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!

New Web Series: The Open Mic Sessions with Jim Fusco!

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone- It’s been quite a while since I’ve gotten to sit down and record more Laptop  Sessions cover song music videos for you.  I have a bunch of great ideas saved-up, but my focus lately has been more on my original music.  I have a newfound passion for guitar tone, so I’ve learned to rewire my collection of electric guitars and put new pickups in almost all of them.  I want to get as many great sounds as possible for the recording of my next batch of songs.

I also realized that I have more than 250 videos on YouTube- mostly cover songs from bands like the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Moody Blues, the Monkees, and many, many more.  Instead of increasing that number even more, I’ll be promoting all of my older videos to give them new life!

While I’m doing that, I’ll be driving around Connecticut playing at various Open Mic Nights.  I have my great Seagull acoustic-electric Entourage Rustic guitar, and I’ll even bring my electric guitars (and future small tube-amps) around with me.  My goal is to record videos of a different original song each time I go out.  I’ve already done a few.

Sure, the quality is so-so (iPhone video), the crowds are small and/or non-existent, and some of the videos are only part of the song (for instance, when my phone ran out of storage space on “Halfway There” a couple weeks ago).  But, I think these videos will be a valuable addition to the work I’ve done here for the Laptop Sessions music blog.  After all, we recorded all of these cover song videos in an attempt to make people curious about our original music, too.  So, now it’s finally time to implement phase two!

The Open Mic Sessions debuted new videos as I recorded them.  I put them on the music blog on Wednesdays, like our old “Original Wednesday” posts from back in the cover-song-heyday.  I hoe you enjoy the videos and will share them with your friends!

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“She Knows Me Too Well” (Beach Boys Cover mp3) by Jim Fusco

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By Jim Fusco:

Ladies and gentlemen- I give you a brand-new recording!!

This is a cover of the Beach Boys’ classic song “She Knows Me Too Well” off of the “Today!” album from 1965.

I got some new equipment, so I wanted to try to match the original recording the best I could (with a little more flair on the drums, no disrespect to Dennis Wilson). I used my new Shure SM57 mic, Epiphone Les Paul Special II with P-90 pickups, and my Samson 7-piece drum mic set. I rounded-it out with my Fender Stratocaster, Fender Jazz Bass, electric piano, and ten vocal tracks, recorded with my Shure SM27 condenser mic.

I really hope you enjoy all the hard work I put into this and hope you’ll share it with all of your friends, too!

http://jimfusco.com/audio/sheknowsmetoowell.mp3

And here’s a special “vocals-only” version for you super-fans:

http://jimfusco.com/audio/sheknowsme-vocals.mp3

Stay tuned for even more Beach Boys cover songs coming your way on the Laptop Sessions cover songs music blog!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“A Singer Must Die” by Steven Page and the Art of Time Ensemble – The Weekday Review

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By Jim Fusco:

Do you know how much work I have to do tonight?  In addition to running three miles?  It’s a LOT- take my word for it.  But, I just had to write this article- that’s how strongly I feel about this.

Let me start off by saying that I love Steven Page’s music. I believe him to be the greatest songwriter since Brian Wilson.  Quite simply, he’s the man.  But, with “A Singer Must Die”, his first official solo effort, he proves once again that, with few exceptions (George Harrison being one of them), the whole (his former group, Barenaked Ladies) is greater than the sum of its parts.  Now, it might not be fair to judge his new solo career based on one album yet (and I won’t, as his real solo album with original songs comes out later this year), but I feel it necessary to get my two-cents in.

I hadn’t purchased the album (and I’m glad I didn’t)- my brother Mike let me borrow his.  I noticed that it got all of one play rotation in his car, as he readily handed it over just a few days after getting it himself.

As a person who records covers each week, you’d think I’d be open to this release.  But, this doesn’t sound like an “album”- it sounds like a collection of songs.  The styles all too different to make it sound like a cohesive album.  And when I hear Steven Page’s voice, I want it to be singing his own songs in his own style.  Hearing it on other people’s songs sounds odd and “untrue” because he didn’t write it.

