Jimi Hendrix didn’t learn how to play that mind-twisting guitar solo on “All Along the Watchtower” in a single day. He learned it after years of listening to music and practicing, playing along with tunes he heard on the radio. The song’s original author, Bob Dylan, learned the same way. And, although Dylan has never been considered more than a mediocre guitarist, he knows how to play hundreds of songs.

According to Harvey Reid and Joyce Andersen, you can do the same thing. All you need is a guitar, a radio and a handful of easy songs. The couple’s new CD box set and hardcover book, “The Song Train: 56 Great Two-Chord Songs Anyone Can Play” will cover the latter part of that list. It includes 56 acoustic songs—none with more than two chords—that amateurs can pretty much learn by ear.

Reid and Andersen, both of whom have long been staples of the Seacoast folk scene, embarked on the project in an effort to revive the nation’s fizzling musical heritage, which has been choked and drowned by a tidal wave of commercial waste. While young musicians once learned songs by sharing with friends, neighbors and family members, they are now force-fed their music by major record labels.

“The way people get exposed to songs in our society is entirely commerce,” Reid said. “After an entire lifetime of trying to understand the music industry, I’m still startled at how much a few puppeteers at the top have been controlling what everyone can find in the music stores and what they can find on the radio.”

This is not Reid’s first venture into guitar instruction. In 1984, he wrote a college textbook about how to play folk guitar. While many students found the book useful, they encountered one significant roadblock: Many of them were not familiar with the songs Reid was describing. Feedback he received about the book convinced him that music students need to actually hear a song before they can learn it. Simply providing the sheet music or offering written tips is not enough.

Guitar instruction is also tricky because of stringent copyright rules imposed by the music industry. According to Reid, it is illegal to print sheet music or lyrics to most songs without paying exorbitant fees. He and Andersen cleverly circumvented this rule with “The Song Train.” They do not provide the lyrics or notation to any of the songs, but offer chord charts and picking techniques so you can figure it out yourself. Also, the couple performed and recorded their own versions of every song, meaning they did not have to get permission to use material written by other artists.

“Of course, we have to pay Bob Dylan his pittance every time we do his song, but it’s worth it, and (the label) can’t say no,” Reid said.

Complexities of the music industry aside, the CDs and accompanying book that make up “The Song Train” provide simple tools for learning how to play guitar. There are four discs with 14 songs each, including traditional folk standards and popular hits by artists rooted in blues, rock, country, bluegrass, Celtic and gospel.

“Basically, it’s just about getting a group of songs to people that will inspire them to learn how to play guitar,” Andersen said.
Andersen sings and plays fiddle and guitar on the album, while Reid sings and plays guitar, mandolin, dobro and banjo. Both noted that they did not learn how to play music by taking lessons or reading books—they took a more hands-on approach.
“When I see people trying to learn guitar and looking at the page and learning notes on the guitar, I don’t see them having the experience of playing music that I find the most satisfying,” Andersen said, adding that the experience of playing music should be more mystical than scholarly. “The most important thing is to have a little bit of that magical, mystical experience.”
Although the simple, acoustic folk found on “The Song Train” will not immediately appeal to all aspiring guitarists, chances are they can find someone from their preferred genre who has performed at least one of the featured songs. Page 79 of the book includes a list of somewhere around 400 musicians who have covered at least one of the box set’s 56 songs. The list includes acts ranging from The Rolling Stones to Aerosmith to The Grateful Dead to The Jackson Five.

“Some pretty hard rockin’ names are on that list, AC/DC and Adam Ant. We were pretty pumped when we got some of those in there,” Reid said. 

There is also a list of 20 artists who have covered at least four of the songs, including Ramblin’ Jack Elliot with nine, Waylon Jennings with eight, Bob Dylan with seven, Pete Seeger with six, Woody Guthrie with five and Willie Nelson with four. The book includes basic information about each of the songs on the album, along with some rudimentary guitar tips.

Reid and Andersen spent about a year making “The Song Train,” performing, engineering, mixing and producing the music themselves and recording at Woodpecker Studios in their hometown of York, Maine. The married couple has made several CDs together, and each has a plethora of solo albums. They were inspired to divest so much energy into “The Song Train” largely because of their two-year-old son, Otto, who is already becoming increasingly interested in music.

How difficult is it for someone with no experience to pick up a guitar and learn how to play a song?

“There are some songs that take one finger, so it’s hard to imagine that would be too difficult,” Andersen said. “You just have to like a song, basically. That’s why we put so many songs on here.”

Although “The Song Train” is geared toward guitar, it can serve as a foundation to learn any number of other instruments, including mandolin, banjo, bass, fiddle and harmonica.

“It’s a good way to just jam on your instrument,” Andersen said.

Reid and Andersen will be at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 12 to perform and sign copies of “The Song Train.” The duo also has a number of upcoming shows in the area, including a holiday concert at First Parish Church in Dover on Friday, Dec. 21.

For more information about The Song Train, visit www.songtrain.net.