Hello and welcome to an all-new acoustic cover song by an all-new artist to the Laptop Sessions music blog…

This is Bryan Adams’ “I Ain’t Losin’ the Fight” from his 2008 album 11. The story behind the title of this most recent album is that it is his eleventh studio album. Apparently, fans have started proposing other hidden meanings of the number 11 for this record, but he has been clear in interviews that he never intended any deeper meanings. I tend to believe him, as the album is as straightforward as can be. It is a predominantly white cover, the booklet illustrated with pictures of Adams against white backdrops. The eleven songs are a fairly straightforward set of new rock music tracks that you would expect from Adams. But this is not to say that it is simply a mediocre, plain album. I have really enjoyed listening to these songs and I certainly plan to record more acoustic cover songs based on his work this year. I’ve really fallen in love with tracks like “Oxygen” and “Mysterious Ways” in addition to this track I’ve recorded for tonight, “I Ain’t Losin’ the Fight” — they’re such simple songs lyrically, but they are catchy and I love the sound he gets out of the mix of the instruments.

I think it’s worth noting that Bryan Adams was included in a top ten list last week of artists who should stop recording new albums. To be honest, I tended to agree with the other artists who were listed, with the possible exception of the Who (Endless Wire — I mean the album and not the attached rock symphony opera whatever — really wasn’t as bad as some music reviews made it out to be; I thought it had some solid, enjoyable tracks).

The inclusion of Bryan Adams in this list is not so surprising, as he is an easy target for those who like to write about “important” songwriters and bands. He also gets looked down upon for being a Canadian rocker, I think, which is patently unfair. I’ve always wondered how you can dismiss a new music artist based on his country of origin — just look at how many incredible albums the Barenaked Ladies, also Canadian natives, have released. Regardless, I thought it was also unfair that this top ten list dismissed Adams’ previous hits — “Summer of ‘69″ and “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” — wholesale. If you ask me, this was a chance for the writer of the top ten list to make a pun, writing that if Bryan Adams really did hold to his promise of “everything I do I do it for you,” then he would stop releasing records.

Ridiculous.

I can appreciate a good pun, but 11 is one of the most fun rock albums of the year. Groundbreaking? No. Predictable? Okay, I suppose. But it’s just a solid rock album and can’t we be happy with that?

And now, without further ado, I’ll come down off my soap box and give my musical nod to Bryan Adams’ latest work. I hope you enjoy it and maybe you’ll even want to hear the real studio version after watching my acoustic cover song music video. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for an all-new session from Jeff…

See you next session!

Hey there, folks. I’m back so soon after announcing the great news of our record-breaking day on Tuesday… to announce the friendship-breaking, heartache-causing, family strife-invoking events that took place in the meeting area of FMP Studios early on the morning of Thursday, July 24.

Early on, the scene looked something like this…

As you’ll note, the western third of the board is almost all red, the central third is almost all green, and the eastern third is almost all blue. Just for reference sake, I was red, Mike was green, and Jim was blue.

You may have guessed by now that, after recording some background vocals for Jim’s upcoming solo release, the boys of Fusco-Moore Productions kicked back with a game of Risk - the game of global domination, as the saying goes.

Early on, it was anybody’s game. And, from looking at the board, you might say — hey, they look about even. They must be happy.

A glance at the next picture will explain how wrong that statement is…

Some highlights of the game were the tension between green and red between South America and Africa, a standoff that remained non-violent until the end of my time in the game. Also, Mike and I took turns fighting for Iceland. In the pictures above, I own it so that Mike won’t own the entire continent of Europe, but then he just takes it back from me on his next turn. Jim quickly became the ignored party, having less troops than the other players, but being a silent killer. No, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not talking about farts. I’m talking about how he suddenly took ownership of Asia and maintained control of Australia AND a foothold in North America.

It is my strong opinion that I lost the game the moment, after having fought Mike for Iceland and winning, I forgot to attack Jim in Alaska, the one country in both Americas that I didn’t own at the time.

And he had only one man there!

Within a couple turns, he had flooded my troops, made a pact with Mike, and I was wiped out. So begins the final, dark chapter of the evening…

Well, dark for Jim, at least at first. It seemed that Mike would wipe through Jim’s troops, but the battles quickly proved that he would not prove so easy a target.

At the time of publication, the battles are still raging on throughout northern Africa, Mike’s original stronghold and a continent that saw no action until the final moves of the game. The final results will be posted when they become available, along with friendship statuses…

WINNER:

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:

• Jim and Chris: BEEN BETTER - Jim’s feeling good, riding high on having lasted so long. But, on the other hand, I’m not so happy. I still haven’t been convinced that Jim didn’t make the pact less out of a desire to win than out of a desire to take me out of the game. I may be wrong, but how can I be happy when I was the first casualty of war. Still, there are no hard feelings. But there is a hard rematch to come soon!!

• Jim and Mike: HEALTHY - They both agreed at the end of the game that the strategy involved kept them interested and thinking at all times. A rare positive ending to a violent game of Risk for these brothers.

