Posted by Bob Haworth At this point, I'm dipping into a repertoire of over 1000 songs. I spend about an hour before each show structuring a song order for that particular show. This gives me a chance to rotate material regularly and folks who come to see me play all the time get something different each time they come. Keeps me fresh and keeps the audience coming back. I'll have to say that there is value in getting a show together that works and sticking with that. One of the prime examples that I can think of is The Smothers Brothers. They very rarely change more than one or two numbers in their set lists. However, I have to say that, no matter how many times I've seen their show (over a hundred, probably) I always laugh til my gut hurts, even though I know what's coming next. These guys are just so good and their show works over and over. Well, for me, at least. I have heard complaints from others about their stagnation. I guess it's a matter of opinion.
on December 5, 2006, 1:17 am, in reply to "Song sets"
4.228.9.107
Really boring! After Bob Shane retired from The Trio we started varying our sets for every show. I carried a 9 x 12 piece of sheet metal and I got these printable magnetic sheets at Office Max on which I printed all of our song titles. I cut each song title in a strip and carried these magnetic strips that we could put onto the sheet metal and change our sets each night. We had a fairly deep repertoire, so it was fun to try different things each night. Of course, we always had to include Tom Dooley, MTA and about 10 other must-plays.
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