“No One Else” (Weezer Cover)

By Chris Moore:

It’s hard to believe “new bands week” is almost over! It’s been a lot of fun — hopefully we’ll do it again soon before we run out of new bands!

My song for today, “No One Else,” is from my second favorite Weezer album, their self-titled debut known among fans as “The Blue Album.” For some reason, I had a hard time getting into the album when I first heard it. When I listened again about a year later, I really fell in love with its sound and energy. It’s about as close to garage rock as my preferences go… I felt this song translated easily into an acoustic version, and it was fun to learn a song from a band I have never covered before!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the seventh day of “new bands week” — Jeff’s up again. And, of course, don’t forget to check back here on Sunday when he releases his new album Greenlight!

“Runnin’ Down A Dream” (Tom Petty Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and welcome to your Friday edition of “Da Sessions” (as a student of mine put it – well, it could’ve been from Ditka too).  Tonight I bring you another one of those “sorta” new band (solo artist?) songs that we like to break out quite frequently.

Tonight’s song is a Tom Petty classic called “Runnin’ Down A Dream”.  It is from his first solo album called “Full Moon Fever”.  This song is well known as having that really cool riff, with the fuzzy guitar and acoustic guitar and constant rock drum beat.  Well, that doesn’t narrow it down much.  Petty is known for having a lot of kick ass tunes in his library.

Tonight I had a battle with myself.  I had no idea which song to record tonight out of the 5 I have remaining for the year.  I spent about an hour deciding to record this song because I felt it was the least intensive on my voice.

I actually had myself a great day today.  I woke up very early and discovered that I was getting an early start to my weekend.  I do so love snow storms and I love it when we get an unexpected day off to enjoy it.  I ended up doing some decorating around the house for Hanukkah, made pancakes for breakfast, and got to enjoy a lot of different things in Final Fantasy XI today.  Because it didn’t start snowing here until about 11:30, my wife still got to go out to the lunch with her coworkers that she wanted to do, and I got to hit the gym like normal.

Now all I got to do is find a time tomorrow to finish my holiday shopping.  Thankfully my wife took care of most of it :).

And I also have tomorrow morning off as well.  Snowstorms do rule.  They’re so good, “It’s like jumping into a foam block pit after being launched off a trampoline 15 feet into the air and you lay there for a while staring up at the ceiling thinking how cool that whole thing just was good”.

Well, tomorrow you can count on Jim to enhance your viewing experience with another acoustic cover song.  I’ll be back on Monday for my next installment.  Seeya 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!

“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan Cover)

By Chris Moore:

After all the Bob Dylan songs I’ve covered, there are still so many essential tracks left to be recorded, and this is one of them. “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” originally recorded by Dylan (with Roger McGuinn of the Byrds) for the Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid soundtrack, has been re-recorded so many times that it’s ridiculous. There are countless live versions, cover versions, and yes, even parodies that are available out there.

And, now there’s a Laptop Session of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”!

This is one of the earliest songs I learned to play on guitar — how can you go wrong with G, D, C and Am? — and it’s one of the first songs I worked out a specific harmonica part for. I haven’t played it in about a year, but it came right back to me. I hope you enjoy it!

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for another great session from Jeff on guitarbucketlist.com!


“Mama, You Been On My Mind” (Bob Dylan Cover)

By Chris Moore:

Welcome to another Thursday edition of the Laptop Sessions! (or, as Jeff would say, “Thumpin’ Thursday”…)

I haven’t done a Dylan song for a while and I’ve really had the itch, especially after playing harmonica for “Bell Bottom Blues.” So, I pulled out my 32-pound Bob Dylan chord book, and I made a list of all the Dylan songs I love playing. “Mama, You Been On My Mind” is merely one of the twenty or so I wrote down.

Probably my favorite version of this song is the live version from the 1975: Rolling Thunder Review Live CD. While I’m not a big Joan Baez fan, she really helps make this version the stellar performance that it is. And so, without further ado, here’s my guitarbucketlist.com nod to “Mama, You Been On My Mind”!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for an all-new session from Jeff…