Welcome again to the Open Mic Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!
Today, I bring you the title track to my 2009 album, “Halfway There”. This is a very special video for me, as this original song live video was selected as one of the top three Instagram videos in the Sam Ash music store open mic video contest! From there, it went on to win the national Open Mic video contest title! I was given a $100 gift card to Sam Ash and I’m so glad an original song of mine got that kind of recognition. It was even featured on Sam Ash’s homepage once it won!
“Halfway There” was a concept I had for an album. Basically, I was growing up and had to come to terms with getting a job, getting married, and potentially giving up some of the lofty goals I had for myself in previous years. So, a lot of that album has to do with that sentiment.
But, you know something? I realized along the way that I’m pretty happy where things ended up. I realized that I didn’t really want to spend all of my days and nights trying to get gigs, living in perpetual poverty, and holding down some menial job until I hit it big. Now that I have a normal “day job”, it’s given me the flexibility to have a nice home and to get some of the guitars that I’ve always wanted. And, from everything I’ve heard and read, fame isn’t really all it’s cracked-up to be. I hope to make a name for myself with these Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music videos online (and maybe get recognized for it someday), but that’s something I can do in my free time. Problem is, like everyone else that’s married and has a house, I don’t have much free time!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I’ve been able to do on my little free time lately. Going to these open mic nights has brought me out of my comfort zone, but its also ignited my love for playing music again. I’ve met some interesting people, too. Stay tuned for more, as I continue to dig into my catalog of original songs and play at open mics around the state.
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
Hello and welcome to another week of new material from the best acoustic cover song music video blog in the universe! We’re glad you’ve chosen to stop by and we hope you’ll read the posts, watch our music videos, and leave us some comments and requests.
Let me begin my post tonight by explaining the new background. Although I think I will eventually establish the living room as my backdrop — better lighting, better acoustics — I wanted Laptop Sessions regulars to see that my “wall 0′ CD’s” has been rebuilt in the condo. I just recorded this video, so there wasn’t any natural light to speak of. Thus, the image is a bit yellowed. Additionally, I spent the weekend working on installing surge protectors, organizing my bookshelf, maximizing space in the closet, etc., so there aren’t any posters. The walls look pretty plain, but I promise there will be a more complete backdrop soon. I have a cool Beatles poster that came free if you bought two or more Beatles remasters at Newbury Comics, and I’ve been itching to put that up. And, of course, there are the Bob Dylan posters that have been with me since I lived with my parents, so it will be nice to get those up soon, as well.
Until then, let’s just focus on the music…
I’ve wanted to record this song since I heard it in the closing credits of Up in the Air a month ago. I had planned to record it right away, but Spoon’s new album, an Elvis Costello phase, and the aborted Locksley new release all intervened. I had considered milking the Who publicity for a session and I was looking for a fitting Jimi Hendrix song for today, but I just couldn’t put this one off any longer.
If you haven’t heard of Kevin Renick, well, that’s kind of the point. Apparently, he wrote “Up in the Air” a couple years before he heard that director Jason Reitman was working on a film adaptation of the book. The version you hear in the film is the original recording Renick handed to Reitman after he heard Reitman speak. The cassette recording begins, “Hi, Jason. My name is Kevin Renick, and I’ve written a song called ‘Up in the Air.’ I wanted you to hear it. It goes like this…”
What follows is a home recording that is simple and wonderfully suited for the film. Of course, it was literally no work to translate this into a Laptop Session as, for all intents and purposes, it already is. When I read more about Renick tonight, I became even more excited about posting this session. He is not signed to a record label. He has never released an album before. Being unemployed himself, he sings his song with conviction, and it was relaxing to learn, play, and record.
The lyrics, like the song, are deceptively simple. There are some great lines here — “When people ask me what I’m doing with my life, I say, ‘It’s up in the air'” and “I’m hearing from friends; it’s that tired, old advice again: ‘You just cannot keep floating all around; oh, you got to get your feet back on the ground.'”
