Lifelong Del Amitri Fan Reminisces and Reviews "These Are Such Perfect Days: The del Amitri Story."

"The Bayou," I could never remember its name.  I remembered it was in Georgetown.  I remembered it was the Summer of 1995.  But I could never remember the name of the club.  It was the second time I saw Del Amitri live.  It was the second time I saw them on the tour promoting Twisted.  It was the second time I saw them in DC that year. 

Summer 1995, that cusp year between trying to stay in Virginia and hang onto to college and college friends and going back to New York to put on my big boy pants and start the career I am still in 23 years later.  The first Del Amitri show year in DC was at the 9:30 Club.  My memories of that show are limited.  I thought I remembered more about that first show.  I remember paying a guy to "watch" our car when we parked, I remember the t-shirt I bought, and I clearly remember Justin doing an extended version of "Last to Know" where he climbed on top of some table or a different part of the stage where he got very close to the crowd.  I remember it was the first time I was in a room full of people who loved Del Amitri as much as I did.  But there is a lot about that show I don't remember.  I always thought that show was during the winter, but according to the new biography/history of Del Amitri These Are Such Perfect Days: The del Amitri Story by Charles Rawlings-Way it was during the Spring: April 1995.

1995 was before cellphone cameras.  When I try to remember these concerts, it is like the Toad the Wet Sprocket lyric "don't even have pictures, just memories to hold, that grow greater each season, as we slowly get old."  These Are Such Perfect Days provides in the 4th appendix a "Dell Amitri: Gig List."  As weird as this may sound, this was one of the most powerful parts of this detailed history for me personally.  The April show at the 9:30 Club, the August 12 show at the Bayou, and that last time July 31, 1997 at the Supper Club in New York City.  Three nights that are of mythic proportions in my canon, the three nights I got to see Del Amitri.  Seeing those dates and the names of the clubs flooded my memories of bits and pieces and fragments of those three nights.

I have been to many concerts in my 46 years, but one of the biggest changes is how easy it is to document and relive these concerts thanks to social media: either my own or others.  I can go to Youtube and listen to Lord Huron crush my favorite part of "The Stranger" from that show at the Van Buren.  I can also go back to the very first time I saw Mumford and Son, in a tiny club for 10$ with only about 200 people.  I can watch that footage anytime of a band on the cusp to becoming one of the biggest bands in the world.  Unfortunately, I can't do that for those Del Amitri shows from 1995 and 1997.  Seeing those shows in the 4th appendix of the book were about as close to those shows I have been in over 20 years.

I could never remember the name of that club.  I remember Justin telling the crowd how they usually play the 9:30 Club.  I remember where I was in the Summer of 1995: Working at the Holocaust Museum in DC.  I remember the opening song that night: Stone Cold Sober, one of my all time favorites.  I remember going crazy when I heard those first lines:

EVERYBODY IN THE FUN HOUSE....SAYS THEY WANT OUT

I remember being so excited and singing along, that the girl standing in line turned around and "shushed" me.  But I could never remember the name of the club.  Non of my criticisms of this new history of the Scottish band Del Amitri can outweigh the gift of learning the name of that club again.

To know me is to know Del Amitri.  To understand so much of who I am or who I was in my late teens, college years, early adulthood is to understand the music and lyrics of Del Amitri.  Pete Townshend is the music of my elementary and middle school years, Lord Huron and Mumford and Sons are certainly the music of my middle age and my years now living in the desert Southwest, but Del Amitri is the sound track of my life from senior year at JFK high school on Long Island, my Mary Washington years in college, and the single years of my early adulthood.  August 12, 1995 at the Bayou was in the heart of those Del Amitri years.

I know exactly where I was and what I was doing in the Summer of 1995.  I was living in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  I was in that listless in between college and a career stage.  I have been teaching for 23 years now, but in 1995 that career choice was in jeopardy.  I was unable to find a teaching job in both New York and Virginia.  I bounced between two states, retail jobs and substitute teaching gigs and eventually found myself back in Fredericksburg commuting either by rail or car into DC to work at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Though I could never remember the name of the club, other than it was in Georgetown, I never forgot getting shushed, nor did I ever forget the aftermath of that show.  I must have seen an ad for the show in either the Washington Post or more likely City Paper.  At the end of the book, Rawlings-Way asks the question almost all Del Amitri fans ask "why the hell wasn't this band more successful."  This section of the book "A  Little Luck" in my opinion is where this book shines brightest.  Del Amitri, at least in the US, is known as a one hit wonder for "Roll to Me."  The majority of people who may know anything about Del Amitri in the US will remember that song or perhaps the strange video of the song.  They have probably heard Del Amitri music playing in the background at various retail shops and fast food restaurants, not knowing the song or the band.  It is quite strange to be sitting in a burger king hearing some of the most important songs in my life playing in the background.  When the internet was new and VH1 played more adult alternative music they had a message board.  This mid 1990's VH1 message board titled something like "Del Amitri: The Best Band You Never Heard of."  Quite accurate, here in the states.

