11. Charlie on the MTA – tagging (verse, chorus etc) with volunteers on the spot

For September 24th, 2020, please WEAR something that shows a location either where you are currently or where you want to be. A cowboy hat? A T-shirt that has the location? An aloha shirt? A dress? A palm tree in the back? The ten songs for this session are already designated in GREEN in the above list. We will order them closer to the date according to travel (as the crow flies or as the airplane flies).

1. Blue Hawaii – Elvis — Annie L. (CA) (2 page PDF)
2. Breakfast in America – Supertramp – Beth A. (MA) (relay/tag) (2-page PDF)
3. House of the Rising Sun – Chris A. (MA) (2-page PDF in Em)
4. El Paso – Marty Robbins – Mike S. (FL) (4-page PDF in D)
5. On Broadway – Barry Mann – Andi R. (PA)
6. Rio – Duran Duran – Anne, Adrienne (TX) (3-page PDF)
7. Rose of San Antone – Lyn (1 page PDF)
8. Streets of London – Ralph McTell – Bruce C. (MI) in C (9-page PDF)
9. Sweet Home Chicago – Pat B. (CT) in (2-page PDF in D)
10. Waltz Across Texas – Ernst Tubb ** Maureen D. (MA) (1-page PDF in C) (1-page PDF in G)

Three Chord Thursdays are free to join as participant and/or performer. If you’d like to further support this weekly song series, here’s a way to donate your spare change into a tip jar for musicians.