“For My Lady” (Moody Blues Cover)

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to yet another edition in the session-a-day project at the best acoustic cover song music blog on the web! Yes, that’s right, we don’t post a cover once a week or a music video every once in a while like most other sites — no, we have committed ourselves to posting one cover song a day in 2008. (And, if it goes much longer then that, we’ll probably end up committing ourselves. Not to another “session-a-day” project, just “committing.” And not to a relationship. I mean like to an institution for the mentally unstable!)

That’s how hard we work around these parts…

But, let’s get down to acoustic cover song business. Today, I bring you my second track from one of my favorite bands, the Moody Blues. “For My Lady” holds a special place in my heart for a couple reasons. First, it is on their Seventh Sojourn album, which is one of their first seven concept albums — one of my favorite collections of all time. But second, and more personal, is the fact that this is the very first song that Jim, Mike, Becky, and I learned and performed live together as a band. It was the first of many and happened long before Cliff came into the picture. By the time Masters of the Universe came together we had long forgotten how to play this song (and, by we, I mean me and probably Becky too, and maybe even Mike, but not Jim!) and it was only played once at Jim’s parents’ anniversary party.

And now it is officially added to the list of acoustic cover songs available here at the Laptop Sessions. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you hurry back tomorrow for another great cover song music video by Jeff…

See you next session…



The Top Ten Albums of 2008

For the 2008 “Yes, No, or Maybe So” one-sentence reviews, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

At long last, here it is…

My top ten list of the best albums of 2008.

Top Ten Albums of 2008

1.  Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings – The Counting Crows
2.  That Lucky Old Sun – Brian Wilson
3.  Viva La Vida – Coldplay
4.  Accelerate – R.E.M.
5.  Modern Guilt – Beck
6.  Snacktime – Barenaked Ladies
7.  A Hundred Million Suns – Snow Patrol
8.  Consolers of the Lonely – The Raconteurs
9.  The Red Album – Weezer
10. Loyalty to Loyalty – Cold War Kids

Honorable Mention:

Liverpool 8 – Ringo Starr
Momofuku – Elvis Costello

The Weekend Review: September 2011 Report

By Chris Moore:

September was, for me, the slowest new music month of the year thus far, but if the only music released in a thirty day span is a brand new Wilco studio album, you’ll find me a happy camper each time.  Jeff Tweedy and company have yet to disappoint me, and regarding The Whole Love specifically, Wilco has rarely impressed and entertained me so greatly (probably only once before; can you guess on which record?).  Read on…

The Whole Love (Wilco)

Producer: Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone, and Tom Schick

Released: September 27, 2011

Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Born Alone” & “Dawned on Me”

From start to finish, The Whole Love exemplifies the Wilco experience: traces of what you’ve come to love, unexpected turns (particularly, this time around, in “Capital City”), and a careful sequencing that unites twelve distinct songs along a single thread.  Bookended by relatively lengthy experimentation in the distortion-drenched, feedback-fueled romp “Art of Almost” and the pleasant acoustic twelve-minute narrative “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend),” the majority of the tracks on The Whole Love are concise efforts, ranging from the retro-stomp of “I Might” to the lush acoustic production of “Black Moon.”  On most tracks, it becomes clear that it is not so much that Wilco is an experimental band so much that they are innovative in their arrangements, in their seemingly instinctive sense of how to blend movements in songs, which instruments to bring high in the mix when, and how best to (subtly) layer in beds of synthesized sound for atmosphere.  From start to finish, The Whole Love is a striking effort: one of those albums that yields up new revelations with successive listens, one that begs to be left alone when the twelfth minute of track twelve fades and cycles back into to the first tentative moments of “Art of Almost.”  If you hear only one new album this year, I would posit that Wilco’s latest disc is the most expansive, complete, fully rendered of them all; a true must-listen.

“Glass King” (America Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:
Welcome to Saturday’s edition of The Laptop Sessions, where I bring you another song by request. This song, while being an Itunes-only purchasable track, is easily one of the coolest songs by America.

The song is called “Glass King” and is written by Dewey Bunnell. It has a great bluesy guitar riff and sung in that classic Dewey style. It easily translates to acoustic since both Dewey & Gerry Beckley are on acoustic guitars when they play this song live. I became an instant fan of this song once I bought their album “Here & Now” on itunes.

Speaking of which, it is a great, great album. This song should really have been part of it, instead of as a bonus track. Don’t get me wrong – the songs that are part of the “official” album are all great in their own right. After all, it’s America – one of the greatest bands of all!

I hope you enjoy this song, as I am sure this will be added to my live song library for The Laptop Sessions Live Tour (remember, May 16 @ George’s II in Wallingford!)!

Be sure to come back tomorrow, where Jim will kick off another specialty week here at https://www.guitarbucketlist.com – #1 week! We’ll see you tomorrow for that!

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!