I can’t understate how well this song encapsulated the feel of the film and of the other excellent music chosen for the soundtrack. The Up in the Air soundtrack includes one of my favorite Elliott Smith songs, “Angel in the Snow” (from the New Moon posthumous release), a couple of cool Graham Nash songs (one with Crosby and Stills, one solo demo), and Dan Auerbach’s “Goin’ Home” (from Keep It Hid, my pick for the #10 best rock album of 2009).
So, that’s the story behind “Up in the Air.” Once I’ve finished posting this session, I’m off to grade some senior papers before dinner, and then I have two things I’m looking very much forward to. The first is watching — and yes, your nerd-o-meters are about to go crazy — Star Trek: Voyager with Nicole. I haven’t watched Voyager for YEARS, not since I watched from the sixth season or so on with my mother. Every week, we’d meet and watch that show until it went off the air. And I loved it! But I never thought to go back, so that’s been my recent television indulgence.
In music-related “news,” the second activity I’m looking forward to tonight is finally being able to relax and read the booklet to the posthumous Jimi Hendrix collection First Rays of the New Rising Sun. I unfortunately had to return a Christmas present, and although I put it off for weeks, I finally exchanged it last Friday for this Hendrix CD. I’ve been mildly interested in it for a few years, but I wasn’t sure what it would be like. I’m generally of the opinion that the overall consistency and quality of Hendrix’s albums started at near-perfection with Are You Experienced? (1967) and declined from there, particularly on Electric Ladyland (1968). That’s not to say that he didn’t make some tremendous, outstanding music after his debut album — “Wait Until Tomorrow,” “Castles Made of Sand,” “Bold as Love,” “Crosstown Traffic,” and his cover of “All Along the Watchtower” — but the second and third albums themselves just weren’t as tight or compelling as the first.
Let me tell you: it’s a SHAME that Hendrix never finished First Rays of the New Rising Sun. Even as a 17 track collection compiled “under the direct supervision of the Hendrix family,” this disc is easily the best, most dynamic work he released after Are You Experienced? Given the time, Hendrix may very well have topped even that. Anyone who owns the greatest hits collection Experience Hendrix already knows the rocking “Freedom,” the jaw-droppingly beautiful “Angel,” and “Dolly Dagger.” If you like those tracks, you should check this out as well, especially for great work like “Night Bird Flying,” “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun),” and “In From the Storm.” Great stuff indeed.
Well, that about does it for me this week. Of course, you should hurry back every day of this week for fun new material — you can bank on another full Laptop Session, a three-part “Yes, No, Maybe So, Retro” series, a Guest Session of a great Buddy Holly song, and an all-new Weekend Review. Don’t miss any of these great music-related posts — you’re only going to find them here…
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
I hope you enjoy seeing me with hair tonight, because as of Wednesday evening, it’s gone! That’s right — I’ve decided to shave it all off. Well, maybe “decided” is a strong word. One of my colleagues, one who offered a great deal of useful advice during my first year teaching, asked me if I would join an English department team for this year’s “St. Baldrick’s” event. I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to join in with my fellow English teachers, and as you may know, it isn’t all that often that someone asks me to join a team! So, off goes the hair in the name of raising money to fight children’s cancer. I’m currently at the bottom of the list of fundraisers on my team (listed online as $0, although I have raised about $65 from staff and students at school that will be added tomorrow).
If you’re interested in supporting this excellent cause, just CLICK HERE!
So, you may be wondering: what does this have to do with the Laptop Sessions? Well, the answer should be clear if you read the title of my song choice tonight. I thought “Will It Grow” would be a fitting question to ask on the eve of my head being shaved. Of course, Jakob Dylan isn’t referring to hair, but I was able to add a bit more emotion to my interpretation of this track all the same.
“Will It Grow” was released in 2008 on Dylan’s solo album Seeing Things. Since Jeff recorded “Something Good This Way Comes” prior to its release, I never felt the need to record a track from the album. To be honest, I wasn’t as impressed with this album as I could have been. Of all people, I should be able to appreciate a set of good acoustic performances. That being said, it’s difficult to listen to an all-acoustic album from the front man for the Wallflowers — they’re such an incredible rock band!
