Category Archives: The Open Mic Sessions

“Halfway There” (Original song by Jim Fusco) – The Open Mic Sessions

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome again to the Open Mic Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

Today, I bring you the title track to my 2009 album, “Halfway There”.  This is a very special video for me, as this original song live video was selected as one of the top three Instagram videos in the Sam Ash music store open mic video contest!  From there, it went on to win the national Open Mic video contest title!  I was given a $100 gift card to Sam Ash and I’m so glad an original song of mine got that kind of recognition.  It was even featured on Sam Ash’s homepage once it won!

“Halfway There” was a concept I had for an album.  Basically, I was growing up and had to come to terms with getting a job, getting married, and potentially giving up some of the lofty goals I had for myself in previous years.  So, a lot of that album has to do with that sentiment.

But, you know something?  I realized along the way that I’m pretty happy where things ended up.  I realized that I didn’t really want to spend all of my days and nights trying to get gigs, living in perpetual poverty, and holding down some menial job until I hit it big.  Now that I have a normal “day job”, it’s given me the flexibility to  have a nice home and to get some of the guitars that I’ve always wanted.  And, from everything I’ve heard and read, fame isn’t really all it’s cracked-up to be.  I hope to make a name for myself with these Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music videos online (and maybe get recognized for it someday), but that’s something I can do in my free time.  Problem is, like everyone else that’s married and has a house, I don’t have much free time!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I’ve been able to do on my little free time lately.  Going to these open mic nights has brought me out of my comfort zone, but its also ignited my love for playing music again.  I’ve met some interesting people, too.  Stay tuned for more, as I continue to dig into my catalog of original songs and play at open mics around the state.



Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

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“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!



Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

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“Go Back to Him” (Original song by Jim Fusco) – The Open Mic Sessions

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By Jim Fusco:

Here we are for another edition of The Open Mic Sessions with Jim Fusco!  Today is a song that I performed at Sam Ash music store in New Haven, CT.  With the help of my good friend Dana Camp manning the video camera, I’m able to bring you this week’s video!

“Go Back to Him” is the opening track off of my 2009 album, “Halfway There”.  When writing songs for that album, I took an amazing trip to Italy with another longtime friend, Dr. Alberto Distefano.  While at his uncle’s house in Sicily, we sat down with my newly-purchased classical guitar (you know, the one from my early Laptop Sessions cover song music videos) and were inspired to write a couple songs.  One was “Ruins” (pretty obvious, since we had just spent a week in mainland Italy looking at all the history) and the other was “Go Back To Him”.

This song is pretty straightforward- we’re basically saying, in kind of a sarcastic tone, to someone: hey, you’re impossible to convince otherwise, so just go back to that jerk that treats you like dirt.  I’m not exactly sure where the sentiment came from, but I can remember one thing- I wanted this to sound like a Beatles song.  In the studio version, which you can hear at http://jimfusco.com/albums/halfway-there.html, you can hear a clear Beatles influence.  I thought it would be a great start to the album, and I hope you agree!

So, enjoy today’s Open Mic Session and stay tuned for many more as I continue to perform my original songs for the world!


Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

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“Good Enough” (Original song by Jim Fusco) – The Open Mic Sessions

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By Jim Fusco:

And now, another edition of The Open Mic Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

Today is “Good Enough”, a rockin’ track from my 2012 album, “Those Around Us”.  The recording of this original song has some pretty tight harmonies on the bridge- I’ve always been proud of those.  Plus, I got to add in some clever electric piano to fill-out the sound.  Bet a lot of people didn’t even know there was an electric piano in there!  Though I’m sure my good buddy (and Laptop Sessions songwriter) Jeff Copperthite would notice- that’s kind of his thing. 🙂

I recorded this at Sam Ash music store in New Haven, CT in September, 2013.  There’s never many people at the store during open mic night (it’s just a nice place to get some practice in, really), but the staff really seemed to like this song.  It’s always fun paying attention to their reactions to see what songs they like.  I keep that in the back of my mind and use it to make setlists for other gigs in the future.

I came up with the line, “I’ve never been good enough to be your man, I’ve always been better than that,” and the song just kind of followed.  I like that idea- saying that you’re “good enough” for someone kind of says that your ONLY “good enough”.  I never wanted to feel like the things I’ve done are just “good enough”, though maybe in some of my older albums, I didn’t strive for total perfection.  At some point, you have to say, “Yes, this is good enough and I won’t really get it much better,” or you’ll never get anything done.  It’s been a life learning experience to balance “good enough” and “the best it can be”.

On that note, I’ll leave you with this performance of “Good Enough”, which, ironically, is not my best performance of the song.  But it’s a new take on this original song and I hope you enjoy it!  Stay tuned for more original music here on the Open Mic Sessions!



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