Well, it only comes but once every three weeks for each of us… that’s right, Original Wednesday! This week, I bring you my second of two songs from my summer demo sessions. For anyone who didn’t read my previous OW! post, I spent a weekend this past summer recording demos of all my songs I hadn’t recorded previously. This release, Weekend Demos, included a couple songs that I had written within weeks or even days of the recording session. It also included a lot of older songs, including one from five years in the past — when I was a senior in high school.
This song, “Another One,” was written somewhere in between the two extremes, during college. I wrote it about how balancing relationships can be not only difficult, but also confusing. I sing the lead a bit low and I always worry that it’s hard to hear over the guitar, but I was really happy with how it builds up to the middle.
I hope you enjoy this, and I’m looking forward to my next Original Wednesday. I’ll either be recording one of my own originals or something off the new MoU release, Homestead’s Revenge. If you haven’t heard it yet, listen to the album at http://jimfusco.com/albums.html !
Hello and welcome to yet another all-new edition of everyone’s favorite acoustic cover song music blog! Today, I’m bringing you a song taken from Jim’s list of songs to record. He’s noticed that I’ve been having a hard time recently finding songs from new artists to cover — most of the songs I want (and I have quite the list) are either from artists I’ve recently covered or have difficult singing parts that I need more practice with. So, he suggested I do Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.” I have always loved this song, and my passion for it was renewed when I picked up a copy of Gene Clark’s album Firebyrd. The album includes a cover song version of this song that I love every bit as much as the original. So, in a way, this is the perfect track to choose for a Laptop Session — a song by a new artist that was once covered by an artist whose material we have often covered on this video blog. If that made sense to you, then you deserve extra points!…
Regular fans of the Sessions may notice that I’m standing up tonight instead of sitting, as I have been for many of my recent video blog entries. Well, the reason is simple — even though this is not an upbeat song, I felt that I just wasn’t doing well with it while sitting. I’m kind of like Robert Redford’s character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in that way. In the film, Sundance (played by Redford) is asked to shoot a target in order to prove how good a shot he is. The man insists that he not draw from his holster; rather, he should simply take aim and shoot. He does so and misses. The man grins disappointedly and starts to walk away. Then, Sundance puts the gun back in his holster, draws, and rapidly shoots the rather small target repeatedly.
When the man looks at him, awe-struck, Sundance’s response is something like, “I’m better when I’m moving.”
While recording acoustic cover songs is obviously not anything like firing a weapon, I do often think about this comparison when I’m playing. When I’m on my feet, I tend to take what I’m playing more seriously and I truly feel more comfortable than if I were to sit and play.
Well, now that you have more information about my style of playing acoustic guitar music than you could ever have hoped for or desired to know, I’ll leave you with the actual session. I kind of wore myself down on this one, playing so many takes that, although it is technically solid, I feel that it lost some of the urgency of the earlier takes. Of course, it didn’t help that my computer lost battery power and shut down in the middle of my most perfect take. If only it had held out for two more minutes, I would have been done a half hour earlier than I was!
Okay, without further ado, here’s my version of Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.” Don’t forget to hurry back tomorrow for an all-new and excellent session from Jeff!
Well, it may not have been recorded in my basement with an as-yet-unknown Canadian rock band, but this is the best version of “Odds and Ends” you’re going to get out of me! I’ve always loved this song. It sets the tone nicely for the 23 songs that follow. Indeed, “Odds and Ends” encapsulates the spirit of The Basement Tapes: often absurd lyrics sung over raw yet warm instrumental tracks. For Dylan, this set of songs signified his retreat from the “wild, mercury sound” of Blonde on Blonde and the wild world tour of 1966. At the same time, you can listen as the Band begins to really gel and find their collective voice.
The primary reason I chose this song tonight — one of two that I will post tonight — is in honor of Dylan’s brand-new album being released tomorrow. It is titled Together Through Life, and I’ve already recorded a Laptop Session of the lead track, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin.'” There is at least one other song that’s been leaked online, but I’d rather save the other nine tracks for my first listen to the album as a whole.
Instead, I’ve gone back to this 1975 release of these 1968 recordings.
Why choose The Basement Tapes to cover now?
The answer, quite simply, is that I was too busy with other videos and writing to be able to record these songs a couple weeks ago when several Dylan albums — The Basement Tapes, New Morning, Dylan and the Dead — were reissued in digipack format. I saw them in the stores, and although I really don’t see why anyone who already owns these albums would want to buy the updated versions (aside from sound quality, of course), I can’t help but feel it necessary to celebrate any and all attention that Dylan’s back catalog is given.
It hasn’t been all that long since I would scan the CD racks at stores like Sam Goody, FYE, Best Buy, Borders, and a host of others, looking for Dylan albums to complete my collection. For a while, I would buy two at a time in an attempt to satiate my thirst for new Dylan material. Although I don’t feel that same urgency for Dylan’s releases when I walk into a CD store, I have lost none of my passion and respect for his music.
As Jim knows and is probably already thinking (and he’s right), I’ll jump at any excuse to record a Dylan song!!
Okay, that’s it for the first post. I need to save something to write about in my second post of the night, coming very shortly…
Welcome to your Sunday edition of The Laptop Sessions. Technically, this post is from the past. We can work magic here at guitarbucketlist.com.
Today’s acoustic cover is from Hootie & The Blowfish, and their awesome album “Cracked Rear View”. I had a lot of songs to pick from this album, but the one that I always have enjoyed the most is this one. It’s called “Let Her Cry”, and it’s a sad song but a great, great tune.
Yes, Darius Rucker does it better. He is after all the man.
While this has been published, I have hopefully enjoyed a lot of quiet afternoons, heated indoor pool swimming, some bowling fun, some walks in the mountains, a comedy show or two, and other fun and enjoyable activities with my wonderful wife.
Meanwhile I hope you are preparing for the New Year. I know that we here at guitarbucketlist.com are really in the homestretch now. After tonight, there will be a grand total of 3 videos left to publish to finish our session-a-day project. I will be posting a video reflection on New Years Day of a lot of the thoughts, praise, and other miscellaneous material that I have experienced through0ut this. I’m sure Chris and Jim will do something similar.
Until then, enjoy today’s session and see you on Wednesday!
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!