Now, almost two years removed, I came back to Seeing Things by chance and thought it was a shame that I had never covered one of the tracks. Not surprisingly, I found a set of chords online riddled with errors and transcribed for a capo. I love capos as much as the next guy — and probably more! — but if it’s not necessary, I can’t see a good reason to use the capo. Thus, I posted the chords here at the Laptop Sessions for those interested in a more straightforward, accurate description of how to play the song. I can certainly understand how the errors may have been made, as I found it a bit difficult to pick up all the chord changes over the intricate fingerpicking. Eventually though, I think I came to a fairly solid version of what Dylan originally intended. I hope so — Jakob Dylan is one of my all-time favorite songwriters, so I took it very seriously.
In other Laptop Sessions news, I recently went through all the music reviews I posted previous to “The Weekend Review” series and added a rating out of five stars. Why did I take the time to do this? Well, initially I felt that ratings were arbitrary and that I really wasn’t qualified to make those sorts of judgments on music. After all, I wouldn’t want someone assigning a low rating to the music I poured my heart into. Still, the more I’ve been thinking about it, the more I realize how important the rating is to the review as a whole. After all, half the fun of reading reviews is agreeing or disagreeing with the author’s rating. Thus, how can I deny my readers (however few of them there are ;- ) the opportunity to think I’m right on, far off, or somewhere in between? It was fun going back to these albums; most reviews I wrote before the Weekend Review were based on albums I loved, so that didn’t hurt. And it reminded me of how much I enjoy holding to a weekly writing schedule. It may be difficult at the time to carve out an hour or so on a Sunday to write, but it gives me a good reason to skim through my CD rack on Friday or Saturday to choose an album to listen to throughout the weekend.
Other than shaving my head, this week should be pretty normal. I still have to get used to TNA Impact! being on Mondays. It’s a great way to kick off the week, a relaxing night with friends and comfort food and wonderfully mindless television entertainment, but I do miss being able to look forward to Thursday nights.
Finally, I thought the new Locksley album was supposed to be out tomorrow, but it wasn’t listed on the Newbury Comics newsletter today. Luckily, the White Stripes are releasing their first live CD this week — more and more, I’ve been growing fond of Jack White’s work, particularly with his side projects. So, I’ll give it a shot and let you know…
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
Hello and welcome to another week of all-new high quality Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog material! (Now, that’s a mouthful!) We’ve got an exciting week lined up for you regular visitors: one classic Laptop Session post each for Monday and Tuesday, another Phish Friday with Guest Sessions contributor Jeremy Hammond, the final edition of “Yes, No, or Maybe So: One-Sentence Reviews of 2009 Albums” (finally!), and of course, another edition of “The Weekend Review” on Sunday. And you never know what impromptu posts will surface to cover Wednesday and Thursday. For instance, I’ve got more than a dozen “Yes, No, or Maybe So” ‘s on the way soon, not to mention my “Top Five Rock Artists of the Decade” series that’s stagnated; it’s all a matter of timing.
April break is coming…
For tonight, let me begin by explaining my song choice. You may be wondering, “Pink? The woman? Really?” Well, as you can see with even a quick glance at the freeze frame below, I’ve recently undergone a serious haircut. As part of the NHHS English dept. team, I participated in the St. Baldrick’s fundraiser to fight children’s cancer last Wednesday. I’m not going to lie: it was a bit scary. For one thing, I’ve never had my hair this short. For another, I’ve had issues with my scalp being dry and itchy for years, so I didn’t know what it would look like once the hair came off. Thankfully, all went well. After the event, my team went out to Harry’s Sports Bar & Grill, which a few of us thought was fantastic — I mean, come on, that’s a Dr. Keck-sized pun (watch it!) waiting to happen.
