Tag Archives: jim

“Maybe Katie” (Barenaked Ladies Cover)

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Welcome to your Terrific Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions!  Tonight, I’m the first person to post using our brand new WordPress 2.6.1 version of the blog.  Of course, on your end, you shouldn’t see any difference, but on our end, the difference is vast…and great.  For one thing, our visual editor won’t mess with our code anymore, so we’ll be able to post chords to our cover songs more often than before.

Okay, on to tonight’s video.  Tonight is a classic one in terms of my live performances.  The “band” of Chris, Jim, and Becky (see Chris’ post a few days ago) was formed in 2004 and we loved to sing this Barenaked Ladies song, “Maybe Katie” in concert.  Then, we didn’t realize we were singing it in the wrong key- a half step below the original key.  Rest assured that for this video, we fixed the error, as all the Laptop Sessions songs are always in the original key- the ONLY way it should be!  Listen up, cover song musicians on YouTube and elsewhere: YOU REALLY STINK IF YOU DO IT IN THE WRONG KEY!!!  There’s no exception to this- if it’s out of your range and you change the key, then you don’t deserve to do the song.  I sang “Baby Please Come Home” by Darlene Love at our Christmas party in the original key and that song is ridiculously high.  You didn’t see me take the easy way out.  And this is why our motto is “Putting an end to bad YouTube covers FOREVER!”  Wow, the tangents tonight…

Moving on, this song is off of one of my favorite albums, “Everything To Everyone”.  I do believe that it’s probably their fourth best album behind “Gordon”, “Barenaked Ladies Are Men” (the almost 30-track version), and “Maroon”.  This album has some input from the other band members, which if you’ve read some of my past rants, means a lot to me in a band.

We do “Maybe Katie” a bit differently than the album’s version in the sense that the BNL version has some heavy electric guitars on the chorus and middle sections.  Our version is completely acoustic and has more of a “folk” feel to it.  That’s what happens when you don’t have a drummer handy…that isn’t already reserved to play the solo like I am.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s Laptop Session.  Thanks again and see you tomorrow!

“Aware” (New Music – Independent Music Songwriter Jeff Copperthite)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to Jim Fusco’s edition of “Original Wednesday” here at the Laptop Sessions! This only comes every three weeks for me, so when I get a shot, I make sure it’s a good one.

So, I bring you a great tune off of Jeff Copperthite’s new album, Greenlight, available here:

“Aware” is a song about a man wondering what’s going on when he’s not around his significant other. Don’t we all feel this way at one time or another? No matter how much you trust someone, the question still lingers sometimes.

Jeff goes on to say, “Perhaps I am scared of something that’s not there.” Very true. But that still doesn’t stop him from thinking about it!

This has got some great chords, a catchy tune, and is nice and fast-paced. It’s a great pick-me-up to the later part of Jeff’s album and sets up the last track, “Easy”, very well.

I hope you enjoy this edition of “Original Wednesday” and I’ll be back with one of my own originals from the new Masters of the Universe album, “Homestead’s Revenge” in three weeks. Stay tuned for my next video on Saturday and Chris’ video tomorrow at https://guitarbucketlist.com!



“The Night Was So Young” (The Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco.

I promised a new Beach Boys video today, and even though it took me until 10:30 to do it, it’s finally here. Actually, this is one of the rare Sessions that was recorded the same day I’m posting it.

I’ve been practicing this song for weeks now, as I needed to make sure it was perfect before I did a video. “The Night Was So Young” is my favorite track off the Beach Boys “Love You” album and shows the great songwriting skills of Brian Wilson coupled with the singing of Carl Wilson.

I love the minimalist approach to the recorded version of this song- it’s great in contrast to the terribly-dated synth-sounds of most of the tracks. This song also doesn’t have that cheesiness factor that some of the others have. Although, this song does tell of Brian Wilson’s lonely trip to the sink to pour some milk at 3 am…

I hope you like this toned-down Session. We’re still chugging-along at one-a-day here in 2008. I’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to my brother, Mike, who’s 22 today. Hope you had a great one!!

Video Blog: How Songwriter Jim Fusco Develops New Music in the Studio

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello and welcome to another Jim Fusco video podcast! I’ve been working on my new album, “Halfway There”, and thought I would give an update on my progress while also talking about how I go about developing a song.

I think there’s some interestig tidbits in here about my creative process, which differs GREATLY from my friends’ creative process.

I’d love to hear comments about how you work out songs and your thoughts of how I’m approaching songwriting!

To keep getting updates, please subscribe to my videos, and visit the blog at https://guitarbucketlist.com .

Also, you can get the new album, when it comes out, at my Official Website at http://jimfusco.com . Thanks for watching!