Welcome everyone to another installment of the Open Mic Sessions with Jim Fusco! Today, I bring you another session from my gig at Sam Ash Music Store in New Haven, CT back on April 3rd, 2013. I went with my brother Mike while he was visiting home for his birthday. I remember wanting to go to another venue, but chose Sam Ash because they gave me a $10 gift card just for playing! Yeah, I go where the “money” is…
Anyway, it gave me an opportunity to play another original song from my 2012 album, “Those Around Us”. This is one of the faster tracks on the album, “Opportunities”, which features a great drum track from my brother Mike. As we know, tracks like that are great for pairing-down into the famous “Laptop Sessions” style of performing- just me and an acoustic guitar!
So, I hope you enjoy my original song, “Opportunities”. Stay tuned as I bring you more of the “Open Mic Sessions” here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs and original music video blog!
Welcome, everyone, to the first installment of the Open Mic Sessions, where I’ll bring you my performances of my original songs from various open mic nights. The video will be a bit choppy, the sound won’t be perfect, and there usually aren’t too many people in the crowd, but it’s been a lot of fun for me to do these, so I wanted to share my original song performances with the world!
Today’s video is of my song, “Choose Your Words (Carefully)” from my 2012 album, “Those Around Us”. I think I’ve received a great response to this song every time I play it live. People either relate to the words…or just find the chorus catchy. 🙂 Either way, it’s been one of my favorites to play and is always the standby song for when someone says, “Play one more!”
This video was taken by my brother Mike at Sam Ash music store in New Haven, CT on April 3rd, 2013. As you can probably tell, there wasn’t much of a crowd…but the staff sure seemed to like it! Sometimes, even if there isn’t a big audience, it’s still cool to hear your original song amplified like that. There’s something empowering about that.
I hope you enjoy tonight’s video and stay tuned each week for more videos from the Open Mic Sessions!
A little late with the post this week- I think I just decided that I write much better during the day and not at 2 am. 🙂 I’m still on a “Those Around Us” kick and I’m pretty sure those that have purchased the album are, too! Remember, the CD version of my latest album is available on my website at http://jimfusco.com/albums/those-around-us.html. And, it’s also available on iTunes HERE!
Today’s video is an original song that I wrote on piano- I haven’t had a piano-driven song like that since “What About Today?”, as all of the songs on “Halfway There” were piano-based. I wanted to get back into using the piano again, but only got one song out of it. It’s a pretty serious song, too. I had this idea of someone that got in a car crash and lost their memory. At that point, all of his friends and family would try to make him remember his life. And, he didn’t remember where he lived, so he had to “follow you home”. Most of the songs on “Those Around Us”, as I’ve mentioned here on the music blog in the past, don’t deal with actual things or people in my life. The songs’ subject matter is derived from ideas I’ve had and conversations I’ve had with the people closest to me. I think somewhere along the line I realized, “Hey, I’ve surrounded myself with good, level-headed people. There’s not enough to write about!” So, I took a new direction and thought of some other topics. Then, I applied my feelings about the matter- almost an exercise in how I would react to a situation. I like that concept- it makes me think outside the box a little.
I really like the production on the recorded version of “Follow You Home”. I got to use a great new Native Instruments sampled acoustic piano that I bought, so it sounds really great. Plus, I didn’t have to mic the real piano we have upstairs- that’s always more trouble than it’s worth. Also, I got to use the 12-string electric guitar to great effect in this song- I really like the idea of using the 12-string as a sort of second bass line- kind of like a riff that runs through the whole chorus. The harmonies on the chorus took some time to get right. On the second time around the chorus, I go to a minor chord (I love that change). But, it’s such a slight difference in the vocal note- it definitely took a few takes to nail it.
On a personal note, I cannot tell you how happy I am that the Beach Boys are reuniting this year. This Sunday, they’ll be playing at the Grammy Awards- I can’t wait! Also, I just bought the tickets to see them live at Mohegan Sun arena. I know it’ll be a great show and I hope they throw in a few surprises for us hardcore fans. I’ll definitely be hitting up the merchandise table that night!
I’m always looking for new avenues to distribute my album and for some places to play live. If any of the loyal readers of my Laptop Sessions music video posts have any suggestions, I’ll be happy to hear them. I’ll be back with a cover song music video in a couple weeks, so to tide you over until then, order yourself a copy of “Those Around Us”!
That’s right, everyone. According to music blogger Andrea Guy from the Mossip Music Blog, Jim Fusco’s “Those Around Us” LP from 2012 is, “Music to make your ears happy” and gives it 10/10 stars!
“These three and a half minute songs are reminders of how fun music can be…Jim is a versatile songwriter, but even more than that, he’s a versatile and talented musician.”
That’s pretty high praise for Jim’s latest effort- if you haven’t heard the album, now’s your chance! Read the review on Jim Fusco’s official website by clicking HERE, then navigate over to HERE to buy the album online (via CD or iTunes download). You’ll be glad you did- just ask Ms. Guy!
