By Jim Fusco:
Welcome, everyone, to another Thursday edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco! I’m back for my bi-weekly video and I’m in a great mood tonight. I have tomorrow off (going to a Mets game with my good friend, John) and tonight, I had a great dinner over the in-laws house, where I was fed all of my favorite dishes! I also got a cool new gadget for the guitar called the Voice Capo and basically, it allows you to pick any chord and then all you need to do is strum. At that point, you can experiment with other notes and “voicings” that let you expand on your guitar playing! Pair that with my new Martin guitar and you’ve got some major creativity happening over here!
Speaking of creativity, this past weekend, I had my first writing session with a new collaborator. He helped me try some new things and we worked on two songs. One of them, I’m still working out, but the first one we did is AWESOME! If I finish the lyrics to it, I’ll make sure to do an Original Wednesday Laptop Session for you!
Regarding the Laptop Sessions, I’m sure by now that you’ve noticed some changes. Well, I got to thinking- why did I do over 200 cover song music videos here on the blog just to have them get “old” and fall off the face of the Earth? So, I found a great way to refresh the old posts and bring them back to the front page again. The best part is that, according to the search engines, these posts seem “new” and thus get back in the search engine results! I have to say- this site has more traffic than New York City on a weekday morning now! Honestly, on my birthday, April 29th, the Laptop Sessions music video blog had close to 10,000 views! Now that’s what I call progress!
And, speaking of my birthday, boy, did I make out good. I got more than I could’ve hoped for, mostly due to my father’s incredible bargain-hunting skills. I’m now enjoying a new TV for our kitchen, a surround-sound bar for the living room, and even a new lawnmower! Now, all I need is the lawn… Anyway, my brother Mike got me Hulk Hogan’s autograph and MLB 2010 for PS3, which I’m really enjoying playing online with my new friend Mike from work. Add to that the gifts that my wife got me (Dumb and Dumber on Blu-Ray, a George Harrison record set- see below), my new extended family (on Becky’s side), and my cousin, I’d say it was a great 26th! We also went out to two great dinners- one on my actual birthday with my family, and the other the next night to my favorite restaurant, Jimmie’s in West Haven with my friends from college.
Now, back to that George Harrison album… Well, as you might have read previously here on the music blog, I’ve been buying record albums (LPs) lately. I love them- they’re collectible and are fun to find in stores and flea markets. I just completed my Moody Blues collection last weekend! Anyway, Becky went on eBay and got me an original copy of George Harrison’s 3-record set of his first solo album, “All Things Must Pass”. It’s such a cool collector’s item and I’m proud to own a copy. Becky’s always very perceptive on stuff like that. She saw me drooling over a new vinyl copy of the remastered version and thought it would be cool to get a vintage one for me. What a girl! 🙂
So, I decided to record my first Laptop Session acoustic cover song music video using my new Martin MMV acoustic guitar tonight! The vocals are a bit muted in this version, but that’s because I wanted to focus on the sound of this new guitar. The harmonics are just great- they sing themselves! The guitar is bright and loud, but maintains such a clear bass that I can’t stop playing once I pick it up! It just looks like a normal guitar, but you can see the logo on the headstock- it’s a Martin for sure. I’d love to hear what you think of the new sound!
George Harrison, like most famous guitar players, owned a Martin acoustic, and I wanted to play “I’d Have You Anytime”, which is the first cut off of “All Things Must Pass”. He co-wrote “I’d Have You Anytime” with Bob Dylan, too. It’s a short song, but has such a cool sound. George was so laid-back and made everything sound effortless. “I’d Have You Anytime” is a perfect example of a fairly simple song that’s stood the test of time because of its sound and its style.
Okay, that’s enough from me tonight- I hope you all have a great week and I’ll catch you next Thursday for another update. Make sure to check back in two weeks for another cover song music video from yours-truly!