Country Music Lyrics Volume 2 with Chords

COUNTRY MUSIC LYRICS

VOLUME II

WITH CHORDS

17 NOVEMBER 2002

(Minor corrections, reformatting and chords added 3 May 2004)

Corrected 26 July 2011, 16 August 2011, 29 November 2011

ALL IN KEY OF A, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED

FOREWORD

This is a second volume of lyrics to popular songs, to assist learning to play the guitar by ear, as described in the article, How to Play the Guitar by Ear (for Mathematicians and Physicists), posted at Internet web sites http://www.foundation.bw and http://www.foundationwebsite.org . As discussed in the foreword to Volume 1, the purpose of assembling these lyrics is to provide the student with a large number of songs from which he may choose ones for which he knows the melody and enjoys singing. Since everyone’s taste is different, and the student may not be familiar with the songs that I know (many from decades ago), it is the intention to provide a large number of popular songs from which the student may choose. I believe that learning the guitar is facilitated by practicing a number of different songs in a practice session, and playing each one only a couple of times, perhaps in a couple of different keys. In order to do this, it is important to have a large collection of lyrics available.

As in Volume I, I have deliberately omitted noting the chords to be played on each song, if it is my opinion that the beginning student should be able to figure them out easily – e.g., chords are omitted for most two-chord or three-chord songs. The purpose of this omission is to provide the student with the opportunity of learning to determine which chord to use at each point of the song, quickly and automatically. For more difficult songs, I indicate some of the chords, and for some songs, I provide chords for the entire song. Where I indicate only a few chords, it is important to remember, as noted on the cover, that it is assumed that all songs are sung in the key of A, unless otherwise indicated. (There are a few songs for which the chords are relatively easy, but I have indicated them nevertheless. These are songs that I was to sing in public for some occasion, and I did not wish to make a mistake.)

In some cases, I have found songs already chorded, but in a fashion that is not convenient for the guitar (e.g., in the key of Bflat, or with many exotic chords). In most cases, I have removed the chords or re-chorded them. In some cases, however, I have left the songs in “strange” keys or chordings, to be modified as an exercise by the student.

As was the case for Volume I, this volume includes mainly songs from country music, but it also includes some non-country-music folk songs, rock and roll songs, popular songs, and gospel hymns.

Many of the songs of this volume are copyrighted by others. In their original or available forms, however, they are not helpful for the beginning student of guitar (e.g., they are arranged for piano, or are written in a key that is not natural for the guitar, or are fully annotated with chords, or are in small print). To facilitate reading by the student as he plays the guitar, they are presented here in a large, easy-to-read font and with a strong attempt to keep the song to a single page in length. To facilitate his progress in learning to play by ear, the chords have been removed in all simple cases. It is for these reasons that I have, in cognizance of and in the spirit of the “fair use” doctrine of copyright law, reformatted these songs and presented them in the present volume.

Good luck!

Joseph George Caldwell

Lusaka, Zambia

Added Note, 17 May 2004:

This volume is a revision containing chords for most songs. In a sense, it is an “answer book” to accompany the earlier edition, which omitted most chords. Please note that most of the chordings presented here are very simple – what a new student would be expected to devise. In most cases, they are quite adequate, and would be what anyone would use to accompany singing. In some cases, however, more elaborate chordings are presented, because they sound so much better (and are useful practice).