Loudon Wainwright III – Swimming Song and Martha Wainwright – BMFA (Chords)

Loudon Wainwright – Swimming Song (Chords)

I did Loudon’s ukulele song way back and it’s high time I did one of his classic songs.

I’ve written the chords up with a capo on the second fret. That’s the easiest way to play it and without the capo it’s the same key he plays it in live.

Here are the chords without a capo.

Suggested Strumming

You can use this simple strum all the way through:

d – d u

Do that once each for the G – C at the beginning. After that do it twice each time you see a chord name (note: there are two E minors back to back in the write-up).

It sounds like this:


Strum

Twiddly Bits

A post shared by @ukulelehunt on

Here’s my attempt at the two banjos playing the riff in the intro and between verses.

If you want to play the whole thing with a capo on the fourth fret here are the chords: Swimming Song (Chords in F).

Links

Buy it on iTunes
LWIII – The Ukulele Song (Chords)

Martha Wainwright – Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole

Martha Wainwright – BMFA (Chords)

While I was working on the Loudon song I got a request for my favourite song about him (those Wainwrights do love writing songs about each other). And couldn’t resist writing it up as well.

In the original version Martha slides a D chord up five frets to get a G chord with a D in the base. I’ve gone with the spirit of that by sliding the D chord up and leaving the A string open (creating a Gadd9 chord).

Since the Em only crops up next to the G chord I’ve used the no hassle version of the change by keeping the G chord held and adding my pinkie on the C-string, fourth fret.

Suggested Strumming

This will get you all the way through:

d – d u d u

Links

Buy it on iTunes

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3 Comments

  1. Josh July 29th, 2017 8:49 pm

    This is amazing, thank you!

  2. Josh July 29th, 2017 8:50 pm

    Can’t edit my comment but also wanted to say enjoy your holidays!

  3. Woodshed July 30th, 2017 8:59 pm

    Josh: Thanks very much! I will do.

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