I can't tell you how much time I spent from the time of Waking Hours to the release of Twisted trying to get people to listen to Del Amitri.  So trying to get people to go to that show in August in Georgetown was typical.  Trying to tell people how they got to see this band they never heard of.  So, I remember working at the museum trying to convince my co-workers that this awesome band was playing in Georgetown and we had to go.  There was actually a tour guide at the museum that summer, who one day in the elevator started singing Del Amitri, and he was the first Del Amitri fan I had ever met besides myself.  That is being a Del Amitri fan in the states in a nutshell.  That rare occasion when you actually meet someone else who loves Del Amitri.  At that point I had been listening to Del Amitri since 1989 and 1995 was the first time I actually met a Del Amitri fan.  The next time I would meet a Del Amitri fan would be around 2012.  Ironically, the tour guide couldn't go to the concert at the last minute.  But,  I actually did convince several people to go to the show and check out them out after work on a hot and muggy August night in Washington DC.  I also remember that summer had a record number of days of 95 degree heat with over 90% humidity. 

As if seeing Del Amitri live in their prime was not memorable enough the aftermath of this show adds to the mythology.  The plan was simple, see the show, and then we would crash at the apartment of one of my co-workers who went to the show with us, and then go to work at the museum the next morning.  I don't drink at concerts.  I love the music too much to waste it being impaired.  I never drink at concerts, and this show at the Bayou was no different.  Unfortunately, that did not stop my co-workers.  One or two of my co-workers got so drunk during that show, they simply disappeared.  In fact, one co-worker in particular did not show up for work for several days after the show.  The guy whose apartment we were supposed to crash in got so drunk and passed out in my car and we could not wake him up to tell us where he lived.  We tried driving around DC for a bit until he woke up, but he didn't.  I ended up having to drive back 50 miles to Fredericksburg that night.  I remember when he woke up on the floor in apartment the next morning, he asked where we were.  I told him Fredericksburg and he thought I was joking!  I remember we all showed up late to work at the museum that day.  This was the first or second year the museum was open and people used to line up early for tickets, it used to be packed.  I remember the museum manager pulling me into his office that day making me promise not to take any more co-workers to concerts!  All this I could remember, but until reading These Perfect Days I could never remember the club was called "The Bayou."

The appendix of gigs is just one of four appendixes in the book that are filled will a treasure of information Del Amitri fans will love.  There is also information about where the ever changing band personal are today, a discography, and a great listing of songs by subject.  This kind of information is a great example of both the strengths and weaknesses of this book.  Information Del Amitri fans will love, and the general public could probably care less about.

Let me stop here and give two disclaimers as I review this book.  First the book I just finished prior to reading this was the second volume of James Kaplan's massive biography of Frank Sinatra.  Kaplan's biography of Sinatra was two volumes and close to 2000 pages.  It was one of the most detailed and interesting biographies I have ever read. It basically took me two years to read the 2000 pages.  The books were not just a biography of Sinatra they were a history of America, American music, hollywood, movies, politics, organized crime from before WWII until the early 1990s.  Reading and trying to review another music book, another musical biography immediately after the two Kaplan books is unfair.  Those two volumes are the gold standard for an entertainment biography and you will be hard pressed to find something to match them, regardless of whether you actually like Frank Sinatra, because those books were so much more than books about the Chairman.  Did  I mention that during the 1997 Supper Club show, Justin started playing New York, New York and then halfway through stopped and said the song sucked.  It is like trying to read any epic fantasy novels after reading the first three Game of Thrones books.  Those first three Game of Thrones books are so good, they have basically ruined all other epic fantasy books for me.  I can say the same about Kaplan's Sinatra books.  It will be difficult for me to read any biography, but especially a biography of an entertainer or musician after reading those books.

