Author Archives: Jim Fusco

About Jim Fusco

Jim Fusco is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and all-around musician. Learn all about him and his creative works at http://jimfusco.com!

“How Are You Feeling Tonight?” (Original song by Jim Fusco) – The Open Mic Sessions

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone and welcome to another new edition of the Open Mic Sessions!  That’s the web video series where I showcase some performances from various Open Mic Nights throughout my travels in Connecticut (so far- that radius may increase!).  I’m excited to bring you more original songs in my quest to play a different original song every time I go out there!  At the pace I’m going, it’ll take me quite a while to cover all of my material.

Today, I bring you “How Are You Feeling Tonight?”, which is the last track off of my 2012 album, “Those Around Us”.  This is a favorite of fellow Laptop Sessions songwriter Jeff Copperthite, as are most of my “album-ending” songs.  I’ve always been critical of songs that various bands choose to end their albums.  They tend to choose songs that are slow and introspective.  I think “How Are You Feeling Tonight?” is also slow and introspective, but this song (the recorded version) has a good beat, too.  It’s also got some biting electric guitar- some of my favorite guitar sounds I’ve done so far.  I always want to send the listener off after listening an album with the want to play the disc over again.  So, I try to put a catchy song at the end that will sound good juxtaposed with Track 1.

The original version of this song also contains block harmonies throughout the song.  That’s kind of rare with me, which is odd considering how much I love harmony vocals.  I can only really think of a couple other songs I’ve done that have harmony vocals throughout, namely “Never Outweigh the Chances” from my 2002 album, “My Other Half”. And that song was done like that on suggestion from my brother Mike, so it wasn’t even my own idea!  I’m glad he made the suggestion, though, as I love the way that came out.

I thought this would be a good song to do solo acoustically in a live, open-mic setting.  I wrote the song with an acoustic guitar handy, though I came up with the “How are you feeling tonight?” line while doing something else- probably just singing to myself in the shower or something.  I liked the idea of that- many of us ask questions of those we care about, even though we already know the answer.  Do we ask because we’re trying to confirm our suspicions?  Are we asking to coax an answer out and possibly start a dialogue?  Or, do we ask just out of concern?  These are the types of questions I tried to explore during the writing of “Those Around Us”.

The funny thing is that I didn’t ask these questions consciously throughout the writing process for the album.  After all of the songs were written, I realized the theme of the lyrics I was writing- analyzing the relationships between me and the people around me that I cared about…or used to, for that matter.  I think someday I’ll look back on “Those Around Us” and will be thankful I delved-into that kind of thinking.  I think it helped me understand the relationships I had (have) and the ones I wanted.

I hope you enjoy my open mic session of “How Are You Feeling Tonight?”, another original song here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic music video blog!



Wrestlemania 25 Recap, Results, and Review – Twitter Style!

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Hello loyal Laptop Sessions viewers.  This is an example of how busy things have been over these past couple of months: back when Wrestlemania 25 (or XXV) aired in March, my cousin Sarah wrote to me with a recap of the night’s events.  I thought her recap was great- to the point, but detailed enough and with some great commentary.  I asked her if I could post it on the blog, and she said I could.  But, I never got around to it, and here it is, almost June, and I’m finally posting it for the first time.  I hope you’ll still find it relevant and can use it as a reference guide in the future.  She did it Twitter-style, as she typed it out on her Blackberry Curve.  I think it really sums up the night well- thanks Sarah!  Now, on to the review of Wrestlemania 25!

-wrestlemania 25. Promises to be a 4 hour event and at $55 it damn best be! Bring on the fanfare

-match 1 Money in the bank ladder match: mvp, kane, christian, mark henry, shelton benjamin, cm punk, finlay, kofi kingston – winner cm punk. Sorry christian, guess you should go back to tna

-Kid rock performance wayyyyyy too long medley of bawitdaba, rocknroll jesus, cowboy, all summer long, and so hott intros diva 25 battle royal – no divas announced – don’t know who is who – santino wins in drag, does 5 min eye gouge-worthy dance in drag

-jericho vs ricky steamboat, piper, snuka, flair in corner. Each HoF’er gets to do signature move then gets pinned. Steamboat actually kicked some ass. Jericho wins. Mickey rourke called out; boxes
jericho. Doesn’t pull punch, gets jericho right in back of head. Jericho down. Hysterical.

