By Chris Moore:

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!  I hope you had a joyous Turkey Day, “stuffing” yourself in the company of friends and “spuds” — I mean, buds.  If you have tomorrow off, then that’s just “gravy”…

Okay, that’s enough of that.

Seriously, I hope you had a positive day, filled with family members and friends, enjoying a day off from work.  As for me, I woke up late (almost afternoon) to a phone call from my sister.  Knowing me all too well, my mother asked her to call me and tell me that dinner would take place a half hour before it would actually start.

At least I got there on time!

My day essentially started as soon as I got out of bed (at the early hour of noon) and went to my parents’ house.  I had a nice, relaxing time talking with my parents and grandparents, as well as hanging out with my sister and talking about music.  I brought my laptop over so I could finally finish the “2008 Essentials” mix CD I’ve been wanting to make for weeks.  Some highlights were…

- “Living Well is the Best Revenge” (REM)

- “Valley of the Low Sun” (Jakob Dylan)

- “7 8 9″ (Barenaked Ladies)

- “Cowboys” (Counting Crows)

and, of course,

- “These Streets” (MoU)

I’m not biased about that last one, I swear! 

After dinner, I spent a long time talking with my parents and grandparents. Then, once the company had gone, my father and I watched the Tom Selleck movie The Shadow Riders.  It was based on a Louis L’Amour novel, so it was pretty cheesy at times, but overall, it was a fun film.  Once the movie ended, the day was still long from over.  I went over Jim’s parents’ house to watch this week’s special Turkey Bowl edition of TNA Impact! (the highlight of which was, without a doubt, Mick Foley “dealing with” Alex Shelley of the Motor City Machine Guns).

A half hour after TNA was over, Jim and I were back home recording this great Beatles tune, “Thank You Girl.”  Why did I pick this song, you ask?  Is it a favorite?  Well, no.  In fact, I didn’t even know it until yesterday.  The reason is that it goes along with the theme of today — giving thanks!

I actually posted this video late because Jim and I ended up playing great Beatles and Christmas songs for another hour and a half before going downstairs to snack, watch a Jack Johnson DVD, and do research for our Black Friday adventure.

And, yeah, I’m going to bed at 4am, prepared to wake up at 5am…

May the Christmas shopping season begin!!

See you next session!

By Jim Fusco:

Well, another night and another Beatles acoustic cover song here on the Laptop Sessions video series!

Tonight, I bring you a big hit in “Can’t Buy Me Love”, one of my more energetic Laptop Sessions. Of course, I’ve known this song for probably all of my 24 years, and am very excited about this video. I think I got in a pretty good groove. Plus, with a song this short (“watch it!“) it grabs the viewer’s interest and keeps it there without getting boring.

I’m unfortunately running low (“oh, another one- giddy up Keckster!”) on my last glut of videos, so I’ll be doing a new set very soon. But the good news is that I’ll be using my new setup, complete with USB microphone and brighter, higher quality video. But of course, you know that the Laptop Sessions always brings you something new and improved!

Stay tuned here to the video blog, as Chris has been a posting machine lately- with new music reviews and posts about every WCJM Free Internet Radio show and FMP Studios service. Plus, Jeff’s been cranking out solid Sessions and me? Well, you KNOW I’ve been going crazy with the updates and enhancements here on the music blog. Until tomorrow’s Chris Moore Session, take care and enjoy “Can’t Buy Me Love”!

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, everyone, to another new edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!  I’m sorry the post is a bit later today- I was busy yesterday training for an upcoming 5k race with my Traveling Acai Berries member, Steve.  It’s tough motivating myself to run every other day, but I know it’s healthy for me to do so, and I’m using that as extra motivation.

The other day, I was searching online for Beatles covers and Beatles cover songs, but The Laptop Sessions page didn’t come up in my searches!  Well, that has to change.  I’m going to make it a personal goal of mine to get the Beatles category page up in the search engine rankings!

Tonight, I bring you a Beatles song that Ringo got to sing.  All the members of the Beatles (especially George and Ringo) were big Carl Perkins fans.  So, they took this song, “Honey Don’t”, and gave it the Beatles treatment.  I’m glad they let Ringo sing it, as his voice is perfectly suited for it.  Something about the chords on the verses gets me every time.  This song is pretty easy to play, but it’s got such a great tune.  And hearing Ringo sing it in a way only Ringo Starr can, it makes for a great combination.

Apparently, Carl Perkin’s brother even initially refused to play the song, citing its odd chord progression (for a blues song) in the verses.  I’m glad he finally came around!  The song has such a driving beat, too- I’d love to play this live with a band someday.  One of my favorite parts is the guitar solo.  I actually got to play it pretty spot-on even though it’s a solo acoustic version.  The guitar solo in the Beatles version is basically the E and C chords played as barre chords higher on the neck.  I never get to solo during these videos- it was fun!

I’ve wanted to play this song for the Laptop Sessions ever since I heard Ringo singing the song during his concert at the Mohegan Sun this past June.  He sounds exactly the same and they do such a good job of reproducing the energy and the sound of the recording live.  Actually, if I had my way about it, this would be “The Ringo Sessions with Jim Fusco”- I can’t exactly explain it, but I LOVE Ringo’s music.  I especially like his solo albums starting with 1992′s “Time Takes Time”, but there’s something about Ringo’s songs in general that really resonate with me.  Heck, he even makes “Honey Don’t”, a sad song when you think about it, into a jolly good time.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s video and stay-tuned next week for a very, very special Jim Fusco announcement!  I think you’re going to love it, but you’ll have to keep checking back to see what it is.  See you then!

By Jim Fusco:

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and welcome to this special holiday edition of the Laptop Sessions music blog with me, Jim Fusco! Tonight, I bring you a great Beatles cover song in “I Need You”, written by George Harrison.

I’ve always been a huge fan of George Harrison’s songs, as I’m sure you know by now. To me, he helped make Paul McCartney and John Lennon better as songwriters. Why? Because they were given a different perspective on each album. I honestly wish the songwriting was more balanced throughout the Beatles recordings.

Tonight’s Beatles cover song is the first of a “Twin Spin” of sorts. Two weeks from now, I’ll be debuting another song with the same name: “I Need You” by the bad America. Gerry Beckley, the writer of that song, is a huge Beatles fan, and I think there are some definite similarities between the two songs. The endings of both songs sound very similar to me, and I think it was done purposefully by America.

“I Need You” is one of the earlier songs George Harrison wrote for the Beatles. In the beginning, you could tell that George really was the “quiet Beatle”. He wrote songs with a self-lamenting tone to them. Another example is “Don’t Bother Me”.

This acoustic cover song music video took me only one take. That happens when I both love the song…and know all the lyrics.

I’m not going to get all gushy and emotional about Thanksgiving here on the music blog, but I will say that I hope you have a great day. It’s honestly my favorite day of the year- you have everything to look forward to!

And, I hope you enjoy tonight’s acoustic Beatles cover song music video. Oh, and as a quick update regarding my re album, “Those Around Us”, I have the final album art and it looks AMAZING! I can’t wait to debut it to the world. I hope to see you next week for part two of my “I Need You” cover song video mini-series!