This season includes nine episodes and a wide range of talent — by far, the best series of Guest Sessions ever released heretofore on the Laptop Sessions blog. Performers range from individuals in their bedrooms to full bands performing. The artists being covered run the gamut as well: from Elvis Costello to Wiz Khalifa, and Sam Cooke to Phish. For the first time ever in Laptop Sessions history, we will feature an acoustic cover song music video performed in a different language.
PLUS: We were still waiting for the perfect video for our December 30th season finale when this was written.
All this and more came every other Friday for the rest of that year:
You won’t want to miss even one episode of the Fall 2011 season of the Guest Sessions cover song music video series!
[Editor’s Note: We received this video from the performer’s daughter a few days ago, and it seemed like the perfect note on which to kick off a new season of Guest Sessions videos on the Laptop Sessions blog. The LS Blog was originally founded by one man with a guitar, a laptop, and a living room as his stage. Over 600 music videos, hundreds of music reviews, and dozens of special features later, the Laptop Sessions continues to be a source for quality commentary on music. After all, what is a cover song if not an attempt to interact with and add ourselves into the conversation about our favorite original music? So, check out the video below!]
A note from his daughter, Jordane:
My papa singing and playing guitar to one of his favourite songs. I feel like it shouldn’t just be me admiring his talent in his living room, but I feel other people from all around the world should admire him too. Please enjoy!
The Weekend Review returns, the Guest Sessions are revived, and more!
By Chris Moore:
Back in January, I had planned to take the month of February off to work on my upcoming album, the not-so-timely-titled 2010 Project. I had the foresight to vaguely suggest that my hiatus might extend into March, but apparently not enough foresight to see all the way into mid-May.
Regardless, I’m back and re-energized for my several Laptop Sessions-related endeavors in 2011. Before I kick it all off with my first review of the year, I figured I would give a real quick run-down of what you can expect.
THE WEEKEND REVIEW will be in a new monthly format, one which condenses the best of both worlds between the full reviews I wrote in 2010 and the Yes, No, or Maybe So? format. I’ll be supplementing my new monthly reports with full reviews — rest assured I can’t resist going on at length about a single album! — but that won’t be until after I catch up on my January through May 2011 reports.
THE GUEST SESSIONS have accrued quite a back log of submissions over the past six months or more since the last Guest Sesh was posted, so I’ve begun sorting through those, and you can look forward to a new Guest Session video every week that a Laptop Sessions regular has not posted. This will mean we’ll need new Guest Session submissions very soon, so click over to that page (via the link above) and submit!
THE 2010 PROJECT, last but not least, is reaching 90% completion. To light a fire under myself to get it out soon (like six months ago soon), I’ll be regularly posting Original Wednesday sessions in the order of my final track listing. I began this months and months ago, but I only got to like track three, so look for that to be picked up again.
And, with that, I thank you all for reading, and I hope you’ll look forward to more quality content on the site in the coming months!
We’re looking for more Guest Sessions submissions! So, sit down, pull up your acoustic guitar and camera, post the video on YouTube, and CLICK HERE!
As I always say, it’s never too soon for another Bob Dylan cover video! Personally, I’ve attempted to restrain myself from recording a comfortable, enjoyable Dylan cover this year. However, tonight’s installment of the Guest Sessions is a Dylan cover song music video with an interesting twist.
First of all, this is a song from Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. This is perhaps one of his best albums, and it was a transition point for him, half of the album being full band renditions and the other half being classic acoustic-only compositions. (For his next album, Highway 61 Revisited, he would dive deeply into the world of electric rock…)
So far, I’ve recorded two covers from this album — “Subterranean Homesick Blues” for the members-only area of the site and “Love Minus Zero/No Limit.” No one here has yet dared to take on the more noteworthy songs, such as “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” or the song that the Byrds launched to chart success, “Mr. Tambourine Man.” This being said, I was truly impressed with the apparent ease with which Stan Denski, our guest tonight, played “She Belongs to Me.” Granted, this is a fairly straightforward song, but he changed the tuning and plays in an interesting fashion. His version is true to the original, yet very much his own and sung well.
Thank you, Stan, for sending this very entertaining video!
I’ll let him introduce the video — Stan writes,
This is a cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me.” It is played on an old Guild 12-string tuned to an open D and played by barring chords from the top of the neck which allows the highest strings to ring open and create diminished chords. It also uses a lot of harmonics struck at the 12th fret.
I was showing a friend how to play this version and he videotaped it and, later, stuck it up on YouTube.
