I have found that there are very, very few artists that I love who started playing music any later than the early t0 mid- 1990s. John Mayer has been an exception, at least up until his whole “I’m into blues/I’m very serious/I have long hair” phase. I fell in love with Room For Squares, found Inside Wants Out charming, and couldn’t stop listening to Heavier Things. Unfortunately, I found Continuum to be unimpressive on the whole. And don’t even get me started on Try!
So, for this session, I went back in time to “Love Song For No One,” hoping to conjure up a time when I loved Mayer and his work. I think his first album is often dismissed, as though every song were “Your Body is a Wonderland” — which I’m man enough to admit I really enjoy…
Without further ado, here’s my take on “Love Song For No One,” a version that took me many takes before I was happy enough to release it. I’m still not entirely happy with it, but my voice was scratchy and I did my best. Besides, you know what they say — a session a day… keeps Chris, Jim, and Jeff going crazy? 🙂
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
Hello and welcome to another Laptop Session, your source for quality acoustic cover songs! I’ve been taking it easy this past week, recording songs that I know and love, from bands I’m very comfortable with, such as the Band and Bob Dylan. This week, however, I’m endeavoring to expand my range a bit, and I think I have. I have a busy week coming up, as it’s the last week of school before summer, and there’s papers and exams a-plenty to be graded. To compensate for that, I recorded my three video blog entries today, which will cover me for today, Original Wednesday (when we songwriters get to showcase our own material!), and next Saturday.
My contribution to the Laptop Sessions cover songs blog is “How’s It Going To Be,” one of the singles from the same Third Eye Blind album that boasted their hit “Semi-Charmed Life.” This is a great song and very much conducive to being translated acoustically for this session. It was a fun experience, as I don’t think I’d ever fully grasped what the words to the verses were! But, I broke out my copy of the album — yay for buying physical copies rather than digital downloads! — and consulted the booklet, and I was in business.
This is the best way to record a cover song, in my personal opinion — unless you have an incredibly reliable memory for these things, like Jim “iPod for a brain” Fusco. Go to the original and play along, check your chords and tune, and then go off on your own. It was a bit challenging, as the chorus is different each time it’s played, not to mention that there’s a middle part that is practically shouted on the studio recording. I did the best I could with it, and I’m pretty happy with the outcome. To be truthful, there is one flubbed line by yours truly in the middle, but the middle is difficult to understand to begin with AND the words for that part are excluded from the lyrics section of the booklet! Not cool…
Well, I’m back to grading papers after having a fairly enjoyable couple hours here recording songs for the week. I can’t wait for my Original Wednesday, when I will play a song from my very first album working with a band, and Saturday will bring an artist that I have not covered before, but Jeff and/or Jim has. Any guesses?
Check out the Laptop Sessions archive for more excellent sessions from Jeff…
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
Hello and welcome to your Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions. After my quite lengthy post last time, I’m going to keep this one fairly brief — not because I want to be lazy and write less, but because I still have a lot of work to finish before tomorrow morning.
Tonight, I’m pleased to present my second video in a three-part series where I present a song from not only a new band to the Laptop Sessions, but also originally done by a female lead singer. Now, if you’ve come to the music blog before, then you know that my vocal range does not exactly lend itself to great heights… But, even though I had to drop an octave for this song tonight, I’ve been true to the Laptop Sessions promise to always record in the original key! Indeed, that’s one of the reasons that Jim started the Laptop Sessions — to create an alternative to carelessly and ineffectively recorded cover songs on YouTube.
While I don’t expect anyone to be wowed by my Johnny Cash-like adaptation tonight (I’m exaggerating with this description, of course!), it was interesting to record for a couple reasons. The biggest one is the rhythm of the first verse. It was difficult at first to keep the rhythm of the guitar, while at the same time being true to the tune and timing of the verse. As with any acoustic cover I’ve recorded, though, I took the time to practice this opening over and over, beginning a few months ago and then coming back to it tonight. In the end, it’s exciting to see the playback and know that, if only in baby steps, my abilities and stylistic experimentations are expanding because of this session-a-day project.
I first saw Tegan and Sara when they warmed up for Ben Folds in concert. There was something about the duo that I liked, and even though they are twins, I’ve always liked the quiet, calming presence of Sara. Which is odd, since I’m usually most interested in the lead singer or songwriter of a band. Anyway, I bought their 2004 album So Jealous, and although I found a lot of the songs to be repetitive within themselves (i.e. a lack of new lyrical material past the halfway point of any given song), I also found the album really catchy. I liked the upbeat sound and their vocal harmonies are really great. They’re not exactly the Beach Boys by any stretch of the imagination, but they’ve found their own niche. One of my favorite memories of this album is when I first bought it and played it for my sister, who liked it very much. I just remember sitting in the basement rocking out to it with her. We don’t exactly have the same tastes in music, so it’s exciting when we find some legitimate crossover!
Anyway, this song — “You Wouldn’t Like Me” — is the first track from the album. When I did my usual Wikipedia/google run tonight, I didn’t learn all that much new about the band. However, one thing I didn’t know was that the White Stripes recorded another track, “Walking With A Ghost,” from this 2004 album.
Okay, without further ado, here’s my version of their song. Keep coming back to the best acoustic cover song music blog on the web — Jeff’s original songs, Jim’s “Thumpin’ Thursday,” and more Friday sessions are in the archive.
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
Welcome to Original Wednesday! It’s Jeff today giving you an original song for our Wednesday edition. It’s our favorite day of the week here.
Today I bring you yet another video from my 2008 album “Greenlight”. The song is the last track of the album and is called “Easy”. Jim was so kind to enlighten me that on Greenlight, I have two songs that are also Barenaked Ladies songs. I think i’ll have to see if they are coverable songs and do them for kicks.
Of the songs I wrote for Greenlight, this was the first one I wrote in 2007, which was 2 years after another song on the album (“$500). It set off a nice set of songwriting for me – probably the best of my life. This song got written in two parts – 1st verse while I was in the old apartment, 2nd verse while in our new condo. It was also the song that convinced Jim that I should consider recording a new album (which happened thankfully – that was a lot of fun).
And yes, if I can get some more solid songs together, another album in the future is certainly a possibility.
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. Â We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session. Â We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future. Â 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!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
