Hello and welcome to what is a momentous occasion for me… my 100th Laptop Session! That’s — count ’em — one hundred acoustic rock cover songs, recorded after almost nine months of posting every third day. Thus far, Jim is the only one of us to reach the 100 mark and Jeff can’t be too far behind me, so this is definitely an exciting time for us here at the music blog.
I wanted to make today’s session a great one, so I decided to go barenaked. Barenaked Ladies, that is! As I explained in my previous post, I love the Steven Page-sung track from Born on a Pirate Ship called “Break Your Heart.” It’s quite the emotional tune and is certainly characterized (and highlighted!) by a classic Steven Page lead vocal. I almost felt silly even attempting this song, considering that it is not exactly in my range, but I wanted to set the bar high for my next hundred videos. By this time next year, I would love to have 100 more songs recorded, and have many of them be more ambitious, more perfected, and overall more exciting than even the first hundred.
I mean, don’t get me wrong; it’s been a crazy ride thus far. But still, I’m excited to improve and increase the popularity of the blog. It would be nice to know that people were actually reading these blog posts; it would certainly make me want to write longer, more interesting and informative entries.
Before I leave you to the video, I need to share one last tidbit from my day. I hadn’t downloaded all the free music at Fusco-Moore.com/Store, so I took a little trip on over and “purchased” all that free material. If you’re a Laptop Sessions fan in the least, then this is a must-have — we have eight volumes worth of acoustic rock covers, not to mention live shows.
Well, that’s it for me tonight — Aside from the fact that I’m nodding off as we speak and wondering when Jim will notice that I’ve completely slumped over on my laptop, I’m going to let my video speak for itself. The Laptop Sessions archive has plenty more covers from Jeff, Jim, and me — the best cover music blog in the universe!
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
Welcome to my all-new edition of Original Wednesday here at the Laptop Sessions. This week, I have chosen “Words,” a song I’ve recorded twice over the years — once for my album Looking For You (I recorded the title track for my last Original Wednesday video blog) and again on the Chris, Jim, & Becky debut album Live in the Studio. After recording a new cover song music video every three days, it’s always a lot of fun to turn to my own catalog of songs and revisit songs I haven’t played in years or ones I play all the time on my own. That’s the concept behind the Original Wednesday tradition — allow the members of Fusco-Moore Productions to showcase our pride and joy, our own music.
“Words” inspired the early sketches for a script and some unscripted scenes filmed while Jim and I were on vacation in Massachusetts. The basic premise of the movie was two characters on a journey who disagree on the essential question, what is a more important/effective form of communication — music and sound or words and written forms? For those who know me, it won’t come as a surprise that my character (the Eli mentioned in this song) believes in the power of words to express that which we as humans are simply unable to communicate to each other. Jim’s character (named Brian, if my memory serves me well…) believed less in the ability of mere words to convey the complex emotions we have. Nothing ever or probably ever will come of it, but it was great fun to revisit the song and the concepts.
I’ve written very little about Eli as a character — really only these lyrics — but I’ve always liked him. I hope you do too! As a songwriter, I always wished I could have written more into the song or additional songs, but I think this says enough on its own.
Well, I hope you enjoy this one.
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
I hope you enjoy seeing me with hair tonight, because as of Wednesday evening, it’s gone! That’s right — I’ve decided to shave it all off. Well, maybe “decided” is a strong word. One of my colleagues, one who offered a great deal of useful advice during my first year teaching, asked me if I would join an English department team for this year’s “St. Baldrick’s” event. I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to join in with my fellow English teachers, and as you may know, it isn’t all that often that someone asks me to join a team! So, off goes the hair in the name of raising money to fight children’s cancer. I’m currently at the bottom of the list of fundraisers on my team (listed online as $0, although I have raised about $65 from staff and students at school that will be added tomorrow).
If you’re interested in supporting this excellent cause, just CLICK HERE!