The other problem with reviewing this book is personal.  Deeply personal.  A few years ago, I finally saw the Elvis of my people, Neil Diamond.  It was a religious event for me, Neil Diamond has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years.  It was in a large arena and Neil played for over two hours and 10,000 people sang along to EVERY SONG!  I can use Who concerts as similar examples, three hour shows, multiple dates and sellouts, 15,000 people singing along to 50 years of giant hits.  The second time I saw Mumford and Sons was at the Railroad Rival tour in Tempe Arizona.  The previous show I had seen Mumford had like 200 people, that Tempe show had 12,000.  There was a time for me Mumford was like the new Del Amitri.  There were a few months when their record first came out that I kept trying to get people to listen and I kept telling people how awesome this new band was.  Nobody knew who I was talking about.  The first show was in a small club, with a hardcore group of fans and it reminded me of seeing Del Amitri  that first time at 9:30 Club.  However, that all changed quickly.  In just a few months, Mumford and Sons was one of the biggest bands on the planet.  The Tempe show was less than a year from that first show and the crowd went from 200 to 12,000.  I remember driving home from Tempe that night and a car full of ASU girls pulled up next to us and they were all singing "The Cave."  It was at that moment I knew Mumford would be huge.  There was never was that moment for Del Amitri.  The closest it ever came to a moment like that was when "Roll to Me" was a hit.  I remember friends from college, who had heard me either talking about Del Amitri or playing Del Amitri in the dorm room endlessly and endlessly trying to convince them that Del Amitri was the best band ever, called me when they saw the video on MTV and VH1.  There was that band I had been talking about and they had a huge hit on MTV.  That was the closest Del Amitri became an "I told you so band" for me to my friends.  There was the tour guide at the Holocaust museum, the VH1 message board, Allison's early version of delamitri.com, and my co-worker in 2012 and that was it in terms of me being able to share my love of Del Amitri with other people.  My wife things they are boring and my kid would rather listen to Imagine Dragons.  What I am trying to say is this.  Del Amitri has always been a very personal thing for me.  It is something that I love so much that very few people know about.  I can share my love of The Who with 15,000 fans for 4 nights in a row at the Garden, I have never really had that opportunity with Del Amitri.  Del Amitri is so personal to me, it is like a little secret between me and my radio in the car, in the dorm room, or laying in bed.  This book was clearly written by a fan of Del Amitri.  This book was written by someone who not only likes Del Amitri as much as I do, something I didn't believe exists, it was written by someone who knows more about Del Amitri than me.  How can someone know more about Del Amitri  than  me?  In short, I am jealous.  This is a book I have written in my head 1000 times.  The chapter on why Del Amitri was not a bigger band is a chapter I have written in my head and debated in my head 1000s of times.  This book is like seeing someone walking down the street  who has the life you want.  I am simply not used to sharing Del Amitri with other people.  My love of Lord Huron, the Who, Neil Diamond, and Mumford and Sons is shared by hundreds of thousands.  However, Del Amitri is my band.  I am very ethnocentric about Del Amitri.  After years of trying, I am simply not used to sharing Del Amitri with others.

Del Amitri is so personal for me, it is hard for me to be objective about Del Amitri.  I unfortunately found that to be one major issue I had with the book.  The author clearly loves Del Amitri and the book in my opinion needs to be more critical.  In the author's defense, I probably would have done the same thing.  There is a bit too much fanboy in the book, and after reading the Sinatra biography which humanized Sinatra showing all his sides: the good, the bad, the ugly.  When you read the Kaplan books you see what a musical genius Sinatra was, and at the same time you see things that show he could be a pretty shitty person who hung out with some very questionable characters.  With the exception of some stories about dealing with some band personal issues, there was too much hagiography here.  Writing a book about how awesome Del Amitri is preaching to the choir.  I would have liked the book to be more objective.  When you read this book you learn how awesome Del Amitri is.  But I already knew that, and everybody who is going to read this book knows that.

This book is clearly written by a Del Amitri fan for Del Amitri fans.  It is very inside.  I don't think I could give this book to a non Del Amitri fan.  I am not a fan of Frank Sinatra's music or his movies.  Yet I could not put down 2000 pages about his life, because it was so interesting.  2000 pages of saying how great Sinatra is not very interesting to someone like me that is not a fan of his music.  I love Del Amitri, I know how great they are, you don't need to tell me that.  Other people need to know how great Del Amitri is, but I don't think someone who has never heard of the band outside of "Roll to Me" is going to pick up this book, read it, and go stream Change Everything.

