Cover Me Up

by Jason Isbell • Lesson #376 • Jul 14, 2021

Hey there, friends! New lesson today for Cover Me Up, a much-requested masterpiece from Jason Isbell (and very recently covered by Morgan Wallen, with much popularity). In my main video, I’ll dive immediately into the main riff that’s heard in the intro, verse, and chorus sections. I’ll tackle it step-by-step, in both standard tuning and Drop-D – which isn’t required, but fills things out quite a bit.

Video timestamps:

0:00 Overview & Lesson Summary
1:53 Intro riff: melody notes & basic timing
3:27 Intro riff: adding basic strums
9:32 Intro riff: adding filler strums
13:49 Playing the riff in Drop D tuning
16:17 Final advice & tips

Licensed Song Sheet 4 pages

Follow along with my print-friendly guide for this song! It’s available for purchase at Musicnotes.com, the web’s leading provider of licensed sheet music.

On the fence? Here's a guide I made showing the purchase & print process, including answers to common questions about my song sheets.

Buy at Musicnotes.com

Play-Along Covers (Two Versions!)

Here’s an additional video, available to members of Song Notes Premium, where I play two different play-through covers (the entire song, beginning to end). In the first playthrough I am in standard tuning, showing you it is indeed possible to play it without going to Drop-D. And then in my second cover, I’ll tune down to Drop-D just to show you how much more “full” that D chord can sound, in context. I also give some additional tips on strumming and approaching the chord progression.

Additional videos I suggest!

The original version of the song, from Jason Isbell. This is from his 2013 breakthrough album, Southeastern.

Michael Palmisano’s reaction video (hearing it for the first time). Really dig Michael’s channel all-around, and this reaction video is a very good one in particular!

Grady Smith’s discussion around Morgan Wallen’s massively popular cover of this song, and Isbell’s (positive) reaction to it.

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Cover Me Up

Licensed Song Sheet 4 pages

Play-Along Covers (Two Versions!)

Additional videos I suggest!

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Browse Related Lessons

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Looking for More Song Lessons?

Featured Courses

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Fingerstyle & Travis Picking

Blues Starter Kit

Reading Music for Guitarists

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Beginner Chord Guide

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Using a Capo

Walk Ups & Walk Downs

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Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

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Recent Lessons