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New Magpie Chords and Tabs

Posted by Eric (November 3, 2013 at 7:01 pm)

Magpie and the DandelionFor me, one of the great joys of a new Avett Brothers record is getting to know the music more intimately by learning to play it. Magpie and the Dandelion is especially fulfilling because, with old favorites like “Never Been Alive” and “Skin and Bones” ready to be rediscovered, the familiar but never previously appreciated “Open Ended Life” and a string of outstanding new songs like “Apart from Me,” “Morning Song” and “Bring Your Love To Me.” (Also among old favorites is “Souls Like the Wheels,” but I’ve never learned to play it.)

So far I’ve worked out the lyrics and chords, along with some tablature, for the following songs on Magpie. These are all PDFs intended to be downloaded and printed:

Notes

“Skin and Bones” and “Never Been Alive” have been in the archive for two years or more and were closely revisited when Magpie came out, with significant refinements, especially in the intro and chorus chords of “Never Been Alive.” The guitar lick in “Skin and Bones” has been tabbed.

“Morning Song,” “Open Ended Life,” “Apart from Me,” and “Good to You” were all worked out on my own, the last on piano (still working on Seth’s beautiful outro—and not getting very far).

For “Bring Your Love to Me,” I’m indebted to YouTuber CJ Rich, who worked out the song (open C tuning) and even went so far as to post a tutorial on how to play it. Many outstanding Avett covers on his channel.

You can find my complete archive of Avett Brothers (and a few and Darling) songs—58 in all, so far—right here. Other recent additions include November Blue [PDF], Matrimony [PDF] and Life [PDF].

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2 Responses to “New Magpie Chords and Tabs”

  1. Amy says:

    I’m struggling to find a good version of “Souls Like the Wheels” from the Magpie and The Dandelion (not the Gleam version). I’d love to play along with this new version of it.

    Any chance for this please?

    Comment posted February 16th, 2014 at 8:55 am
  2. Eric says:

    Amy: I hate to admit it, but I have not learned the Gleam version, which I understand varies slightly from the solo live version on Magpie. I know it’s in open C, and there are some good tutorials on YouTube for that.

    But a couple of days ago I posted the full band version that they’ve been playing at shows since Magpie came out, which is in standard tuning. Check it out here [PDF].

    — Eric

    Comment posted March 12th, 2014 at 3:29 pm