-hardy bro match, matt wins cheap, no holds match. Sadly boring. Time: 8:41pm no hogan yet?? No classic moments montage. Still time left

-Mysterio vs jbl HAHAHAHA 21 seconds long, mysterio wins. Mysterio dressed as joker. Wow, no words for it.

-shawn michaels vs taker (16-0 record) michaels, in white, decends on a pulpit from above. Undertaker, dressed in black, ascends from hell. Felt like 1 1/2 hour; taker wins. Best match of the night, worth the money. So far not one ‘slobberknocker’ from jim ross.

-Three way heavy weight champ match, cena – edge – big show Shitload of cenas line aisle in eminem clone style, do ‘you can’t see me’ salute as cena runs down. Cena benches 735 lbs – lifts show & edge same time- cena wins. Vicky guerro gets speared again by edge

-Hall of fame old men parade + stone cold + the fink! Short nod to new inductees, Stone cold leaves line up, tears out on atv down aisle, has 10 min indulgent beerfest

-wwe title match, triple h vs orton. Preface shane and vince for 30 seconds on screen, they don’t even speak. First and only sight of mcmahon all night. Triple h beats ortin. One word: Anticlimatic. 1
“slobberknocker” in 4 hrs by jim ross.

-4 full hours. No montage of past great matches, no old timers/tributes save new inductees, no hogan?!? At 25th wrestlemania?? No starstudded pre-show. Complete lack of fanfare – did mcmahon even plan this? Yet again, not worth the money.

“Radioactive” (Imagine Dragons cover) – The Guest Sessions

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This week’s Guest Sessions cover song post is a very interesting one, indeed. I honestly didn’t know what to think when I clicked on this link. Then, once I clicked on it and saw a young woman with a ukulele in her hands, I REALLY didn’t know what to think! But, once I clicked “play”, it started to become clear. Yes, someone actually pulled off a cover of “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons on the ukulele!

And that’s what the Laptop Sessions is all about. My favorite videos we’ve done here are the ones that take a song (say from the 80s, like “Heart and Soul” by Huey Lewis and the News) and strip away all the dated production. That way, you just get to hear the song itself presented in its most basic form. That’s what Jenna did here with “Radioactive”.

No, the production values on the original version aren’t dated-sounding like stuff from the 80s, but if you’ve heard the original version of this song before, you’re probably as surprised as I was to see that there was a version done on the ukulele. It’s a hard rock song with a dark message. This video is truly a Laptop Sessions interpretation.

It also looks just like a Laptop Sessions video, doesn’t it? It’s a single camera of a person sitting on the bed, playing and singing by herself. It’s exactly like one of the original videos we did in 2007/2008 (and continue to this day!).

So, thanks, Jenna, for submitting this really cool video to us and I hope you all enjoy today’s Guest Sessions acoustic (ukulele) cover song version of “Radioactive” here on the best music blog around: The Laptop Sessions!



“Days Go By” (Dirty Vegas cover) – The Guest Sessions

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Welcome, everyone, to a new edition of The Guest Sessions here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog. Today’s video is from yet another band that I never even heard of before seeing this Guest Sessions submission. It’s a trio group called Dirty Vegas. I think that’s pretty funny because, well, have you been to Vegas? No, I’m just kidding- I actually LOVE Las Vegas and think it gets a bad rep. It’s actually a pretty awesome place and it’s not really dirty at all, considering how many people are there year-round!

No, the funny part to me is that the band Dirty Vegas is actually from England! That’s right. I’m thinking of coming up with a band called “Dirty Liverpool” to make up for it. 🙂

I received today’s Guest Session cover song music video submission from a man named Rob Nakai, who goes by “HolidayRob” on YouTube. He is a very talented guitar and singer- I checked out a few of his videos online while browsing his YouTube page. I decided to feature this video first, as the quality of the video itself was superior to some earlier videos.

The song is called “Days Go By”, and no, children of the 90s- this isn’t the theme song to “Family Matters”. I know you’re disappointed. But, give this song a shot- I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised! Congrats to HolidayRob for making the Guest Sessions this week on the best cover song music blog on the internet: the Laptop Sessions!