 As a fan, I devoured this book.  I read it in just a couple of days, it was a book about my favorite band of all time, that talked about how awesome they are.  Of course, I loved that, but could I give this book to my roommate from college back in 1990 who had to listen to me play Waking Hours on tape endlessly to read?  I don't think the book would hold his interest past one or two chapters.  It is very inside baseball.  It is very niche.  But, maybe that was the purpose of the book and the intended audience for it.  If so the book is a homerun.  So as a fan, of course I loved this book, but I don't think it will appeal to people who don't already love Del Amitri already.  Del Amitri fans wish more people would listen to Del Amitri, would listen to the lyrics of Justin Currie and realize just how awesome this band it.  There is a part of being a Del Amitri fan that wishes the band reached the level of fan they deserved.  However, I don't think this book will do that.  This book is more about preaching to the choir than it is about objectively telling the story of Del Amitri and their music.

I feel the book got better as it moved along chronologically.  I felt the author did a better job starting  around Chapter 7 discussing the issues that resulted from the failure to capitalize on the success of Twisted and the disappointing sales associated with Some Other Sucker's Parade.  The story of Big Country is similar in some ways to Del Amitri.  Scottish band, amazing success in the UK, none as a one hit wonder in the US, should have been a bigger band, hurt by bad luck and industry mistakes.  I would have liked more about the Scottish music scene in the 1980s that Del Amitri and Big Country evolved during.  The book has an origins story, but I would have liked it in the bigger context.    I have always heard that Del Amitri's first tour of the states was quite the story, the book mentions it is quite the story but the actual chapter about it is kinda of a let down.  I would have liked to know more.  Here is another issue with the book and the discussion of the 1986 tour is a good example.  The book relies heavily on primary sources.  Primary sources are awesome in many ways.  The book used great material from Justin, Iain and other members of the band.  This really added to the book and gave some great insight into the band and the music.  However, primary sources have challenges as well.  Primary sources are biased, primary sources also suffer from what the subject remembers, doesn't remember, or perhaps chooses not to remember.  I felt the book needed more secondary sources to balance the primary sources.  I felt it needed more objective and maybe more critical secondary sources to compliment or supplement the primary sources.  Again, while Justin, Iain and other band members provided excellent context and behind the scenes information, but too many of the other primary sources used and people interviewed just seemed about how great Del Amitri is.  I know this already!   Del Amitri had a very memorable tour in 1986, the chapter and the people quoted kept saying how memorable the tour was, but I never felt I learned why it was so memorable. 

Another issue I had with the book, and this is a problem I have had with many music biographies or autobiographies is that I would have liked to know more about the songs and the song meanings.  Rawlings-Way did a great job focusing in on focusing in on one or two songs per record: like "Stone Cold Sober" on Waking Hours or "Be My Downfall" on Change Everything.  Recently, I had the same issue with the Pete Townshend and Bruce Springsteen books too.  So many good songs, I wanna know the stories behind them, the meanings.  Justin Currie writes some of the most amazing lyrics in music, I would have loved more analysis or discussion of them.  I felt the book missed an opportunity to go deep into the lyrics and the music.  I would have loved more from Justin about what these songs were about and how they were written.  On the tracks Rawlings-Way does this he does it very well, I just wanted more.

Speaking of the music, something that the book did a great job discussing were the Del Amitri b-sides.  Some of my favorite Del Amitri songs are b-sides.  Waking Hours, Change Everything, and Twisted are three records that are as close to perfect as I have in my music collection.  But for each of these records there are b-sides that I wondered how could this song not be on the record.  The book did a good job discussing how, when, and why b-sides were recorded and released when they were.  Did I mention how much I love Learn to Cry?

