Category Archives: Original Songs

Original songs from songwriter Jim Fusco!

“All The Days” (Original Music by Indie Songwriter Chris Moore)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to my favorite day, a day that comes only once every three weeks for we songwriters of the Fusco-Moore Productions music blog…  Original Wednesday!  Today, I took a trip down memory lane to my last solo release before joining the band MoU (Masters of the Universe with Jim Fusco, Mike Fusco, Becky Daly, and Cliff Huizenga).  Today, I recorded “All the Days,” the penultimate track off my EP Love Out of Fashion.  (Using “penultimate” in my post is my answer to Jim using — honest to God — the word “leviathan” properly and casually in a conversation the other day.  I didn’t even know how to pronounce the word… :-))

This was the first time I really experimented with such recording techniques as lead vocal doubletracking and sound effects such as my ZOOM guitar pedal.  I have a lot of fond memories of rushing home after school or work during the summer to record this album in the basement of my parents’ home.  I finally felt like I had mastered the computer program I used to record at the time, and I can’t count the number of mix CDs I made.  Each time I would finish the recording of tracks for a song, I would burn a CD and listen to it in my car wherever I went — to work, to school, to the store.  I’ve written on the blog here before about pulling over late at night to listen to the songs as loud as the volume would go, making mental notes of changes I would make to the final mix the next chance I got.  Lots of fond memories.

My only regret, particularly on a track like “All the Days” that I felt had a lot of promise, is that I didn’t have a way to record drums.  It’s a well-known fact that a drumbeat never hurts, especially when it comes to my playing…  It was as a result of this regret that I’ve made the resolution to never record another album unless a drummer is available and raring to go.

So, I hope you enjoy this little trip down memory lane for me; I probably haven’t played this track since I recorded it.  Well, that’s not true — I think I’ve played it once or twice, but over several years…

Oh, and I hope you’ll take a listen to the recorded version so you’ll understand why this music video starts differently from any other cover song session I’ve recorded.

Okay, that’s all for me.  Don’t forget to hurry back tomorrow for another all-new acoustic rock cover song session from Jeff.  And now, I should check on the Mets who were winning by a lot earlier, then tied, and just pulled ahead…  (Come on, Mets!!)

See you next session!

“Socrates’ Gulps” (Chris Moore original)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to the third installment of the 2010 Project preview series.  If you’ve been around the blog recently, you’ve seen the unveiling of both the opener “No Lights, No Sound” and the second track “I Would Prefer Not To.”

Now, on to track three…

“Socrates’ Gulps” is a fairly recent song, one that knocked the older “No More” down to the fourth slot.  It features one of my more ambitious vocals in the chorus, which guaranteed its place in the third slot.  I won’t say much about it, other than to note that it is the song I plan on recording tomorrow and/or Saturday.  For once, I’ll have the song speak for itself.

Outside of tonight’s video, I’d like to emphasize that I haven’t forgotten about the Weekend Review.  In fact, I have the next six reviews lined up and ready to be written.  Finding time is the issue.  I did finish my class, which has freed up a lot of time, but I have been spending a lot of time hanging out with friends, reading books that I want to finish before the summer is out, and kicking off recording sessions for my first album in four years, The 2010 Project.

In other words, I’ve been enjoying the latter half of my summer break!

But stay tuned here, as I’ve pledged to post 52 of my 2010 music reviews here at the Laptop Sessions, and I am confident that I will be able to do so.  (As for my Bob Dylan review-writing goal, I’ve shifted that to included his sixties releases only…)

As a final note, be sure to glance behind me in the video tonight and check out the Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin lithograph that has covered up my previous Dead Weather Sea of Cowards poster.  I mention this, first, to give Wilson’s new album a shout-out (it just may end up being the seventh review on my list), and second, to re-iterate how much I love Newbury Comics, whose coupon brought the album price down to a reasonable $9.99 and included the poster for free.

At that, I’ll leave you to this Original Wednesday video and turn my attention back to the increasingly depressing Mets game, currently in the bottom of the twelfth inning.  With any “luck,” Ollie Perez is getting warmed up.  I mean, his role is as the twelfth inning specialist, isn’t it?

See you next session!

“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!


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!

So, stay tuned in the coming weeks, as I’ll debut new videos as I record them.  I’ll 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!