The Laptop Sessions: “Detours” (Sheryl Crow Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Saturday, May 31st, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to the final day of “Title Track Week” here at http://LaptopSessions.com ! This acoustic cover was inspired by the new rock music on Sheryl Crow’s February 2008 album Detours. The beauty of this week is that I don’t even need to mention what the song title is…

This was both a challenge, since Crow’s range is just a wee bit higher than mine, but also a lot of fun, since she is one of my favorite songwriters! I’m looking forward to hearing an unplugged version by her sometime in the future — maybe live in concert, as she’s one of the few artists still on my “must see” list. (I just crossed the Wallflowers off my list last month when I saw them at Foxwoods!).

To be honest, this isn’t even my favorite album of hers (that distinction probably goes to 2005’s Wildflower), but I’m a sucker for acoustic guitar music! And this is one of those albums that you can just imagine how the song must have originated as simple acoustic music, just a songwriter and her guitar.

Without further ado, here’s my video, and I hope you’ll come on back to http://LaptopSessions.com for an all-new video blog from Jeff Copperthite tomorrow!

See you next session!

The Laptop Sessions: “A Hard Day’s Night” (The Beatles Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Friday, May 30th, 2008

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to my last contribution to “Title Track Week” here at The Laptop Sessions on http://laptopsessions.com !

Tonight, I bring you a CLASSIC Beatles tune that everyone should be played as they’re coming out of the womb! “A Hard Day’s Night” was reportedly a phrase coined by Ringo Starr. He kinda has that Yogi Berra thing going on where he says some great unique phrases and doesn’t even realize it.

This was a great Session for me because, again, I did it in one take. Actually, I recorded NINE videos last night, so I can finally focus on all the promotion we’ve been doing.

If you’re in the CT area, check out the Record-Journal newspaper (http://www.record-journal.com) on Sunday, June 1st for a feature article on The Laptop Sessions! It’s been rumored that we might even have a prestigious spot in the Sunday paper, but time will tell, I guess.

Come on back tomorrow for Chris’ final entry into “Title Track Week” and, as always, come to http://laptopsessions.com every single day in 2008 for a new video!

The Laptop Sessions: “In Dreams” (Roy Orbison Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to another terrific Thumpin’ Thursday edition of The Laptop Sessions. Today I bring you a new artist, and the next entry into our “Title Track” series. This also goes out by request from Rory, so thanks for this request!

Roy Orbison becomes our latest artist to enter our library and I am covering the title track from Orbison’s 1963 album “In Dreams”, naturally titled “In Dreams” (Yeah, like I needed to type that twice). This is a great mellow song, has a unique structure (read: none), and showcases Roy’s incredible range and voice. Orbison really had a gift and I am glad that future generations like me get to experience his music over and over like this.

I definitely want to cover more of Roy’s work in the near future. It really is amazing how many songs are by him that float around the radio stations.

Title track week continues tomorrow with Jim’s 2nd pick, then closes on Saturday with Chris’ 3rd pick (including his AWESOME original Wednesday pick from yesterday). Be sure to keep coming back as we approach the halfway mark of session-a-day!

The Laptop Sessions: “Looking For You” (New Music - Independent Music Songwriter Chris Moore)

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to the “Title Tracks Week” edition of the Laptop Sessions! Today, I’m proud to pull one out of the archives, dust it off, and present it to you in all its laptop camera - recorded glory… This is the title track from my 2005 album Looking For You - click here to listen!. “Looking For You” is one of only three songs (all included on that album) that I’ve released with drums included in the mix. At the time, Jim officially produced three tracks off the album for me and they are, by far, the standout tracks! With his help and musicianship, I was able to include percussion and background vocals like no other song I had previously released. To this day, I still remember the hours I spent teaching him the songs and learning what I could from his recording style.

“Looking For You” quickly became one of the staples of our band at the time, the trio “Chris, Jim, and Becky.” We played coffee houses and open mic nights, and this song seemed to fit amongst our rather acoustic fare. For whatever reason, I had a hell of a time remembering the words though, so there are some embarrassing live tracks floating around out there. But there is a really great recording of it on our only release as a trio, appropriately titled Live in the Studio - click here to listen!.

Then, in 2006, MoU began recording their debut album - click here to listen!, again with a “live in the studio” sound. Looking for standards that we were comfortable playing, “Looking For You” made the final cut. This, I think, is the definitive version. Years of playing this song finally gelled on this recording, as the three of us were joined by Mike Fusco on drums and Cliff Huizenga on bass.

As a final note, I must admit that I have purposely pushed this song out of our set lists as of late. The reason is certainly not that I don’t like the song; the length of this post should refute that suggestion! (In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever told anyone before, but this was the first harmonica solo I ever played on my own and it really marked the beginning of that instrument in my music.) I’ve felt that the words of the song get buried in a live, electric rock setting, and that’s the real reason it’s been passed over recently. Playing it again tonight was a blast!

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you’ll come back to http://LaptopSessions.com tomorrow for an all-new “Title Track” Laptop Session from Jeff Copperthite… it’s sure to be a great one!

See you next session!

The Laptop Sessions: “All Things Must Pass” (George Harrison Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone and welcome to my first installment of “Title Track Week” here at The Laptop Sessions! Chris and Jeff have already put forth two strong efforts, so I had to follow suit. I have such a list of songs to add to the Sessions, but I can’t seem to sit myself down to do a few lately. Don’t have much choice come Friday!

Tonight, I bring you the title track of the most successful post-Beatles solo album from one of the group’s members: “All Things Must Pass”. This is a great album, of course, and expect to hear many songs from this one in the future.

This is a great song that has a very insightful message, especially considering that George is now passed. We actually played this song in tribute to him on one of our radio shows over at WCJM.com Free Internet Radio.

This video was done a bit differently- I used my new ZOOM H2 microphone, which is really awesome, to record the audio. It came out great, but unfortunately became kind of a big project because the H2 wouldn’t properly connect to my Macbook. I hoped to do all of my Sessions with this microphone from now on, but the Mac doesn’t give the option to use the internal camera’s video and the ZOOM’s audio. Of course, you know I’ll keep trying to find a solution…

I hope you enjoy today’s Session and come back to http://LaptopSessions.com tomorrow for another great “Original Wednesday” video from Chris Moore!

The Laptop Sessions: “One of These Nights” (The Eagles Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Monday, May 26th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and Happy Memorial Day. I hope you had a glorious holiday and got to enjoy a parade, a hamburger, and perhaps a game of horseshoes. Well, at least I did.

Today we get to continue “Title Track” week with another song by The Eagles. It’s great, because I don’t have to tell you the album and song title - I get to tell you both when I type “One of These Nights”!

This is a great tune that is somewhat tricky to capture on acoustic guitar. I decided to do a slightly off-beat strum pattern for this song. I tried to do more takes with me singing the chorus at the higher octave, but I failed miserably. My voice just wasn’t ready to maintain that, so this take has me singing the chorus in a normal range. I also improvised a little at the end. After all, every live version of this song that i’ve heard has something different at the end too. Also, since the song fades out on the recording, I decided to end the song…well, watch to the end to find out!

Jim will be here tomorrow for his first installment for “Title Track” week. Thank you for visiting The Laptop Sessions and I hope you enjoyed this acoustic cover.