By Jeremy Hammond:

My cover of “Into the Great Wide Open” by Tom Petty. I play the main verse pretty much the way Petty does, as far as I can hear.  I’ve re-arranged the chorus section a bit to try to closer mimic the multiple instrumental layers you hear on the album.

** EDITOR’S NOTE **

The title track to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1991 album of the same name, “Into the Great Wide Open” may not have topped the charts, but is an excellent song that deserves appreciation.  Even though it fell a full sixty-four slots shy of its predecessor “Learning to Fly,” Petty did manage to produce an outstanding music video for this song.  And it even starred a young Johnny Depp as Eddie Rebel with supporting roles by Chynna Phillips (of Wilson Phillips), and Matt LeBlanc (of Friends fame).

They truly don’t make music videos like this anymore, so if you haven’t seen it, you should really take the time to do so.  Go ahead, that’s what YouTube is for, right?

What makes “Into the Great Wide Open” such an excellent candidate for an acoustic cover?  Well, there’s the catchy, powerful acoustic strumming before the chorus, never mind the fact that this is certainly a song that comes across well when played with a minimal arrangement.

As per usual, Jeremy has demonstrated great taste and considerable ability in his performance of this Tom Petty classic.  I had forgotten how much I love this song and this album, and I’ve already watched Jeremy’s video several times over the past few days, enjoying this stripped down rendition.  On behalf of the Laptop Sessions, I thank Jeremy for yet another wonderful video.  Here’s to many more in 2010!

For Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Wow! I can’t remember the last time I posted a Laptop Session video on a day other than Monday! Why, you ask? Well, if you’ve come to the blog over the past year or so, you may have noticed the weekly schedule posted above. It’s pretty clear that Mondays are my day…

Unfortunately, I won’t have Internet service at home until Tuesday evening, and I just don’t have the energy on a Sunday night to type a 750 – 1000 word review on my iPhone, even if it IS based on one of my favorite albums of all time. (Wanna know which album I’m referring to? Check back tomorrow at this time…)

So instead of posting the Weekend Review as per usual tonight, I’m flip-flopping the schedule. Tonight, I present to you for your consideration my acoustic rock cover song performance of a track from the upcoming 2010 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album “Mojo.” This is a big deal, as far as I’m concerned, since this will be their first studio album in eight years. That’s a long wait! Mudcrutch was good and I do love Petty’s solo work, but there’s just no substitute for a bona fide Heartbreakers record. It’s been a little over a year since I finally picked up a used copy of “Long After Dark” and thus completed my TPATH (as the band is referred to on their official website’s message board) collection. Just a month ago, I was thinking about how much I’d like to hear a new Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album…

For a few days now, they’ve been streaming “Good Enough” on their website, and although it is heavily electric — bordering on jam band-esque in fact — I thought I might try my hand at translating it to acoustic guitar. While I had more fun playing it on my Washburn electric, I did eventually record it on acoustic guitar for tonight’s session. As you’ll hear, the song is pretty straightforward. Now, you might be thinking: well, so is every other Tom Petty song. The only difference is that this one sounds a bit different than what you’d expect from the band. In fact, it’s caused some disagreements between fans as to whether it is promising or foreboding for the new release. As for me, I think it’s great — fun, loud, and highlighted by a real killer lead guitar by Campbell. That being said, I certainly hope the whole album isn’t variations on this bluesy style.

I’ll just have to wait for “Mojo” to arrive…

That being said, I hope you enjoy my cover of this brand-new, yet to be released song, and that, if you do, you’ll take the time to listen to the real thing. And don’t forget to hurry back tomorrow for this week’s installment of the Weekend Review.

See you next session!

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and welcome to your Friday edition of “Da Sessions” (as a student of mine put it – well, it could’ve been from Ditka too).  Tonight I bring you another one of those “sorta” new band (solo artist?) songs that we like to break out quite frequently.

Tonight’s song is a Tom Petty classic called “Runnin’ Down A Dream”.  It is from his first solo album called “Full Moon Fever”.  This song is well known as having that really cool riff, with the fuzzy guitar and acoustic guitar and constant rock drum beat.  Well, that doesn’t narrow it down much.  Petty is known for having a lot of kick ass tunes in his library.

Tonight I had a battle with myself.  I had no idea which song to record tonight out of the 5 I have remaining for the year.  I spent about an hour deciding to record this song because I felt it was the least intensive on my voice.

I actually had myself a great day today.  I woke up very early and discovered that I was getting an early start to my weekend.  I do so love snow storms and I love it when we get an unexpected day off to enjoy it.  I ended up doing some decorating around the house for Hanukkah, made pancakes for breakfast, and got to enjoy a lot of different things in Final Fantasy XI today.  Because it didn’t start snowing here until about 11:30, my wife still got to go out to the lunch with her coworkers that she wanted to do, and I got to hit the gym like normal.

Now all I got to do is find a time tomorrow to finish my holiday shopping.  Thankfully my wife took care of most of it .

And I also have tomorrow morning off as well.  Snowstorms do rule.  They’re so good, “It’s like jumping into a foam block pit after being launched off a trampoline 15 feet into the air and you lay there for a while staring up at the ceiling thinking how cool that whole thing just was good”.

Well, tomorrow you can count on Jim to enhance your viewing experience with another acoustic cover song.  I’ll be back on Monday for my next installment.  Seeya then!

By Jim Fusco:

Oh yeah- welcome to the new and improved Laptop Sessions website!  What, you don’t notice a visual difference?  Well, great!

The only thing you should notice is how much faster the site is running and will continue to run.  Our sitemapt program is chugging away and our site will be running at tip-top shape so we won’t have to turn those short-attention-span visitors away.  You know on the Internet crowd only gives you like ten seconds before they get bored and leave.  This morning, while we were still on our other server, I waited 26 seconds for the front page to load.  Now, at least on my machine, it’s almost instant.  And if I want to speed it up even more, I can fully transfer the domain to the new HostGator servers.

On to today’s video!

Chris and I wanted to do this song for so long, but never got a chance until recently.  I love this tune, as I do with all the songs off of “Full Moon Fever”, and thought it would be great with that cool chorus riff and the harmonies on the bridge.  So, of course, this has quickly become one of my favorite Laptop Sessions acoustic rock cover songs and I hope it’s one of yours, too!

I expect to do most of the songs off of “Full Moon Fever” in the future (except for maybe “Zombie Zoo”) because whenever I hear it, it just sounds like “growing up”.  The album came out when I was very little, but we always listened to it in the car alongside the Traveling Wilburys.  No “Wheels on the Bus” for us!

And how about Jeff’s video yesterday?  Impressive, I must say.  His voice was so sweet and it was a really good song, too.  I think what I loved about the video the most was the easy-going flow of the song and Jeff’s performance.

You should really check it out!  Enjoy the newer, faster Laptop Sessions website, as we continue to bring you an acoustic cover song or original song every single day in 2008 in the quest to solidify our spot as the greatest music video blog of all time!