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“Fire and Rain” (James Taylor Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Welcome back for another installment in the session-a-day project at the best music blog on the Internet! Tonight’s Laptop Session is from a new artist to the blog — James Taylor. “Fire and Rain” is his second single, released in 1970 after “Carolina on My Mind.” And now it is one more acoustic cover song to be added to the Laptop Sessions’ list of covers!

I’ve always liked this song, since I first heard it on a seventies compilation early in high school. This is actually a funny story — I was just explaining it to Jim last week…

Growing up, I didn’t listen to a lot of music. My dad had tapes of his favorite artists and a few compilation tapes, but outside of this, I didn’t really focus that much on songs or especially albums. Then, by middle school, I was listening to the radio religiously, especially the morning show on Kiss 95.7 — one of my favorite parts of summer vacation was being able to listen to 8am-10am portion of the morning show. As I began to record my own “radio shows” on cassette tape, I also began buying CDs so that I would have a wide range of music to present.

Thus began my vast musical journey. My first CD was an Elvis greatest hits that my parents bought me to go along with my first CD player. Then, I got into sixties music briefly. I had an extended seventies period, picking up greatest hits of the 70s compilations and — yes, I’ll admit it now — disco CDs. If you listen to some of the earlier Moore Hits in the Morning shows on WCJM.com, you’ll find that disco music crept into my choices for best songs.

Suffice it to say that I, just like most other people in the free world, did indeed grow out of that phase!

I collected and listened to a lot of eighties music, as well. All throughout these whims, I was buying contemporary music, and I’ve since gone back to the sixties — Dylan, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles — for the core of my favorite music artists.

I’m not sure that everyone goes through a musical education quite like that, but I have a good laugh when I really think about the way I grew into music and experienced a lot of different styles and eras over a relatively short amount of time. So, tonight, I dig back to my favorite seventies tracks to bring you this great one from James Taylor. I hope you enjoy it!

See you next session!



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“When I Go” (Original song performed by Jim Fusco) – The Open Mic Sessions

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to another edition of “The Open Mic Sessions” with Jim Fusco!  Today, I reach back into the archives for a song off of the EP “Meaningless: Echoes of Dreams”.  You see, back when these tracks were recorded, the idea was to take an entire week’s vacation from school and record an album.  Our idea was to basically lock ourselves in and to write and record the whole thing.  It’s still an idea I’d like to try someday, but back then, it just didn’t turn out that way.

First, I had a bad cold so I couldn’t really sing.  Second, my brother and I are, well, brothers.  You can’t lock us in a room for a week (figuratively speaking, that is) and expect good results.  So, after some fights and even less work getting done (mostly because of arguments over how each song should’ve sounded), we ended up with nothing more than a few backing tracks at the end of the week.  Oh yeah, and a vow to never work together again…which we ditched in 2006 when we started MoU.  And now we’re still in the throes of the newest vow never to work together again. 🙂  Time heals all wounds, but some wounds take a bit longer to heal!  I guess that’s why certain bands that have stayed together longer aren’t really friends- they work together and go their separate ways.  It’s tough to think of playing music that way because of how social it is.  But, there’s so much passion involved.  And the addition of one vocal part one band member doesn’t think should be there seems like a life-or-death decision.  I kind of liken it to a marriage, except it’s even more stressful because there’s someone messing with something you’ve created!

That’s a long-winded way of saying that, even though we didn’t accomplish too much, what we did accomplish was really good.  Those tunes are some of the most enduring ones I can remember writing and participating in.  “When I Go” is played by my brother and me every time we jam together.  It’s just this great tune that has a great beat.  What more could you want?  So, when I went to play an open mic performance at The Space in Hamden, CT, I wanted to bust-out this song.  I never got to perform it there while in MoU, so it was my chance to resurrect it.

I hope you enjoy the performance- everyone there certainly seemed to!  Stay tuned for more from The Open Mic Sessions, as my solo acoustic and electric performances of original songs continues here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs and original music video blog!


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WCJM Free Internet Radio Station: “The First Show” – 1998

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By WCJM Free Internet Radio:

This ground breaking tape of Moore 94.2- Moore Hits in the Morning came from the mind of Chris Moore before Jim and Mike Fusco even met him. He had begun this show using the most primitive of equipment, and occasionally featuring members of his family on the show. Jim got into the act when Chris and Jim took part in a class play of the novel “Raisin in the Sun”. Jim had worked the sound for one of the acts of the play, and when mentioned his interest in sound mixing to Chris, he had the idea of visiting a radio station. So Chris and Jim wrote several letters to several radio stations, finally getting a letter back from KISS 95.7 in Hartford, CT. They visited the radio station on August 6, 1998, and had a great time, even controlling the station for a few seconds! They returned to Jim’s house that day with the ambition to make their own radio show. Chris mentioned his earlier work in the “radio business”, and showed Jim and Mike the ropes of producing a show.

The show began with Chris not realizing that the tape had started, giving an “Uh, hello?” to begin the Moore Hits in the Morning program. Because of the lack of equipment they had on hand, the trio had to hold one of the two microphones up to the speaker of a CD player! Because they could not talk (they would be heard in the background) they remained silent throughout the whole show (unless they were on the air), making it even more of a challenge to make the radio show work. So, with this show, Moore Hits in the Morning was born, giving Chris, Jim, and Mike a chance to do what they loved to do – create enjoyable and free Internet radio shows!

WCJM Internet Radio is a free comedy radio station with ten years of skits, themed radio shows, and wild entertainment all available on-demand. If you’re looking for the most hilarious radio station in the world…look somewhere else…and then come back for some other great free Internet radio from WCJM!

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“(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” (Elvis Costello Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to another all-new Laptop Session, brought to you by the music blog devoted to great new rock music. My acoustic cover song tonight is not a new rock song, but it is a classic by an artist that did release an excellent album this year. That artist is Elvis Costello and the song is “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” I had actually planned on recording (and did, in fact) record a different song for my session tonight, but after I finished that one, I went on to this Elvis Costello tune and liked how it came out so much that I had to post it tonight. For whatever reason (the amount of time that I had been singing previously, the air conditioning taking all the moisture out of the air in the house, or my allergies), my voice was somewhat rough for this recording. Normally, that would be enough for me to put down the guitar and wait for another day. However, I think it worked for the emotion that is supposed to be conveyed by this track. Aside from the very end of this take when my voice is simply too shot to hit the notes I wanted to hit (please feel free to laugh at the ridiculous look on my face), I’m happy with how it came out.

This is one my favorite Elvis Costello songs of all time, and it’s a perfect track to bring to this music blog, as it has been recorded as a cover song previously by such bands as the Wallflowers. It’s a fairly simple song with simple chords, simple but great lyrics, and a simple message that I know Ringo Starr would love, and it translates very well to acoustic guitar. That being said, Jim and I did some research tonight and were shocked to find that although he is listed as #80 on the list of best rock artists ever, he has had very few songs chart well, especially on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s amazing that his most popular songs really aren’t as successful as you might expect for an artist of his standing. That either says something about him or, more likely, the system. (Especially considering that this is a system that barely recognizes the existence of such talented and influential acts as the Moody Blues…)

If you’re a regular viewer of the Laptop Sessions, you’ll get another dose of Elvis Costello very soon — his new rock music on this year’s Momofuku is some of my favorite from him and is easily in my personal top four or five albums of the year (and this is saying alot, as I’ve heard somewhere approaching fifteen new albums this year already!).

Whatever you do, don’t go too far…

See you next session!



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