Welcome everyone to another installment of the Open Mic Sessions with Jim Fusco! Today, I bring you another session from my gig at Sam Ash Music Store in New Haven, CT back on April 3rd, 2013. I went with my brother Mike while he was visiting home for his birthday. I remember wanting to go to another venue, but chose Sam Ash because they gave me a $10 gift card just for playing! Yeah, I go where the “money” is…
Anyway, it gave me an opportunity to play another original song from my 2012 album, “Those Around Us”. This is one of the faster tracks on the album, “Opportunities”, which features a great drum track from my brother Mike. As we know, tracks like that are great for pairing-down into the famous “Laptop Sessions” style of performing- just me and an acoustic guitar!
So, I hope you enjoy my original song, “Opportunities”. Stay tuned as I bring you more of the “Open Mic Sessions” here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs and original music video blog!
Welcome to my all-new edition of Original Wednesday here at the Laptop Sessions. This week, I have chosen “Words,” a song I’ve recorded twice over the years — once for my album Looking For You (I recorded the title track for my last Original Wednesday video blog) and again on the Chris, Jim, & Becky debut album Live in the Studio. After recording a new cover song music video every three days, it’s always a lot of fun to turn to my own catalog of songs and revisit songs I haven’t played in years or ones I play all the time on my own. That’s the concept behind the Original Wednesday tradition — allow the members of Fusco-Moore Productions to showcase our pride and joy, our own music.
“Words” inspired the early sketches for a script and some unscripted scenes filmed while Jim and I were on vacation in Massachusetts. The basic premise of the movie was two characters on a journey who disagree on the essential question, what is a more important/effective form of communication — music and sound or words and written forms? For those who know me, it won’t come as a surprise that my character (the Eli mentioned in this song) believes in the power of words to express that which we as humans are simply unable to communicate to each other. Jim’s character (named Brian, if my memory serves me well…) believed less in the ability of mere words to convey the complex emotions we have. Nothing ever or probably ever will come of it, but it was great fun to revisit the song and the concepts.
I’ve written very little about Eli as a character — really only these lyrics — but I’ve always liked him. I hope you do too! As a songwriter, I always wished I could have written more into the song or additional songs, but I think this says enough on its own.
Well, I hope you enjoy this one. If it doesn’t whet your appetite, then don’t forget to rush back tomorrow for Jeff’s all-new Laptop Session as session-a-day rolls on for all 366 days of the year 2008…
Welcome back for an all-new recording on guitarbucketlist.com! If you’ve been here before, then you probably know that today is “Original Wednesday,” and it’s my pleasure to bring you one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, titled “Please Stay.”
I wrote this song a while back as a contribution for Masters of the Universe. My bandmate, Jim Fusco, helped me refine the chord structure and added in an incredible duo of guitar solos — that’s right, two distinct solos in one song! (If MoU ever releases Homestead’s Revenge, the fully-produced version will be on it.)
Of course, this is an acoustic performance, and you’ll hear the rarely-used third verse that replaces the second solo. I’ve never been entirely happy with the third verse, so I’ve amended it a bit for this recording. Without further ado, “Please Stay”!
P.S. Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for an all-new Laptop Session by Jeff!
Hey there! Well, it’s Original Wednesday, and Original-ly this post should have been Jeff! But he was nice enough to call me and offer the spot to get back on blogging. So, out from the bullpen I come, (hopefully more effectively than the Mets bullpen!) with this original acoustic laptop session for you to enjoy. I remember everything about writing this song- I remember being embarassed by the oddity of the tune. But, as some of you may know, songs come to me. So I don’t really have control of the style or genre or tune…and most of the time the words! It hits me like a sack of bricks. So what you get are raw and honest tunes, with simple lines that end up being my favorite.
This song has a spanish-feel to it, and the middle where chords ring out is very Dennis Wilson sounding. Some of my favorite lines are “She’s easy to love, and you can bet she’s so good lookin’…but in this case there’s more than meets the eye…” All of these words were auto-biographical, and you can hear it in the lyrics, like you’re a fly on the wall for these interactions- “And sometimes when I look in your eyes, I see confusion”… “When she sits across from me”…”Sometimes when I sleep, your eyes- they look so deep,..and in them I can see nothing but love”.
It was about the stress of romance and the meaning of dreams (where this song was written) and how during the day, facades can be put on, but at night, your conscience isnt always there to protect you from talking in your sleep. One of my favorite lyrics, in its simplicity, is “And somehow I know that I’ll never stop loving you”. The last verse, after a pause- was a joke in music form… when people think it ends, I hop in saying I wasn’t through speaking (hope i got you on it!) I remember playing it for Jim when it was recorded, saying “Wanna hear this stupid, weird song I just did?” and when he finished listening to it, he kept the headphones on and said, “Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?…that’s the best song you’ve ever written” =)
oh jim, this is for you… you’ll be the only one that gets it.
Acoustic cover songs are what the Laptop Sessions music video blog is all about, but only to a certain extent. The three music artists signed to Fusco-Moore Productions, the production company that hosts the blog, love to listen to new music, particularly from their favorite artists. They love to feature that music and those artists on their music blog. New rock music, alternative music, indie music, and more is available in acoustic guitar music form on the Laptop Sessions free videos site, but the goal of the three artists is not simply to have people listen to their acoustic cover versions. Rather, these songwriters hope that, if you enjoy the covers – they try to record the best cover songs on the web! – then you will also enjoy their original music. Thus, every Wednesday on the video blog is Original Wednesday, a time for the boys of FMP to share unplugged music videos of the songs that they have spent time recording and promoting!
