“Carry On” (Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Yes, the dream is still alive with me here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog.  I’ve said it a thousand times- we are simply the best music video blog ever created and I intend to keep it that way.  That’s why, tonight, I bring to you yet another new artist to the blog.

I can’t believe it’s taken this long to get to an amazing and popular acoustic act in Crosby, Stills, Nash, and (sometimes) Young.  Talk about a supergroup- not only did they amass a ton of hit singles and albums over the years, but they are comprised of some of rock music’s most popular and influential singers and songwriters: David Crosby (formerly of the Byrds), Stephen Stills (formerly of Manassas), Graham Nash, and Neil Young.

This band is credited with some of the most innovative and great songs of the seventies- they were keeping rock alive and doing it while playing their own instruments and singing in great, tight harmonies.  I don’t know why I don’t love this band more than I have in the past- think about it- they have four songwriting members, sing harmonies, and play their own instruments.  Those are all qualities of my favorite bands!  I have to get my hands on a “Best of” to get me started.

Truthfully, though, I remember not getting into their albums too much because of the extended jams and such.  I’m more of a 3-minute catchy song kinda guy.  But, when learning tonight’s song on acoustic guitar, I realized that it’s really three separate songs wrapped-up into one neat 4-minute masterpiece.

“Carry On” kicks off an amazing album in “Deja Vu”, which some consider to be one of (if not THE) best albums of all time.  Personally, I don’t think so, but I see where they’re coming from.  You have this supergroup of stars and they come out with fresh new music that rocks and they start this whole revolution of Seventies acoustic rock that some of my favorite acts, like America, modeled themselves after.  As recently as 2003, you had the Thorns, a “supergroup” of sorts in itself (with 90s acts Shawn Mullins, Matthew Sweet, and Pete Droge), who sounded EXACTLY like CSNY.

Of course the chords for “Carry On” that you find online are correct…to a certain degree.  I had to work some magic to find out that it’s actually on a first fret capo.  Also, on the bridge during the first three verses, they had the chords wrong, mostly because the bass guitar in the recording is playing a different note than what matches the chord the acoustic guitars are doing.  So, I improvised and came up with an interesting chord progression for that part that I thought both fit and sounded cool.  It may not be exactly correct, but it’s my little interpretation.

On a personal note, every day seems to get shorter and shorter.  I have so much to do on a daily basis, between working on four websites, work, and (helping to) plan a wedding.  I found out that I’m going to get my discs for “Halfway There” during the first week of April, so I’m aiming for an April 7th release date.  I need to do many updates to our site here and add pages to my site, too.  What a project- that’s why I only do one once every two…three…four…years.

Have a great night, and I’ll catch you tomorrow to re-attempt posting my Original Wednesday from last week that was inadvertently erased!

Musician Jim Fusco Gets His 500th YouTube Subscriber!

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Incredible!  It happened by surprise, as Jim Fusco logged-in to his YouTube account and noticed that he had 500 subscribers to his acoustic cover songs and original music videos!  Jim’s looking forward to his next milestone of 250,000 views, which he hopes will come within the next couple of months.

It’s been a great run since Jim started recording his Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs back in November of 2007.  In less than a year and a half, Jim has rocketed to popularity with his YouTube videos, which he brings to the world on a weekly basis.

His new album, “Halfway There”, is slated for an April 7th release, and more details about the album are coming very soon.

Jim would like to thank all 500 of his loyal subscribers and here’s to 500 more!

“Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” (Looking Glass cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Another Tuesday, another Jim Fusco cover song, another new band to the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs series, and yet another One-Hit-Wonder here in “Looking Glass” with their hti song, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)”.

Big points to anyone who knew the name of the band that did this song.  My roommate Dana yelled down, “You’re doing Looking Glass?”  I was shocked.  Turned out it’s one of his favorite songs.  I’ve known this song by hearing it on the radio over the years and decided it would be a great one to cover for the music blog.  I mean, it’s a catchy tune and tells an interesting story of a woman that everyone loves, but can never land the man she wants.  Why?  Because he’s a sailor.  And a sailor’s love is the sea- first, foremost, and absolutely.