Then, I put the CD in my player in the car.  I’ve never been so disappointed.

The first song was forgetful, at best.  But then, it all went very, very wrong.

“I Want You” (an Elvis Costello song) may possibly be the worst recording I’ve ever heard.  Not only is the song terrible, but the out of key strings and the weird timing makes it almost unlistenable.

Then, it’s followed by a Rufus Wainwright durge that I lasted only about a minute into.

Then, the most embarrassing track of all- Steven Page’s own cover of his OWN song, “Running Out of Ink”.  No drums, no harmonies- just strings and him.  It was like he was making fun of himself.  I was crushed.  I listened to about a minute of this one, then switched the track one more time.

“A Singer Must Die”, another real jump-starter to the album (by now, I hope you know that I’m being facetious), and I just sighed disgustingly and took the CD out of the player so fast you’d think it was physically hurting the machine.

With all due respect to amateur reviewer Chris Moore of the Laptop Sessions Music Blog, this album could NEVER garner itself four stars.  I’m wondering who paid him off to write such a review.  For me to think that an album like Ringo’s “Y Not” was given two stars and this atrocity four stars really, for me, takes away a lot of credibility from “The Weekend Review”.

“I’ve said my piece and I leave it all up to you.”

More album reviews

“Surrender To Me” (McGuinn, Clark, & Hillman Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Monday, Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

If you take a look at the last few posts, you’ll notice all the work I’ve been doing over the past 24 hours.  I’ve managed to mix, master, and put online three concerts worth of material.  The last one has 35 songs!  Then, I finally posted my photos from our TNA Wrestling show back in May.  Finally, I went through and backed-up literally 100 gb of data that was clogging up my laptop’s harddrive.  I put all of it on DVDs, which meant that I needed to complete everything before I backed it up and deleted it from my hard drive.

This is the first time in about nine months that the coffee table is clear of five spindles of DVDs.

Today, I bring you a song that Chris, Becky, and I have been playing since the beginning.  Back in late high school, I fell in love with the music of Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman.  I mean, I was already a fan of the Byrds, but we had recentely gotten this album called “McGuinn, Clark, and Hillman”.  It was recorded in the mid-seventies, long after the original Byrds broke up and reformed.

A few tracks on this album, including the first track (which Jeff did as a Laptop Session- Click HERE to view it!) meant a lot to me at the time.  I was with my first girlfriend (and so proud that I had a CD player in the car- my 1990 Camaro) and the way we got together was a little weird.  We kinda had a thing going a year or so earlier, but then something happened to make us not talk for a long time.  I’m being vague not because I want to be, but because I honestly don’t remember.  That’s why I wrote in a journal every single day, I guess.  I’ll have to go back and read up on it.  Anyway, when we finally made it happen, I just thought the song “Long Long Time” was perfect for it.  I hope you’ll listen closely to the words in Jeff’s version and you’ll see what I mean.

“Surrender To Me” is a great song for a couple of reasons- mostly because of McGuinn’s incredible guitar work.  I actually based our live version half on the album version and half on the acoustic demo with Hillman and McGuinn.  Having Chris there to play the rhythm guitar (back when we first started playing live, he had a ton of trouble doing harmony parts while playing), Becky singing with me, and me playing a guitar solo I could actually handle, this was a prime choice.  I just wish more people had heard of it.  But, that’s okay- most people probably think it’s an original, which is major points for me!

Actually, this song is a cover itself.  Neither McGuinn, Clark, or Hillman wrote this tune.  But I still think it’s a great one and a standout track on the album.  Coming up on my next Session starts my suite of videos recorded in the great outdoors.  These videos are part of what the Laptop Sessions is all about, coupled with those Jeff did while on vacation- they’re LAPTOP Sessions!  We can record them anywhere and bring them to you from whereever you may be.  Enjoy today’s Session!



More Laptop Sessions covers