DennisG learning Eva Cassidy's "Autumn Leaves"

dennisg
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:07 pm

Autumn Leaves was originally written in French at the tail end of WWII, and it wasn't until 1950 that Johnny Mercer wrote new lyrics in English. This is a song I remember hearing a lot as a small child in the '50s, since virtually every major singing star of that era recorded a version. To be honest, I never much cared for this song because its heartbreaking lyrics were always offset against a swinging, hipster, up-tempo beat that destroyed whatever longing was built in to the song. Picture Sammy Davis Jr., cigarette in one hand, snapping his fingers with the other, bopping away ... and you get the picture.

Why I chose this song

Truthfully, Autumn Leaves completely fell off my radar for decades -- until Chris posted a link to the absolutely magnificent Eva Cassidy version, the first one I can remember slowing the song down and treating it like the poem to a lost love that it really is. From the moment I watched Eva's version of the song, I just fell in love -- with her, with the song, with the idea that one day I might actually try to play it. And so I noodled around with it at guitar camp a couple of weeks ago, then came home and discovered that I was playing it all wrong. So I've been retooling it the past couple of days. What follows is a rough, rough, rough version of the song that I did in one take.

Challenge #1: As you'll see from the video, the song really isn't very difficult to play. The challenge was to figure out what to play, since I could never quite overlay the tab with Eva's video.

Challenge #2: Autumn Leaves is filled with chords I'd not only never played, but never even heard of, like F#m7b5, Am13, Cadd9, G6, and Am9 -- not to mention that fun little slide that's used extensively in the song. There's also an arpeggio from F7 that proved to be a bit of a challenge, since there's nothing like hitting individual notes to expose the weakness of your barre chords.

Challenge #3: Singing, of course, is the equivalent of playing a second instrument while flailing away at the first one. So adding the vocal layer was a stretch. My goal here, vocally, was to keep the song low key -- not belt it out like a lounge singer, allowing the song to have its ebb and flow of tempo changes as the lyrics dictate. And it's always a temptation when singing to do an impression of the original singer, a temptation I always do my best to avoid.

At any rate, here it is. And thanks so much, Chris, for bringing Eva Cassidy and this song into my life. That she died within a year of recording the video that appears on YouTube makes Autumn Leaves that much more tragic.



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TGMatt
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:33 pm

What a delightful upload Dennis....Thx mate


tovo
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:37 pm

Superb. Words fail me.


pbraun
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:43 pm

Simply outstanding Dennis, very well played and sung!


Craig
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:45 pm

Great job Dennis! The "new to you chords" and the barre chord arpeggio all sounded pretty clean to me! Thanks for sharing with us!
Craig


juanlla
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:46 pm

Just weonderfull.
I loved it :)


jayswett
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:50 pm

My favorite solo video of yours to date. That was just incredible. It takes guts to sing an Eva Cassidy song. What a lovely voice she had. Very nice job on this. I honestly don't know this song, but I suspect it will be on my ipod by nightfall.


suziko
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:05 pm

Dennis,

That was a really nice interpretation of that song; I like that you made it your own, but kept the passion of Eva's version. Again, you always get me with some sweet-sounding bent notes in your songs. I don't know if it's that you're suddenly doing that better than before, or if your new Taylor just captures them better, but i really like it a lot!

I'm planning on posting Fields of Gold soon, but you're a tough act to follow!


Suzi


MarkM
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:09 pm

Dennis my man that was wonderful!!! I think I have to agree with Jay on this one. Although I like the song "Junk" better than Autumn Leaves I believe this is now my favorite song that you have shared with us. The performance was great all around. BIG round of applause for the singing effort on this one. That was a notch above all the great stuff you have done before. What emotion!! Awesome job Dennis!! Thanks for sharing that with us.



MarkM


michelew
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:34 pm

Dennis,

That was just soooo beautiful that I'm having trouble expressing myself properly. You REALLY did it justice. I can't see how it can be improved upon. To say I LOVED it is like me saying I think chocolate is OK (chocoholic here). You really poured your heart and soul into this and it shows. I can only aspire to play so beautifully and with that much feeling. You had me in tears.

You really achieved everything you set out to do. Your playing was so crisp, fluid and expressive. Your singing was the perfect mix of laid back and sad and captured the emotion to a tee. I'm not seeing the rough edges.

I will definitely need to learn this song and will be absolutely seeking your counsel when I get stuck. I recommended it as a lesson some time ago so I'm hoping that Neil will get to it in the future.

I think this has to be my favorite post. That's really saying something given the quality of videos that people are putting up.

Simply gorgeous! I much more than loved it. I just wish I had your word skills so I could do justice to your performance.

Thank you.

Michele


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