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!

“Birds of a Feather” (The Civil Wars cover) – The Guest Sessions

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Welcome to another edition of the Guest Sessions here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!

Today, we bring you yet another new band to the music blog: The Civil Wars. To be honest, I had never even heard of this group before watching the Guest Sessions post that Timothy Jaromir and Rykka sent to me. But, I guess the Civil Wars are quite popular these days- a Number One album on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart and some Grammy wins, as well- who knew! 🙂 That’s why you shouldn’t look to Jim Fusco for the latest in pop music…

Anyway, as with most Guest Sessions submissions of newer songs, it’s not exactly my kind of style. But, I can appreciate the talents of the two singers in this video and how it closely matches the feel of the original. But, for me, the best part of this cover song video has to be the really cool Gretsch 330 that Timothy Jaromir is playing! It’s so great to look at and sounds really good, too. I would LOVE to have one of those myself!

I hope you enjoy today’s Guest Session of the Civil Wars’ “Birds of a Feather”. I know our two guest artists would love to know what you think, so make sure to leave some comments! Stay tuned for more Guest Sessions posts as the weeks go on- check back every Friday and make sure to submit your own cover song videos if you’re so inclined!



“Run Rudolph Run” by Jim Fusco – FREE mp3 Download! – Day 12 of 14

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello and welcome to Day 12 of Jim Fusco’s 14 Days of Rock’n’Roll Christmas 2015!  Only a couple songs left, but I’ve saved some good ones for last!

Tonight is my cover of Chuck Berry’s Christmas song, ‘Run Rudolph Run”.  What a guitar player Berry is.  The opening and solo to this song are both very difficult.  They’re not necessarily difficult scales to play, but he plays them so smoothly and with those harmonies.  I guess he was talking about himself when he said, “He could play the guitar just like ringin’ a bell.”

This song is also in a higher register (for singing) than it would appear.  I’m used to singing this live and really letting loose, but in a studio setting, it was a bit harder to get the energy needed without messing up the recording levels.  So, I opted to stand a bit further away from the microphone and sang with more passion, even though the notes might not be 100% right all the time.  It didn’t sound right singing it too “sweetly’.

Okay, come back tomorrow for the penultimate release in my Christmas series.  Don’t forget to download each song you can listen every year!

“Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)” by Jim Fusco – FREE mp3 Download! – Day 11 of 14

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By Jim Fusco:

Really getting down to the wire now, as I bring you Day 11 of 14 here at Jim Fusco’s 14 Days of Rock’n’Roll Christmas!  I hope you’ve been liking all of this free music so far.  Let’s keep it rolling tonight with a great little tune that Elvis Presley sang all the way back in 1957.  “Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)” is one of my favorites because of the good beat and that awesome bass line.  That line took me a LONG time to master and my fingers were so sore I couldn’t play the bass again for a couple of days!  But now I think I can play it in my sleep.

The backing vocals were a little trickier than I thought they’d be.  There’s a couple of parts that I didn’t realize were in there, but you listen to a song a lot differently when you’re trying to recreate it.  I was able to use some of my nice guitars and amps for these songs to give the proper sound and I think they really sound good.

So, add this song to your growing collection and come back for the final three days starting tomorrow!

“The Man With All The Toys” by Jim Fusco – FREE mp3 Download! – Day 8 of 14

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone!  We begin week number two of free Christmas songs with another favorite of mine: “The Man With All The Toys” by the Beach Boys.  It sounds like a simple song on the surface, but there are some cool changes that Brian Wilson created for the chords.  The vocals, especially the cool “low harmonies” on the bridges, are difficult and really cool.

I tried to stay as close as possible to the original with the instruments, too.  I used my Fender Stratocaster on the neck pickup, just like Carl and Al did on the original recording.  For the lead guitar part, I actually had to re-record it because I didn’t originally put the echo effect on it, like the original had.  I also ended up recording two bass lines with slightly different sounds.  If you listen on headphones, you can hear one in each ear.  I never knew that there were two bass lines recorded for this song, but that’s how they got that cool “oomph” to the recording.  As always, the more I find out about the Beach Boys, the more I love them!

I hope this track adds to your enjoyment of the holidays (paraphrased from Christmas Vacation) and that you’ve taken the time to download the other seven tracks so far.  Stay tuned, because tomorrow I bring you Day 9!