It’s funny the learning curve I have when doing these videos.  I start off thinking I’m not going to get it.  Then, it just comes to me and all of a sudden, I can play the whole song.  The problem with these songs lately is the lyrics, as I’ve only heard them here and there on the radio and don’t know them all.  So, I get all nervous and then sit down to do my takes.  The first one or two takes are great- I make it almost all the way through the song and just mess up a little thing and decide to start over.  Then, the floodgates open.  I must’ve done 20 takes of this song- screwing up words like, “Harbor town” and “Western port”- I would switch them around and then the next lines wouldn’t rhyme.  Ugh.

So, every Laptop Sessions session ends up in anger for me.  Hope I don’t show it on the videos! 🙂

Now, last week, I promised I’d show you my brand new 12-string electric guitar.  I was also going to show off my new lap steel guitar.  Well, I’ve got one better for you- I’m going to start (hopefully very soon) a new YouTube series called “Jim’s Guitars”.  This series will have me showing all of my guitars, why I have them, and how I use them all in a unique way.  It’s finally a chance to get my guitars off the wall and out there for everyone to see.  I love these things and hope to have quite the collection as life goes on.  But, I think for now, I’ve resigned myself to buy them based on practicality rather than just looks.  I mean, there were a few great looking guitars I really liked, but I decided to go with the 12-string electric because it’s so different and opens up a new world of sounds to me in the studio.  Plus, since my parents got me the lap steel guitar for my birthday, I have a great new way to play solos and add some of that wonderful twang to some songs.  I love it in the Beach Boys’ song, ‘Hold On Dear Brother” from “Carl and the Passions, ‘So Tough'”.

So, stay tuned for this new series.  I really want to do it right- I’m hoping to do it in HD…but I need an HD camera first.  Maybe one of those little ones that are under a hundred bucks.  How bad can they be?  At least for this kind of work, it might be worth it.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s cover song music video and stay tuned for more later this week from our own Jeff Copperthite- he’s sure to please!  And congrats, Jeff!!

“Exception” (Jim Fusco Original Song)

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By Jim Fusco:

It’s finally on its way: April 7th, 2009 will mark the release of my new album, Halfway There.  Every time I release a new album, I think it’s about 100 times better than the last.  The same thing goes with this album- truly a “no regrets and no holding back” type of effort that I’m sure will end up being a bright spot in my musical career.

Before the album’s released, I’ll be making some acoustic music videos of songs from the album, continuing with “Exception” here tonight.

“Exception” is the only sappy love song on the album.  Okay, it’s not THAT sappy.  But, if you listen to the album, you’ll hear me bashing (whether it be fair or not) a very dear person, blaming that person for making me feel “Halfway There”.  But, I recant later on in the album, saying that, yes, that person makes me feel “halfway there”, but I made the cognitive decision to stay that way, so it must be what I’ve wanted all along.

“Exception” is the song that tells about my decision to stick by, even though in many other aspects in life, I feel “halfway there”.  I hope it makes sense- this post actually made even more sense when I typed it all last week.  But, the stupid iPhone WordPress app decided to remove all the buttons from the bottom of the screen (some glitch) and it deleted my post.

So, we have a redo here tonight and I hope it makes my point about this song.  This song is full of hooks and little catchy parts, combined with a cool guitar solo and harmonies throughout.  It’s truly a unique cut on the album and sort of harks back to my earlier work in its style.  The rest of the album is much “deeper”, but still manages to sound happy and peppy- you just have to actually listen to what I’m saying!

Okay- that’s all for me tonight.  I have my plate full over the weekend with web work to do, so I hope that I’ll get to trick out the Laptop Sessions site with advertisements for “Halfway There”.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see!  Have a great night and see you all again on Tuesday.