Tom Waits – Come On Up to the House (Chords)

Tom Waits – Come On Up to the House (Chords)

Scatter the nuns!

I spent most of my aestivation watching the second series of Orange is the New Black. And I was inspired by O’Neill’s delightful banjoleling to write up the chords for my favourite song of the series.

No, not Hey There De-bloody-lilah. But this gospel-inspired Tom Waits song. It has a strong call and response feel to it. Made explicit in Sarah Jarosz’s version. It would be an effective way of playing it in a uke group with the lead singing the the calls and the groups the, “Come on up to the house,” responses.

Since you’re busting out a capo, you can put it on the third fret and make things a bit easier for yourself by using these chords:

Come On Up to the House (Chords in C)

Suggested Strumming

A dead simple main strum of:

d – d u

Intro/Solo: Once for each chord.

Verse: Once for each chord except: twice for each chord on the first ‘come on up…’ and twice on the last chord of each verse.

Chorus/Outro: Six times on the D, twice on the Bm. Then it’s just the same as the last half of the verses.

Links

Buy it on iTunes
Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard Chords

View Comments

7 Comments

  1. RonVa July 16th, 2014 5:24 am

    First time I have heard this song. Love it. I really like the old time gospel call and response theme. Good pick, Al.

  2. Woodshed July 16th, 2014 11:18 am

    RonVa: Glad you enjoyed it! It’s a great song.

  3. Krabbers July 16th, 2014 12:31 pm

    Hey Al. Great show. So many great tunes used in it. Binged watched season 2. Love it. We have been playing this one at unplugthewood.

  4. Lillian July 16th, 2014 4:53 pm

    Thanks, Woodshed! I love this song, especially Sarah Jarosz’s version. (Got to see her close out a set with this at Bonnaroo). Somehow I totally missed it on OITNB, though.

  5. Conor July 16th, 2014 4:55 pm

    The video reminded me of viharts sharpie song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ft7sUK9jg

    That is until I watched it again.

    I haven’t seen orange is the new black, but I know it has a song by Andrew Bird in it that I quite like called Pulaski at Night.

  6. Woodshed July 17th, 2014 7:12 am

    Krabbers: That’s great! I bet it goes over really well.

    Lillian: She’s great. I’m slightly jealous!

    Conor: Cool video! Even if I don’t see the resemblance!

  7. Lee July 18th, 2014 10:24 pm

    Al, this is an absolutely raspy YouTube video, suggestions are great, and the chords are more than fine (sorry, but I need to use a capo on the 3rd fret for now). I’ve got my harp rack and uke, and I’ll head out soon to busk with this tune. Thanks!

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