So, you may be wondering: what does this have to do with the Laptop Sessions? Well, the answer should be clear if you read the title of my song choice tonight. I thought “Will It Grow” would be a fitting question to ask on the eve of my head being shaved. Of course, Jakob Dylan isn’t referring to hair, but I was able to add a bit more emotion to my interpretation of this track all the same.
“Will It Grow” was released in 2008 on Dylan’s solo album Seeing Things. Since Jeff recorded “Something Good This Way Comes” prior to its release, I never felt the need to record a track from the album. To be honest, I wasn’t as impressed with this album as I could have been. Of all people, I should be able to appreciate a set of good acoustic performances. That being said, it’s difficult to listen to an all-acoustic album from the front man for the Wallflowers — they’re such an incredible rock band!
Now, almost two years removed, I came back to Seeing Things by chance and thought it was a shame that I had never covered one of the tracks. Not surprisingly, I found a set of chords online riddled with errors and transcribed for a capo. I love capos as much as the next guy — and probably more! — but if it’s not necessary, I can’t see a good reason to use the capo. Thus, I posted the chords here at the Laptop Sessions for those interested in a more straightforward, accurate description of how to play the song. I can certainly understand how the errors may have been made, as I found it a bit difficult to pick up all the chord changes over the intricate fingerpicking. Eventually though, I think I came to a fairly solid version of what Dylan originally intended. I hope so — Jakob Dylan is one of my all-time favorite songwriters, so I took it very seriously.
In other Laptop Sessions news, I recently went through all the music reviews I posted previous to “The Weekend Review” series and added a rating out of five stars. Why did I take the time to do this? Well, initially I felt that ratings were arbitrary and that I really wasn’t qualified to make those sorts of judgments on music. After all, I wouldn’t want someone assigning a low rating to the music I poured my heart into. Still, the more I’ve been thinking about it, the more I realize how important the rating is to the review as a whole. After all, half the fun of reading reviews is agreeing or disagreeing with the author’s rating. Thus, how can I deny my readers (however few of them there are ;- ) the opportunity to think I’m right on, far off, or somewhere in between? It was fun going back to these albums; most reviews I wrote before the Weekend Review were based on albums I loved, so that didn’t hurt. And it reminded me of how much I enjoy holding to a weekly writing schedule. It may be difficult at the time to carve out an hour or so on a Sunday to write, but it gives me a good reason to skim through my CD rack on Friday or Saturday to choose an album to listen to throughout the weekend.
Other than shaving my head, this week should be pretty normal. I still have to get used to TNA Impact! being on Mondays. It’s a great way to kick off the week, a relaxing night with friends and comfort food and wonderfully mindless television entertainment, but I do miss being able to look forward to Thursday nights.
Finally, I thought the new Locksley album was supposed to be out tomorrow, but it wasn’t listed on the Newbury Comics newsletter today. Luckily, the White Stripes are releasing their first live CD this week — more and more, I’ve been growing fond of Jack White’s work, particularly with his side projects. So, I’ll give it a shot and let you know…
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
As I have previously written about, covers are typically of little interest to me (which is, of course, ironic when considering the large number I have played over the years). Of course, I typically end up hearing a few that stand out, and this year, they were almost all on the Amnesty International charity album Chimes of Freedom. Sadly, though the compilation included over seventy songs from a vast range of artists, there were only a handful worthy of recognition. My favorite cover song of the year, however, is the one unearthed on the soundtrack to the Martin Scorcese documentary based on George Harrison’s life: it is Harrison’s cover of his friend Bob Dylan’s song “Mama You’ve Been On My Mind.” It is a stripped down, acoustic cover, but it is brilliant and the beauty radiates warmly from this simple yet nuanced performance.
1) “Mama You’ve Been On My Mind” – George Harrison
2) “One Too Many Mornings” – Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and the Avett Brothers
3) “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” – Brett Dennen
4) “Mr. Tambourine Man” – Jack’s Mannequin
5) “Ring Them Bells” – Natasha Bedingfield
Honorable Mention:
“Ballad of Hollis Brown” – Rise Against
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