I don't want to make it sound like I don't like this book.  I am glad this book was written and I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it.  The intro was awesome, and hit very close to home.  There were some things I did not know about Del Amitri, that I know now thanks to this book.  In never knew the band was big in Chicago and Australia.   To be honest I never really knew much about the first record aside from the song "Hammering Heart," nor did I know what happened leading up to the release of the final studio record "Can You Do Me Good."  The book filled in many gaps that I had living in the states and following a band in the pre-social media days.  Also, I never knew about the reasons for the many personal changes in the band.  The face of the band was always Justin and Iain.  Learning about all the various other members of the band was quite interesting and perhaps how some of these past members were treated is the only subject in the book that is really critical of the band and Justin.  The book also did a good job showing the missed opportunities between Twisted and Some Other Sucker's Parade.  I never thought about it in those terms and while I actually liked that album a lot, it is not on the level of the prior three records.  Can You Do Me Good? was a record that even as a fan, I did not like when it came out.  However, years later it is a record I appreciate more and more.  But learning some of the background to that record, the different producers, and what was happening to their record company and contract as well in the context of the disappointing sales of the prior record, it makes more sense.  This is stuff I never knew about.

Where the book really shines is in the discussion of Del Amitri's dealings with various producers, the record company and the changing face of music in the time period Del Amitri was active.  Del Amitri's sound is in between formats.  It was not hard rock, it was not pop, it was not grunge, it was not alternative.  Streaming, satellite radio, YouTube did not exist yet.  There was no real outlet to play Del Amitri music.  You could argue Waking Hours was Americana or alt-folk before those genres existed.  The use of banjo on Waking Hours is Avett, Lumineers, or Mumford-esq 20 years too early.  Del Amitri put out their best music at a time where record companies, the record industry, the internet were changing so fast and unfortunately in many ways they fell through the cracks.  Rawlings-Way's writing is at his strongest and most reflective when he looks at the issue of how all these issues in many ways made it difficult for Del Amitri to succeed. Del Amitri was a band that had a sound that was hard to put into a neat box, during a time period both the music and the music industry were constantly changing.  I often wonder, if Del Amitri would have been more or less popular in the music industry of today.  The author talks about Del Amitri's lack of internet presence in the late 1990s, during the exact time it should have been strongest.  Again, this is something I was quite aware of as a fan, but never really thought about in the larger context.  It is an excellent point and another great "what if."  The book makes it clear that there were a number of questionable decisions by the record company that contribute to the "what if's" and the whole question of why isn't Del Amitri a much bigger band.  Maybe releasing music right after the magazine cover, better music videos, having an internet site, or returning to Australia might have changed the history of Del Amitri.  But it is a paradox for me.  Part of me wishes Del Amitri was a bigger band that filled giant arenas where 10,000 people sang along to "Hatful of Rain" and the selfish side of me wants to keep Del Amitri the band all to myself.

I read a lot of history books and I read even more book reviews.  I really despise the New York Times and Washington Post because often they review the SUBJECT of the book more than the actual book.  If there is a wonderfully written biography of someone they do not like, they will spend more time in the review bashing the person then they will discussing whether or not the book is good or not.  In the reverse, if the subject of the book is someone they agree with they will spend the majority of the time praising the subject and not really saying whether or not it is a good book.  When I read a book review, I want to know if the book is good.  There are people I don't like that have had great books written about them, and there are people that I respect and admire that have had shitty books written about them.  Pete Townshend has been one of my rock gods since I was 10, yet I did not like his book.  I love Pete Townshend, but did not like his book.  I am not a fan of Frank Sinatra's music, but I loved the two Kaplan books about him.  So in reviewing These Are Such Perfect Days: The del Amitri I am trying hard to review the actual book and not the band.  It is not easy to do.  I really think there are two ways to look at this book: As Del Amitri fans or as general reader.   There is a lot of inside baseball in this book that as I lifelong Del Amitri fan I really enjoyed reading and I know other fans will enjoy reading.  There is a lot of great primary source information and insights from both Justin and Iain.  However, the book is too much hagiography.  While the book is highly critical of certain aspects of the music industry, the majority of the writing is page after page about how awesome Del Amitri is.  The book does not look at the band or the music objectively or critically enough.  This is a book about how Del Amitri is one of the best bands that ever existed and how talented Justin Currie and Iain Harvie are.  It is exactly the book I would have written.

Life Long Del Amitri Fan Reviews This is My Kingdom Now by Justin Currie

In the late 1980's to the mid-1990s I was a big fan of the BoDeans.  I even remember seeing them live at Mary Washington with the Madison Hall crew.  Ironically Dave Matthews opened for them.  Today the situation would be very much in reverse.  Go Slow Down is still one of my favorite records and it is one of those rare records where every song is amazing.  I still use Feed the Fire on my playlists when running.

