“City of New Orleans” (Steve Goodman Cover)

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By Jeremy Hammond:

My cover of “City of New Orleans” by Steve Goodman is influenced by Willie Nelson’s version of the song. The rhythm fittingly drives on like the wheels on a locomotive, and it has a fun chord progression.

** EDITOR’S NOTE **

This is one of those songs I feel like I’ve known forever.  The more likely time frame is since I was about ten or twelve, listening to my father’s seventies music cassette tapes.  Of course, I know the 1972 Arlo Guthrie version from his album, Hobo’s Lullaby.  It turns out Steve Goodman played it for Guthrie at a bar called the Quiet Knight in Chicago, after which Guthrie recorded his cover.

If the quality of a song can be judged by the caliber of people who have recorded it, then this is an outstanding tune.  It has been recorded by Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, John Denver, Judy Collins, and Jerry Reed, and has been performed most recently by Jimmy Buffett in 2005 and former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante in 2006.

And now I’m thrilled to add Jeremy Hammond’s name to that long and prestigious list of cover song artists.  Jeremy’s music video performance is an excellent, entertaining, faithful rendition that anyone who knows this song will enjoy.  If this is your first time hearing the song, perhaps you’ll go out to a CD store (or at least YouTube) and check out the other versions.  Jeremy continues to select songs that fit perfectly into the acoustic cover song format, so hurry back soon for another installment of the Guest Sessions at the Laptop Sessions music video blog!

“White Christmas” (Irving Berlin Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

I want to welcome you to the ultimate Thumpin’ Thursday edition – the Christmas edition!

Today I bring you an acoustic cover of Irving Berlin’s classic song “White Christmas”.  It’s a song we all know and love.  I won’t get mad if you sing along.

I had a great Christmas – I got to spend it with my family all day.  We talked, ate, opened presents, gave each other presents, and had an overall wonderful time.  Sherry & I then came home and exchanged the nights’ worth of Hanukkah gifts.  She loves her new digital photo frame too!

Tomorrow Sherry & I are going on vacation to a resort in NY.  We will be gone until Tuesday.  Because of this, I will have a post “auto-publish” on Sunday.  But if you just can’t wait, look me up on Youtube to see a preview of Sunday’s song.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful, and I hope you have nothing to bring back tomorrow.  Come back tomorrow for Jim to enlighten us with another wonderful acoustic cover.  See you then!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and original music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

The Weekend Review: June 2011 Report

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By Chris Moore:

June was a quiet month, and I didn’t initially appreciate some of the great work that is represented below.  This is one of the only benefits to posting these reviews so belatedly this year: that my criticism has had months to percolate and develop.  I think that is revealed below…

 

Suck It And See (Arctic Monkeys)

Producer: James Ford

Released: June 6, 2011

Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “She’s Thunderstorms” & “Piledriver Waltz”

With so many individually excellent songs – the opening electric barrage of “She’s Thunderstorms” and the gorgeously  Suck It And See should be an instant classic.  There’s something lacking, though: predominantly, a sense of momentum.  Individual songs achieve momentum relative to themselves, but there just isn’t a sense of ever-mounting energy as the tracks continue.  Still, the retro-rock/punk groove of tracks like “The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala” is undeniably catchy, and the Arctic Monkeys certainly haven’t lost their range, one which runs from the mean distortion of “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” to the placid ballad “Love is a Laserquest.”


Alpocalypse (“Weird Al” Yankovic)

Producer: “Weird Al” Yankovic

Released: June 21, 2011

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “CNR” & “Skipper Dan”

With Poodle Hat (2003) and Straight Outta Lynwood (2006), Weird Al raised the bar considerably, and it would seem to be a setup for failure to compare all future work by the watermark of discs like these.  Still, Alpocalypse rises to the occasion: there’s the dual-layered parody of “Born This Way” and Lady Gaga in the opener “Perform This Way,” style parodies of Weezer (“Skipper Dan”) and the White Stripes (“CNR”) that will stand up to his best work, and of course, a wittily titled polka medley (“Polka Face”).  Weird Al even manages to make the catchiness of that celebratory, patriotic Miley Cyrus tune accessible to the rest of us in “Party in the CIA.”  With Alpocalypse, Yankovic has also caught up on a few items that, in retrospect, I’m surprised haven’t fallen under his radar previously:  “Craigslist,” performed in perfect Doors/Jim Morrison fashion, and the appropriately faux-epic “Stop Forwarding that Crap to Me.”

