Cover Me Up
Cover Me Up was the song that first introduced me to incredible singer/songwriter Jason Isbell. Forget the writing – the raw honesty of the song, and power of Isbell’s voice is what captured me. It’s just brutal in every good sense of the word.
Author Neil Gaiman has a great quote: “The moment that you feel, just possibly, you are walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind, and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself… That is the moment, you might be starting to get it right.” In other words, honesty is authenticity. Authenticity is the epitome of art.
Although Cover Me Up is Jason Isbell’s most popular song, he brings this level of authenticity and craftsmanship to every song. Nothing is mailed in with this guy. I HIGHLY recommend you get on bus if you haven’t already.
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Gear used
I used my Cordoba C7 Cedar for this performance. You can find a current list of my gear here.
How to play Cover Me Up | fingerstyle guitar
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The guitar tab for Cover Me Up is beautifully written across 3 pages. While I recommend this piece for intermediate guitar players, beginners can definitely give this a shot. The song does require an “experienced touch” but I never have more than two fingers on the fret-board at one time.
You’ll play the guitar tab straight through (all three pages) two times. Pretty simple. I hope you enjoy playing this as much as I did. It’s one of my all favorites. The guitar tab is available below:
Jason Isbell: Cover Me Up | fingerstyle guitar
The tuning for this arrangement is Open D#. You’ll tune your guitar like this (from low to high): D A D F# A D. Then you’ll put a capo on the *1st fret. That will give you: D# A# D# G A# D#.
[You might notice that my capo is on the 3rd fret. However, this guitar was already tuned down one whole step. Just follow the instructions above.]
