By Chris Moore:
I’ve always loved this Johnny Cash song; his songs often remind me of my grandfather and father and of my youth. That being said, no, I have never shot a man nor can I personally relate to this song. But, that being said, Jim was reminded today of another Johnny Cash performance that utilized the same chords, so thus there is a little surprise in the middle for all you Fusco-Moore fans out there…
By Chris Moore:
A couple years ago, a friend at work asked me for some information about Bob Dylan and his work in the 1960s. Little did she know I would not only give her son as much verbal information as he required, but I would also type up a brief discography of his albums. I just came across it today, and I figured I would share it with you all!
-Very folky album, mostly comprised of covers. His early original “Song to Woody” (for his hero, Woody Guthrie) is notable.
-His first big success and one of his true classics! This is the album that made bands like the Beatles stand up and take notice of him.
-Deep in the heart of his “protest song” era, this topical album solidified his standing with the folk artists of the 1960’s.
-In this album, Dylan’s desire to break away from topical songs and write more personal material—“My Back Pages,” etc.—becomes evident.
-Dylan begins to “go electric” with this half acoustic, half electric album.
-This is where Dylan pulled out all the stops and made a sound that was all his own. Best known for its lead-off song, “Like A Rolling Stone.”
-Dylan pushes his sound a step further with this album; widely considered to be among the (if not THE) best album of his career.
-Following his motorcycle accident in 1966 and the cancellation of his upcoming tour dates, fans were somewhat thrown by his return to a more folky sound.
Records in a basement with the Band; those widely bootlegged takes were later
released as The Basement Tapes
-Making the transformation complete, he released this country rock album with a new version of “Girl of the North Country” (originally from Freewheelin’) as a duet with Johnny Cash.
By Jeff Copperthite:
Happy Saturday to everyone out there on the internet! It’s Jeff Copperthite bringing you the latest installment of The Laptop Sessions. I bring you a new artist for me, but not a new artist for the sessions.
That of course would be a classic one at that – Neil Young, and the first track off of his album “Zuma” called “Don’t Cry No Tears”. It’s a short and sweet song that I was able to technically record in one take. I had meant to record it earlier in the day, but battery problems with my camera (read: camera turning off in the middle of a take) caused me to postpone recording it until about 10 minutes ago. Thankfully I have practiced this one all week.
I decided to record this song after hearing a Wallflowers cover of this song, and you will hear another song in 6 days because of the same reason. It will also be a new artist to the sessions, unless Jim or Chris randomly decide to cover the same artist, or the same song! I’ll leave that to chance, and let you wonder who it could possibly be.
In the meantime, enjoy this classic from Neil Young. Come back in a little while to hear Jim’s newest session!
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!
By Jeff Copperthite:
That’s right…it’s that time of the 3 week rotation…Jeff presents Thumpin’ Thursday ™®©!!!!
And I shall now cover a song that will have Jim saying “Damnit you had to get this song stuck in my head for the next 3 months!”.
The band, although a short-lived one (but with some success), is Blind Melon, and their very popular song “No Rain” from their self-titled debut album. It is very, very easy to have this song embedded in your humming repertoire for quite some time. The chorus is addicting, simple, and very catchy – the perfect candidate for Thumpin’ Thursday.
I’ve continued to cover some of the old school alternative music from my teenage years. I may have to start breaking out some of the real obscure alternative music I listened too growing up – not to mention the classic rock, folk rock, etc. songs I have lined up for the rest of the year.
That was an awesome Original Wednesday post that I am following. If you haven’t seen it yet, do your eyes and ears a service and check it out. I can’t wait to hear Chris and Jim’s upcoming albums. They will both be on the same playlist for quite some time once both are recorded and released.
Tomorrow Jim will dish out the awesome with another acoustic cover. And in case you thought we were counting, there are 48 videos to go in 2008. We’re almost there!
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!