The problem unfortunately is that in my opinion the BoDeans have consistently put out the same album.  As time moved forward and music changed and my music tastes changed, it seemed every BoDeans album was the same.  As much as I loved the sound in 1993, albums in 2008 and 2010 need to show a bit of change or evolution.  I gave up on new BoDeans music because it was too much of 'every song's the same.'  I think the BoDeans are a perfect example of having a great sound in 1993 but just not moving it forward as often music needs to be.  Their sound has not changed much since that Mary Washington College concert in 1992.

However, maybe I am being hypocritical here.  Take Mumford and Sons.  Sigh No More and Babel are two of my favorite records of all time and they will forever be in rotation or I guess my streaming.  However, when I first heard "Believe" off Wilder Minds I hated it.  It sounded like Cold Play and Sons.  Wilder Minds was a needed album by Mumford and Sons.  As a band, if they were going to continue they could not continue to make the same banjo record, the problem was as a fan, we loved the banjo records.  Wilder Minds is an album that will grow on you and there are some absolutely terrific songs on there including: Ditmas and Just Smoke, even Believe.  However, this CD will never be in rotation as much as Babel or Sigh No More, it will never get a fair shake because it is not a banjo record even though it is ultimately very good.  Mumford and Sons would probably be no more, had they not changed their sound up a bit, but as a fan who wanted another banjo record, it was not an easy sell.

This takes me to my review of Justin Currie's new record This is My Kingdom Now.  This is his 4th solo record.  My rating is a solid B+!  But let me backtrack a bit.

Justin Currie was the lead singer and song writer for one of the most under appreciated bands out there: Del Amitri.  Del Amitri is a band that I discovered in the late spring and early summer as I graduated high school and prepared to enter Mary Washington College as a freshmen.  As I have blogged about before, I have had a life long love affair with the music of Del Amitri.  Waking Hours and Change Everything was the music of my Mary Washington years, and Twisted was the soundtrack of that last summer in Fredericksburg and those commutes into DC.    But I must be honest here: much of my life long love of the music of Del Amitri revolves around three records: Waking Hours from 1989, Change Everything from 1992, and 1995's Twisted and the various B-sides that went with them.  1997's Some Other Suckers Parade is a great album and 2002's Can You Do Me Good, are great records, but never had the impact of the other records.  Some Other Suckers Parade has some great tracks and Can You Do Me Good actually continues to sound better with age and I did not appreciate that record in 2002 as much as I do now, but regardless of how good Some Other Suckers Parade and Can You Do Me Good are, they are not Waking Hours and Change Everything.  And there lies the issue I have with all 4 of Justin Currie's solo efforts.  And this is entirely on me, not on him as an artist.  There is and will always be are part of me that when I hear a Justin Currie solo record or any new Del Amitri material (please please please), that wants/expects a record that sounds like Waking Hours.  There is a part of me that wants the same record that I listened to in Russell Hall as a Freshmen.  The problem is that Waking Hours is from 1989 and it is now 2017.  I can't speak for every Del Amitri fan, but those albums left such a huge impact on me and there is this nostalgia for songs that sound like Hatful of Rain or Surface of the Moon.  So, my point is this, when reviewing any new Justin Currie material there is a big part of me that still wants it to be 1992 and hearing a song like "Learn to Cry" for the first time like I did in the studios of WMWC and my "Fiery New Yorker Radio Program."  However, it is 2017, Justin Currie and Del Amitri can't as artists make the same music from 1992, its almost 30 years later.  I know that, that is why I appreciate what Mumford and Sons did with Wilder Minds, that is why I appreciate Can You Do Me Good so much more in 2017 than I did in 2002.  This is how you don't end up putting out music that sounds exactly the same as all your other music.  But, at the same time, I still long for a record like Change Everything.  So, any review I do of Justin's new music, must be taken with a grain a salt.  That is my bias and a bias I know I have, I understand why I shouldn't and yet I still do.

5 long years after Can You Do Me Good, Justin released his first solo album.  This was a long stretch as a Del Amitri fan to go without new music.  These were the days I wondered if I would ever hear Justin Currie perform new music again.  These were the days I had to deal with the reality that my favorite band was no more and again at the time their last CD Can You Do Me Wrong was not fully appreciated by me.  What is Love For is a brilliant work.  It is perhaps, Justin's best solo album of the four.  However, it is not Del Amitri.  What Is Love For is a very slow dark album.  It is beautiful, it is haunting, but it is at times too dark and slow to be in the heavy rotations that say the songs from Twisted are on my playlists or on mixed tapes.  With that said, the album contains one song that took me back to the early sounds of Del Amitri that I loved so much from Waking Hours and Change Everything.  "Walking Through You" is everything that I loved about Del Amitri and remains one of my favorite songs by Justin whether solo or with Del Amitri.