 

Is For Karaoke EP (Relient K)

Released: June 28, 2011

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Surf Wax America” (originally performed by Weezer) & “Baby” (originally performed by Justin Bieber)

While I usually cannot condone an album of covers, much less an EP, and especially from a band that has only recently put out some of the most mature and masterful original material of their career, Relient K’s Is For Karaoke EP is actually quite good.  In seven brief songs, they span the decades, from as recent as last year and stretching all the way back to April 1980 with an impressively spot-on take of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Here Comes My Girl,” not forgetting the nineties in between, particularly with their not to Weezer in “Surf Wax America,” an excellent choice of band as well as song.  Frontman Matt Thiessen shows off his vocal range on Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” and Relient K renders another annoying track listenable in their cover of Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” a resuscitation of a cover that can only be compared with Fountains of Wayne’s version of Britney Spear’s “Baby… One More Time.”  Overall, a masterful little EP, and not bad at all to tide us over until their follow-up to 2009’s outstanding Forget and Not Slow Down, my pick for number one album of that year.

 

Rave On Buddy Holly (Various Artists)

Producer: Randall Poster & Gelya Robb

Released: June 28, 2011

Rating: 3/5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care” (Cee Lo Green) & “Changing All Those Changes” (Nick Lowe)

As with all tribute albums, the quality is uneven throughout.  And, buyer beware, there are some real clunkers here (Lou Reed’s distortion-drowned “Peggy Sue,” to name only one of several).  However, there are also some gems, and some hail from surprising corners.  Cee Lo Green’s take on “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care” is easily the best track on the record, followed quickly by a plethora of pleasing yet unsurprising covers by an admittedly impressive array of artists, from Paul McCartney to Modest Mouse and Fiona Apple to the Black Keys.  There are too many strong tracks here to write Rave On Buddy Holly off, yet there are too many forgettable (at best) flunkers to offer up too much praise too easily.

CD Review: Songwriter (and Former Beatle) Ringo Starr’s New Music on “Liverpool 8”

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RATING:  3.5 / 5 stars

By Chris Moore:

When I read that Ringo and his longtime musical partner Mark Hudson had severed their working relationship, I was concerned for what Liverpool 8 might end up sounding like. Would it follow in the solid, enjoyable footsteps of 2003’s Ringo Rama and 2005’s Choose Love, or would it embrace a new sound altogether? How would Dave Stewart’s influence as producer manifest itself in the music? As much as I’d like to believe I’m open-minded about artistic development, I have also grown fond of Ringo’s recent sound.

A couple nights after the album’s release, I sat in my car outside the CD store, hurriedly tearing the shrink wrap off of Liverpool 8. As the title track began, I was simultaneously hesitant and intrigued – it was a new sound, but certainly not a negative one – hearing Ringo tumble words-first into the autobiographical, “I was a sailor first…” Some may say (and, in fact, some reviewers have already said) that this song is a campy rehashing of his past exploits as a Beatle. I, however, have to scoff at those sentiments.

It strikes me as far too easy to write off or make fun of an “I remember when” song by an ex-Beatle. Have we forgotten the great ex-Beatle autobiographical songs? (George Harrison’s “All Those Years Ago” and “When We Was Fab,” just to name a couple.) Listen to the track for yourself; I hope you’ll find it as interesting, informative, and fun as I did. My favorite line has to be (referring to the leader of the band he was in when Lennon and McCartney saw him play and asked him to join the Beatles), “Played Butlin’s camp/with my friend Rory/It was good for him/it was great for me.” In a recent live version, I’m certain I saw him grinning on that last part, as if to say, “Of course it was ‘great’ for me!”

Initially, I did find the album to be somewhat darker than his recent work, but that is by no means to suggest that his basic advocacy of the “Peace and Love” lifestyle has lessened; if anything, it is just as strong as it has ever been. Songs like “For Love” and (my personal favorite) the solid rocker “If It’s Love That You Want” may not have the most original lyrics, but they have all the heart that we have grown to expect out of Ringo. Even the more serious songs, such as “Now That She’s Gone Away” and “Gone Are the Days,” shine through with lively guitar solos and, of course, reminders that “it don’t come easy” (Any fan of Ringo’s recent, excellent albums who has checked their Billboard ratings would agree!).

At the end of the day, I cannot say that I like this album more than Choose Love or especially Ringo Rama, but I can say that it is a solid, enjoyable album that proves Ringo cannot be written off as the least talented ex-Beatle. He has been smart enough to surround himself with talented young musician/songwriters who compliment his excellent drumming. He has created and maintained an exciting new sound in his recent work. He possesses a larger-than-life personality that drives even his lesser songs forward. And, if nothing else, he still knows how to rock n’roll!