The Laptop Sessions: “Jane” (Ben Folds Five Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Friday, February 29th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to your Fabulous Friday edition of The Laptop Sessions, and I am proud to bring you a session that I’ve been waiting to do for a while.

This session is “Jane” from Ben Folds Five’s last album “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner”. I last did a song from this band as my 2nd Laptop Session - “Emaline”. That session is close to 1,000 views, so I thought this would be a good time to do another from Ben Folds Five.

Not only that, but for this video I kept my guitar on the stand, and performed it on my keyboard.

I think this version came out quite well, although I did have a bit of a “crack” in the chorus as I changed to falsetto. Ben Folds has an incredible vocal range that is just slightly out of reach to my voice. Other than that, I think that this video is a great one (it better be after 23 takes).

Oh, and I should break 4K views over the weekend! Thank you everyone for making the Laptop Sessions so popular!

I hope you enjoy “Jane”!

The Laptop Sessions: “Mama, You Been On My Mind” (Bob Dylan Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

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 LaptopSessions.com nod to “Mama, You Been On My Mind”!

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

The Laptop Sessions: “What Not To Do” (Independent Music - Acoustic Rock)

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions and Original Wednesday! Today, I pay tribute to Jeff Copperthite’s brand-new album, “Greenlight”, by doing a Session of the song I wrote for the album, called “What Not To Do”.

Actually, Becky Daly helped me with the lyrics because I was having a hard time saying what I wanted to say without it sounding too blunt.

But, I’m pretty proud of this song- I think it’s unique and has a good beat. Plus, it’s a message that I’ve been preaching for a long time- PLEASE learn from other’s mistakes and don’t just say, “Ah, it won’t happen to me.” But, saying things like that to someone will only make them mad. Even in my close-knit group of friends and family, I can think of three specific instances of this issue coming up. And ALL THREE times, me telling them, “Don’t do it!” didn’t work.

So, without further ado, I give you this tune as my tribute to Jeff. You can download his new album here: http://fusco-moore.com/store/index.ph…

The Laptop Sessions: “So You Say You Lost Your Baby” (Gene Clark Acoustic Rock Cover Songs)

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to a special Tuesday edition of The Laptop Sessions. This song is so popular among FMP, we’re giving you THREE editions of it! We’re calling it “So You Say You Lost Your Tuesday”.

Ok, that’s not fully true. Turns out Jim & I had recorded this song on video, and rather than one of us getting to post it, we decided to ask Chris if he’d join in and all of us post.

This is a short and great song from the awesome Gene Clark. While the recorded version sounds somewhat different, this version is based off of his acoustic sessions’ recordings.

I wanted to cover this song because I always liked the version Jim did on his album “That’s all…”, which was released in 2003. Gene Clark has been one of my favorites since Jim introduced me to him and Byrds’ music.

We hope you enjoy the hat trick!

Look for our next edition of “Original Wednesday” as Jim plays a song from my album Greenlight!

The Laptop Sessions: “Bell Bottom Blues” (Eric Clapton / Derek & the Dominoes Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Monday, February 25th, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Well, I can hardly pass up an opportunity to extend “New Bands Week” just one more day…

The song I bring you tonight is “Bell Bottom Blues” by Derek and the Dominoes, the 1970’s band fronted by Eric Clapton and better known for “Layla.” Supposedly, Clapton purposely named this band to avoid the media and fan attention that he was getting at the time, such as when a fan scrawled on a billboard “Clapton is God.” I also read in an interview that Clapton suggested the purpose of the band name was to give himself an excuse to write about Pattie Boyd (former wife of George Harrison) under the guise of Derek singing about “Layla.” I’m not sure how well the ruse worked at the time, but with songs like these, it must have been hard to keep things under wraps.

Without further ado, I give you my version of “Bell Bottom Blues,” a song that I’ve loved since I heard it years ago and that received the heaviest attention from me during high school when I was drawn to the emotion of the song. I hope you like it as well!

Don’t forget to check out Jeff’s new album Greenlight, now available at http://fusco-moore.com/store. I downloaded my copy yesterday and have already listened to it twice. (”And,” to quote Maxwell Smart, “lovin’ it!”)

The Laptop Sessions: “Evil Woman” (ELO Acoustic Rock Cover Songs)

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

By Jim Fusco:

Well, “New Bands Week” is over, but I have a hard time letting go…so I bring you yet another new band to the Laptop Sessions!

Tonight I give you a band fronted by a great producer, songwriter, and singer: Jeff Lynne. The band is Electric Light Orchestra (E.L.O.) and the song is “Evil Woman”, a favorite of mine for a long time.

This song is originally done on piano, but I’ve adapted it for acoustic guitar. It’s got great vocals and a great chord progression. I love the way the drums come in- it’s what I miss the most when I play it solo.

But, I hope this will be the start of many other E.L.O. songs for the Sessions. I can’t wait to do “Sweet Talkin’ Woman”, too.

Enjoy tonight’s session, and make sure to come back on Wednesday to see my Original Wednesday tribute to Jeff Copperthite’s great new album, “Greenlight”. Aw, heck, why don’t you just come back on Monday and Tuesday, too?