If all of What is Love For sounded like this, it would have been the Justin Currie record I was hoping for.  There are many beautifully haunting tracks on this record, but there is one more that in my opinion really stands out and it has a Nothing Ever Happens vibe not necessarily in sound, but in message.  And that is the epic track "No, Surrender."

This song is epic.  There is no other way to describe it.

What Is Love For is a terrific record, but I really wished it was more "Walking Through You" in sound than it was.

Of the 4 solo records, I think The Great War had the most tracks that sounded like the old Del Amitri that I loved so much.  "At Home Inside of Me," "Ready to Be" and "Can't Let Her Go Now" have that Change Everything and Waking Hours vibe.  And like "No, Surrender" on the first solo album, The Great War contains another epic track.  "The Fight to Be Human" and it is even better the way it fades right into "Ready to Be."  The Fight to Be Human has that No, Surrender and Nothing Ever Happens manifesto statement brilliance.  Once again epic.  Between these tracks are some very lovely songs, but again more in the vain of the darker songs of What is Love For.  Again, I understand that Justin could not just make a whole record that sounded like 1992 music (just as I can't expect to act or think the same way I did back as a junior at Mary Washington), but in a way those tracks like "Ready to Be" were almost a tease because of how much they reminded me of what I wanted more of.  My biggest disappointment about The Great War was not knowing that there was a deluxe version with a bonus track.  This bonus track is difficult to find streaming, but fortunately is on YouTube.  "In My Heart the War Goes On" in my opinion the best track on the album and it is not on the album.

Had the entire record sounded like this, it would have been the Justin Currie record I was waiting for.  Instead, I got a very good record that was about 1/2 the record I was waiting for that had some tracks that gave me a strong taste of that sound I loved and was missing.  But those tracks in between, were not enough to keep this album in a long rotation in my car or iPOD.  The Great War is a solid CD, but for me it was frustrating in the sense that at times it was everything I had been waiting for in a Justin Currie solo record.  This album was a bit of a tease in that sense.

Lower Reaches, from 2013, is the album that brought Justin Currie back to the states for a tour.  Ultimately, I can't complain about an album that did that.  For all its faults, because of this record, I got to see Justin Currie live in a very small intimate venue right here in Phoenix.  Lower Reaches to me reminded me of the short, catchy songs of Some Other Suckers Parade.  It lacked the epic track that The Fight to be Human and No, Surrender were on the first two solo albums. Lower Reaches is a good album with great songs like Priscilla, Little Stars, Every Songs the Same, and in my opinion the stand out track: Bend to My Will.  Unfortunately, I am not as big a fan of the songs in between.  Again, like the Great War, the songs in between were more the slower songs of What Is Love.  Lower Reaches was a good effort, with 4 great up beat songs, but the rest just slowed down the record to much in my opinion.  Lower Reaches as a whole was played the least of all my Justin Currie solo albums.  Yet with tracks like "Bend to My Will" there was that tease of what I wanted this album to be.

Now between Lower Reaches and This Is My Kingdom Now there have been some big changes in how I purchase and listen to music and that is also something that is going to affect this review and may also effect how I look back on the previous 3 solo records.  I have had an MP3 player for a long time but streaming music and using things like Spotify and Amazon Prime, and Google Play are new for me.  Again, let me back track.  I am a child of the late 70s and early 80s.  I remember albums.  I remember tapes.  I come from an age where you listened to the whole CD or record and often you bought the new album solely based on the artist or group.  I had not heard one track off Change Everything when I bought that CD or tape in 1992.  I bought it simply based on how much I loved Waking Hours.  I bought all of Justin's solo albums because they were Justin Currie not because I had heard any tracks on them prior.  I come from an age where you followed the artist and you listen to entire records.  I work with teens everyday.  I talk to them about music all the time.  That is not how they listen to music.  Very often they don't even buy music.  Up until about two years ago, I actually still bought music.  This Is My Kingdom Now is the first record I have straight up bought in two years.  When I say bought, I actually purchased it entirely online/streaming.  I no longer have anywhere to play a CD.  I wanted to buy the CD, I like holding a CD, I like looking at lyrics and covers, but none of my computers have a drive, and both my cars no longer have a CD Player.  Everything is streamed.  My students, our current young people don't buy music, very often they can't tell you who performs the music, they only know the song, and they certainly could not tell you the name of the album the song comes from or how it relates to other songs on the album.

