Eric Keyes

Summertime

3 chords and the truth. We all hear about that one. There’s a lot of truth to it. Merle Haggard learned how to play in jail and the cat that taught him used a baseball analogy about first base second base and third base being three chords.

I came up the same way. The first song I learned on guitar was “Lonely is the Night” by Billy Squier. It is basically 3 chords. This is my first original song I wrote with three chords when I was 16 I just called it “Summertime” when I got to UNT. I recorded it with the drummer Keith Carlock. I always remember because it was right when the Forrest Gump movie came out. Here’s a funny Clint Strong joke for you: “In Rock ‘n’ Roll. You play 3 chords for 30,000 people. In Jazz you play 30,000 chords for three people”. Fun stuff.

Have a great Monday.