• Mike and Chris: PRETTY GOOD - Years ago, I had trusted Mike and made a pact with him. He made a move that was best for him, thus spawning my classic Risk phrase, “MIKE! WE HAD A PACT!!” But, as the Monkees would say, that was then, and this is now. Mike treated me well, up until the pact. But Jim proposed the pact, so…

Well, that was more detailed than it needed to be. Until next time, this is your local loser Chris Moore reporting live from FMP Studios in Connecticut for all you Fusco-Moore fans out there…

Welcome to yet another Original Wednesday here on the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!  Tonight, I bring you one of my softer rock songs in “It’s You” from my “big” album “What About Today?”.

This song has a nice tune, but it’s really about the words…which tell you that it’s really not the words that make the song.  Don’t really get it?  Well, then you have to listen to the music video!

Actually, I’ve had a really bad couple of days and I’m more depressed than I’m letting on.  But music always makes me feel better.  The “truth” line really reminds me of my former friend that I used to work with.  He probably doesn’t even know what he did to me, but I know…and unfortunately won’t forget it.

At least the blog’s doing well.  I’m sorry this description couldn’t be longer, but we’re ready to play Risk and I’m prepared to globally dominate Chris for the ump-teenth time.  Until Saturday- enjoy “It’s You”!

Even though it’s Jim’s day to post an acoustic rock cover song, it is with great pleasure that I make this official FMP announcement…

As of yesterday, the highest number of unique visitors we had in a day was 222, a record set back in April.  During that time, we were using a program that helped us invite YouTube friends and get more hits to our site.  We stopped using the program very shortly after hitting that record, but we always felt like it was a cheap way to make a record.  After all, we had the programs getting hits in addition to the actual viewers.

Well, we can feel guilty no more!

As of yesterday, our new record is 225 unique, in-the-flesh visitors to the Laptop Sessions music video blog in ONE day!  This is due in large part to two things that have never happened before in the history of the blog.  First, we have been gaining ground steadily in the search engines — Google, Yahoo, MSN — and now we’re actually coming up on the first page when people around the world search for terms such as “acoustic song” and even some songwriters and bands, such as “Ben Folds acoustic.”  A second benefit is that many people are curious about the Laptop Sessions based on various music forums that Jim, Jeff, and I belong to.  Hopefully, one day soon, those people will sign up for membership on this site as well, so they can leave comments!

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned for lots of great things to come in 2009, not only with the Fusco-Moore Productions Blog and the Laptop Sessions music blog series, but also with FMP Studios and the brand-new, redesigned WCJM site.

See you tomorrow for another all-new session!

What’s happening world?  It’s Jeff Copperthite here with the latest installment of The Laptop Sessions.  After two incredible showings by Chris and Jim, I can only hope that today’s video comes close to the quality that is on theirs.

I am happy to bring another new band to the sessions, and it is a band I have been a long time fan of.  I’m more surprised that it has taken me this long to dig up a song i’d like to cover by them.  The band is The Goo Goo Dolls - a band that has been around for over 20 years and has released multiple albums.   It took their 5th album to gain a significant following, upon the release of the song “Name”.

Well, i’m not doing “Name”, but I am doing one of their other popular songs - hey, it’s only one more character too - called “Slide” from their album “Dizzy Up The Girl”.  While seemlingly simple to play, getting the strum pattern and the arpeggiated intro/middle down was tough.

I hope you enjoy the new original album scrolling image on top of the page - be sure to check out our material as all three of us are very proud of our work, and we hope you agree!

Be sure to come tomorrow to see another terrific original tune performed by our very own Jim Fusco.  I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us all.

Hello and welcome to another all-new Laptop Session, brought to you by the music blog devoted to great new rock music. My acoustic cover song tonight is not a new rock song, but it is a classic by an artist that did release an excellent album this year. That artist is Elvis Costello and the song is “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” I had actually planned on recording (and did, in fact) record a different song for my session tonight, but after I finished that one, I went on to this Elvis Costello tune and liked how it came out so much that I had to post it tonight. For whatever reason (the amount of time that I had been singing previously, the air conditioning taking all the moisture out of the air in the house, or my allergies), my voice was somewhat rough for this recording. Normally, that would be enough for me to put down the guitar and wait for another day. However, I think it worked for the emotion that is supposed to be conveyed by this track. Aside from the very end of this take when my voice is simply too shot to hit the notes I wanted to hit (please feel free to laugh at the ridiculous look on my face), I’m happy with how it came out.

This is one my favorite Elvis Costello songs of all time, and it’s a perfect track to bring to this music blog, as it has been recorded as a cover song previously by such bands as the Wallflowers. It’s a fairly simple song with simple chords, simple but great lyrics, and a simple message that I know Ringo Starr would love, and it translates very well to acoustic guitar. That being said, Jim and I did some research tonight and were shocked to find that although he is listed as #80 on the list of best rock artists ever, he has had very few songs chart well, especially on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s amazing that his most popular songs really aren’t as successful as you might expect for an artist of his standing. That either says something about him or, more likely, the system. (Especially considering that this is a system that barely recognizes the existence of such talented and influential acts as the Moody Blues…)

If you’re a regular viewer of the Laptop Sessions, you’ll get another dose of Elvis Costello very soon — his new rock music on this year’s Momofuku is some of my favorite from him and is easily in my personal top four or five albums of the year (and this is saying alot, as I’ve heard somewhere approaching fifteen new albums this year already!).

Whatever you do, don’t go too far; Jeff will be back tomorrow with an all-new acoustic cover song music video for your listening and viewing pleasure…

See you next session!