Welcoem to our favorite day of the week – Original Wednesday! Where we bring to light the various talents of us in the form of an original song.
Today I am doing an “oldie but somewhat goodie” from Quilt’s library. This is a song that I wrote called “Waterfalls”, and while it didn’t see an official Quilt release until “Patchwork”, I originally wrote and recorded this song back in 1999. It was one of my first ever acoustic guitar songs that I wrote. My friend Scott Jordan also helped me with the lyrics way back when.
I’m sorry if i’ve seemed short with descriptions the past week. I’ve been taking a course at the University of New Haven and it’s intensive. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday since last week. My brain is fried.
Enjoy today’s installment (and enjoy the nice new paint job we just got in the house!), and come back tomorrow for the next acoustic cover song from the one and only Jim Fusco!
Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up. We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session. We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future. But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!
Well, it’s the best time of the week. It’s the time when we songwriters — Jim Fusco, Jeff Copperthite, and myself — get to really believe what we boast: that this is the best acoustic cover songs music blog on the web. And we get to do that…
…by not recording an acoustic cover song!
We still record and post a music video of an acoustic song, but it is not a cover. On Original Wednesday, we bring you an original song for your enjoyment that you most likely have never heard before. Today, I bring you a song that I have had kicking around for a few years called “Essential Question.” It never quite made the cut for Love Out of Fashion, either because I hadn’t finished writing it or because I didn’t feel it was up to par. It finally saw the light of day as a track on Weekend Demos… but only on the bonus disc. I don’t really know why it never made the cut, even on a demos album. Overall, I’ve always felt that the song was a bit simplistic, particularly in the verse and bridge. I do like the chorus a lot, though, and that’s one of the reasons that I wanted to break it out for an original Wednesday.
I have been working on some new songs, and I hope to bring an all-new one to the music blog very soon! For now, just be sure to hurry back for another great, all-new acoustic cover song (business as usual!) by Jeff tomorrow…
Hello everyone!! I’m back from obscurity to bring you another obscure Beach Boys song!
I’ve been on my honeymoon for the past two weeks. You’ll notice a certain new accessory on my left hand in the video- I actually notice the difference when playing. To sum up the trip and the wedding- everything went great. Great weather, had a good time at the reception, wasn’t nervous at all, heard good music, went great places, hotels were nice, and just got to live the Hawaiian experience for two weeks!
Back to reality now, but there’s a lot to look forward to- a new house on the way and a new life as a married man. It’s both exciting and tiring and I think I need a couple more days to decompress after my vacation! You see, my wife (weird to say that) is the type that needs to see and do anything and everything while on a trip. So, there really wasn’t much relaxation. I need another vacation! 🙂
Anyway, Hawaii is an amazing place- from the weather to the people (who are very jolly, as the Beach Boys have said) to the scenery. One of our favorite places was Lahaina, which is a nice town along the coast that boasts many art galleries and the second largest banyan tree in the world! So, of course, this Beach Boys song was stuck in my head the entire time. Becky and I walked around the town that day and even though it was only in the mid 80s, that “near the equator” sun made it feel like it was 100 or more. But, the day was nice and I will remember Lahaina fondly.
I hope to have some time in the near future to post some photos, etc.- things I’ve been wanting to do, but haven’t gotten a chance to. I hope you all followed me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/jimfusco), as I chronicled all the great (and hilarious) things we saw and did on the honeymoon.
I know Jeff is a fan of tonight’s song, as I played it on one of our BSYNHO shows we did for our significant others. I hope my acoustic cover version does it justice. “Lahaina Aloha” comes from an album that didn’t sell well and is officially the last ever Beach Boys album, as I truly don’t think there will ever be another. “Summer in Paradise” isn’t all bad- just half. I actually really enjoy the other half of the album- Bruce’s “One Summer Night”, with great vocals from Al, and Mike’s “Strange Things Happen”, which is one of Becky’s favorites, as well.
But, “Lahaina Aloha” is the perfect song for the acoustic cover song music blog tonight, as the islands of Hawaii are still very fresh in my mind.
Just as a last funny note- while on the ship, we saw The Second City, which is a comedy troupe not unlike the cast of “Whose Line is it Anyway?”. They were very good and did a hilarious skit where they pointed out that the word “aloha” in Hawaiian can mean either, “Hello”, “Goodbye”, or even “I love you”! So, they would sing songs that fit with that. For instance, they did the Doors hit: “Aloha, aloha won’t you tell your name…” And, they ended the skit with the best one- the Beatles “Hello, Goodbye”, or in Hawaiian: “Aloha, aloha! I don’t know why you say Aloha, I say Aloha.”
Anyway, with that, I bid you the same- ALOHA! It’s great to be back to the best blog ever created!
Yes, that’s right- a world premiere tonight here on the Laptop Sessions music video blog!
In just a couple short months (or maybe sooner- who knows), I’ll be releasing my first solo album in four years. I can’t believe it’s been that long. And, with the production value and songwriting skills, you’ll realize that I’ve grown in many ways over that time. I’ve seen a band come and (essentially) go in that time. I’ve produced and written songs for two albums while in that band. “Homestead’s Revenge” is truly a great album and I can only hope that “Halfway There” can top it.
I hope to create some sort of buzz for the new album. I spent so long making it and I’m so proud of it that I wanted to wait until the Laptop Sessions got popular to release it. Maybe now, my collegues here on the site will realize why I’ve been pushing them so hard to find better avenues for popularity here on the music video blog…
This song, “Halfway There”, is obviously the title track, but it doesn’t appear until track 10 on the 11 track album. It’s funny- my last album was 13 tracks and this new album is longer with two fewer songs! The songs on this album are well-thought-out and complete. The songs on this album take their time and don’t sound too rushed. The songs on this album are the songs I always knew I could make, but never really had the time or the resources to complete. You can see why I’m so proud of it!
Of course, this album has a theme. When you see the album cover, which is awesome, by the way, you’ll get more of the theme’s meaning. I’m having a great painter named Ben Quesnel paint the cover. In exchange, I’ll be making him a website for all of his artististic work. It’s a great trade-off and I know we’ll both be very happy in the end.
Tonight’s song really sums-up the whole concept of feeling “Halfway There”, hence it’s place towards the end of the album. I give examples of what I’m trying to say throughout the album and finally give it a nice summary towards the end.
The tune came to me while driving back home after our usual trip to my parents’ house on Thursday nights for TNA iMPACT! on Spike TV. I knew the title of the album long before I wrote this song. Thinking of the album and its title, I started to sing to myself in the car: “Halfway there…halfway there…halfway there…I’ll always be halfway there…” I proceeded to drive home much faster than usual and fleshed-out the song a bit more.
Actually, I made a YouTube video of how I developed this song- here it is below. Then, you can watch tonight’s Laptop Session Original Wednesday version and get a better feel for the finished product.
Of course, the REAL finished product has literally ten of my vocals on the chorus- it sounds so cool! Again, I finally have the techniques and everything down to make productions like this possible…and sound good, too! But, for now, I hope you’ll enjoy the first newly-released track off of my upcoming album, “Halfway There” on acoustic guitar for tonight’s Original Wednesday music video. I’ll be back for my next Jim Fusco Tuesday installment next week and I hope you will be, too!