We must have looked like a band of skinheads, based on the looks we elicited from the weekday crowd…
Back to the music. Weeks ago, I knew that this would be coming up. I realized that it coincided with the season premiere of the AMC original show Breaking Bad that Dana got me hooked on last year. I took the time to look up the music that has been used on the show over its first two seasons, and I found several songs that I liked. The wildest one, I thought, was Pink’s “Trouble.” If I could pull off an acoustic cover of that song, now that would be fun. I learned it that day, and I forgot about it until earlier this weekend. I can’t tell you how weird it was to take a Pink song seriously, but I have a newfound respect for at least this song. It’s a pretty straightforward number, and it was fascinating to me just how easily I translated it to a solo acoustic performance.
I hope you enjoy the product!
In other Laptop Sessions news, I finally went back to my “Yes, No, or Maybe So: One-Sentence Reviews of 2009 Albums” post. I hadn’t updated it since September 2009, so I figured it was about time I finished it off. My main reason for neglecting it for so long was that I realized mid-way through last year that it would make more sense to publish each review as its own post. I’ve been doing that since 2010 kicked off, and it’s been so much more fun than the old system. I not only added the new 2009 albums I listened to since the previous update, but I also went back through the existing entries and adapted them to the slightly new rating system I’m using now. Essentially, each “Yes, No, or Maybe So” review has five components: the rating, the release date, the one sentence review, the top two tracks, and an image of the album cover. I didn’t go back through and add cover images for all 30 or so albums, but I did match them to my new rating system. Under this easy system, an album can receive one of five scores: Yes, Maybe So, Maybe, Maybe Not, or No. This is in line with the classic five star rating system that I use for the Weekend Review. Over the past several months, I’ve been reconsidering my older reviews. The more I listen and write reviews, the more I want the perfect “Yes” to be an elusive rating, a true five star record. Before I added the “Maybe” as an option, I found that there were simply too many “Maybe So” entries that didn’t quite deserve that score, but weren’t in the “Maybe Not” range either.
Long story long, it seems that there is a learning curve to be expected with all things.
Outside of the head shaving and blog posting, life has been good recently. Busy, to be sure, but good. I’m still deep in the middle of a Star Trek: Voyager viewing marathon with Nicole, and I couldn’t be happier to indulge my dorkier tendencies. I’ve also been busy musically in a couple different ventures. The first is my next album, titled simply The 2010 Project for now, that I’m only just now taking seriously. After almost four years since Love Out of Fashion, I decided it was about time I took some ownership of my next project. So, I’ve polished and restrung my acoustic and electric guitars, borrowed my sister’s bass guitar, and taught myself how to use loops in GarageBand. There are only two missing pieces that I am in the process of researching: first, a guitar pedal to replace my Zoom pedal (lost to battery acid damage…) and second, a good USB microphone to record vocals, harmonica, etc. I’ve had such an itch to record recently that I’ve been playing around with demo versions of some of the fully written songs.
I’m excited that they don’t sound nearly as cheesy as my previous attempt at synthesized drums on Looking For You‘s “Shut Up, Bob”!
Outside of the recording, I’m still deciding which songs will make the cut, what concept/theme I think should drive the record, and I’m still writing verses, middles, and lyrics to finish off several songs that have been incomplete for days, months, or even years.
My other project involves the band I’ve jammed with on and off since I first started teaching. This go-round, there are five of us — a lead guitarist, me on rhythm (electric!), a keyboardist/harmonica player, a bass player, and a drummer. They’re all terrific musicians, so I definitely feel like I need to be on my toes constantly. Specifically, we’ve been practicing to play two songs for the Teacher Talent Show this Thursday: a parody of Bob Marley’s “Jammin'” (based on the challenges of using the Xerox copier at school) and a parody of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” I haven’t really rocked out since MoU’s last show, so being up on stage Friday to rehearse was great. We’re playing in the school’s beautiful theatre, and my bandmates have furnished us with some powerfully loud amps. We jammed on each song for about fifteen minutes straight last Friday, and I played “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” until I thought my left hand was going to fall up and all the muscles in my arm would snap. Any guitarist who’s played rock music knows that this discomfort is all code for having a great time!
So, at long last, I’ll leave you to my cover song music video for the week. As for me, I’m off to the BK Lounge to kick off TNA night part two (after last night’s very entertaining PPV).
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
