“Waltz #2 (XO)” (Elliott Smith Cover)

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to not only a brand-new Laptop Session, but the introduction of a new artist to our list of covers! Today, I’m playing “Waltz #2 (XO)” from Elliott Smith’s XO album. I actually just realized a couple weeks ago that he did indeed have an album between my two favorites from him — Either/Or and Figure 8 — and I had to get it. I’ve been listening to it ever since, and it feels kind of like a new album to me, considering that I thought I had heard all of his studio material.

Like I said, I’ve been listening to the album for over a week, and even though I still have several Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash “Laptop Sessions” videos, I just had to sit down and record this one (thus, the late-night, down-to-the-wire posting).

I hope you enjoy it; I certainly enjoyed learning it and playing it!


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“Found Out About You” (Gin Blossoms Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good day to you out there on the internet! It’s Jeff here for today’s installment of The Laptop Sessions.

Today I bring you a great song from a band that is new to our series. The song is “Found Out About You” by the band Gin Blossoms. They have long since disbanded, but many of their hits still get plenty of airplay on the radio and this is a song you probably know quite well. This song is from their 1992 album “New Miserable Experience”.

I have always been a fan of their singles, and among them this ranks as my favorite behind “Hey Jealousy”. The issue with this song is that it doesn’t translate as well as I thought it would to acoustic. Still, I am proud of this version and I hope you enjoy it as much.

I can’t wait to see which song Jim breaks out of hiding for Original Wednesday!

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!

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 origianal 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!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Great Day” (Paul McCartney Cover)

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Sunday edition of the Laptop Sessions!

Today, I bring you a tune that I covered on my album “That’s All Folks” called “Great Day” by Paul McCartney. It closes out his 1997 album “Flaming Pie”, one of my all-time favorites.  That album, “That’s All Folks”, came about because I had purchased my first good acoustic guitar.  That guitar meant everything to me- it sounded great, played great, and made me feel like a real musician.  I didn’t even really know how to play too well when I bought it.  So, I learned how to play a bunch of songs I was listening to at the time.  That taught me more chords, which turned me into a better player.  And, at the time, I was going through a HUGE Paul McCartney phase.  They had just released “Wingspan” with all of Wings’ greatest hits.  I know those songs probably grate on people after all this time, but they were all new to me- and I fell for it pretty hard.  We were also listening, as a family, to Paul’s albums from the 90s quite a bit.  The first real song I learned how to play (and played it for my parents) was, of all things, “Hope of Deliverance” by Paul McCartney off of the “Off the Ground” album from the early 90s.  I guess you could say that Paul McCartney’s songs really taught me how to play.  And when it comes to rock musicians, you can’t get a much better tutor than him.

This is the perfect acoustic song and gives quite a vocal workout, which you wouldn’t expect in such a simple song.  I decided to do this acoustic cover song on my nylon-string classical acoustic guitar, as it gave me the opportunity to be more expressive in my performance.  This song is very soulful, which you wouldn’t really expect from the lyrics.  I kind of dumbed-down the guitar picking riff throughout because that’s not really my thing.  I’m a strummer and a soloist, but can’t do the flat-picking thing too well.  Paul McCartney, the phenom that he is, is proficient at almost anything, musically.  The man is one of the best bass players of all time, he can play the drums, sing (obviously), write songs, and play any guitar part you throw in front of him.  Oh, and he’s written some of the most famous rock songs of all time on the piano, as well.  That’s a pretty impressive life, for sure!

I hope you all enjoy today’s Session!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“I Got You” (Stone Temple Pilots Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Hello all of you weekend warriors! It’s Jeff for today’s Saturday edition, and I bring another entry from one of my favorite bands STP, better known as Stone Temple Pilots.

I bring you a song from their album “No. 4” called “I Got You”. This is not the first time you’re hearing a song from this album, as one of my previous sessions Atlanta was also from this album. Not only that, but Jim in the near future will be performing a song from this album as well. We’ve got a good handle on this album now, so I expect the next time I do a song from STP it’ll be off of one of their other 4 albums.

Anyway, this song is a very peppy and catchy song, which is a bit of a contrast to some of the other songs on the album which have a more dark and aggressive sound. The recording itself has a lot of country-slide guitar going on in the background as well as a clean electric guitar solo before the final chorus. Even a bit of piano is thrown in. But for me, you get my regular tenor voice and my acoustic guitar – complete with assorted open position and barre chords.

I felt ultra-productive this past Sunday recording this and three other videos. Now I have to sit down and record more. I’m always open to requests, and I will be working on a request from a student in my school. Until then, enjoy today’s entry into the Laptop Sessions!

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!

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 origianal 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!

More Laptop Sessions covers