Take for example Lord Huron's "The Night We Met."  This song is very popular right now because of the TV show 13 Reasons.  Many people know it because of how it was used in the TV show with the two main characters dancing.  Most people don't know who sings it.  Even less realize that it is on a album called "Strange Trails" which is a concept album where all the songs are connected.  "The Night We Met" is the closing track on that album.  The song meaning is so different in the context of the album, but most people who are listening to it have no idea.

With streaming and playlists, I can listen to Justin's solo work very differently now.  I can take those tracks that I love, and there are many, and put them onto one big playlist, which I have, which also has my favorite Del Amitri tracks.  This is new to me.  Again, I was an artist and whole album guy.  Separating these 4-5 tracks from the first three solo records from the other tracks and playing them together or together with older Del Amitri songs, has given me new perspective on the songs and a new appreciation.  We listen to music differently now.  Younger people have known no different, for us older people it has taken some getting use to.  I have an 80 song Justin Currie/Del Amitri playlist on spotify...it is brilliant.  I can listen to it all day.  I don't have to skip or fast forward or sit through anything I don't want to.  This is very new to me.

So when buying and listening to This is My Kingdom Now that is the context.  I have no physical copy of it.  I have it on Amazon and Spotify, but it is probably the first record by an artist that I really love, that I actually do not have an actual copy of the record.

So finally, me review of This Is My Kingdom Now....

First off, I have probably played (streamed) this album more than any of Justin Currie's previous solo records.  So what does that say?  Once again, I feel the record is more Some Other Suckers Parade/What is Love For than Change Everything in tone and song style.  To sum it up: once again a very good album but not the remake of Waking Hours that part of me still wishes for.  Once again there are some excellent tracks with some good tracks in between.  If Waking Hours and Change Everything are A+, I would say This Is My Kingdom Now, like What is Love For and the Great War are solid B+

The opening track: My Name is God is a terrific.  Brilliant way to open a CD.  A great cross between the mellower sound of What is Love For and that great early Del Amitri sound.

The next track "Fallen Trees" is one of the top tracks on the album.  Absolutely brilliant lyrics and sound.  This song will be streamed quite a bit and holds up with the best of Justin's work.

This is My Kingdom Now is a very good song, more in line with what you might have heard on the first solo album

Sydney Harbor Bridge has clever lyrics and again reminds me more of the style and structure of Some Other Suckers Parade.

Crybabies, cute and clever lyrics and in line with Justin's solo work.

Failing to See, is one of the albums highlights with a 70's ish sound that is actually fresh despite sounding 70's ish.  This is a refreshing track and one that will get a lot of replay on my playlist.

 The Dead Sea is hands down my favorite track on the album.  This is up there with the best of Justin's solo work.  This song is as good as any song he has written or performed on any of his solo albums or on any Del Amitri album.  This track has been repeated often and is probably the song  I have played most on the album

Abandoned Sons is a good track but this reminds me of the issues I have had with all 4 of the solo albums. The Dead Sea reminds me so much of that sound that I love and it is followed by a much slower more intense and dark song.  Abandoned sons is similar in sound to the first solo album.  This is a good track, but just slows things down a bit too much for me.

Hey Polly, I Love the Sea, I'll Leave it to You, Two People in my opinion are all good solid songs, but lack the punch of the first few tracks on the album.  So again, this is the issue I have had with all the solo records, and that is the pacing.  I get that song that reminds me of old Del Amitri and I love it and then it is followed by the much slower more introspective sounds of the solo albums.  I like these songs, they are good songs, but I like the sound of Fallen Trees and Dead Sea more.  Those are the solo songs I couldn't wait for.

My Soul is Stolen is a strong way to end the record. Yes, it is more in line of What is Love For, but the placement of this track at the end, ends the record with a strong emotional punch.  However, I wish the record had a "No, Surrender" or "Fight to be Human" like on the first two solo records.  Like Lower Reaches, the new record in my opinion is missing that epic "Nothing Ever Happens" type song.

Had I not been such a die hard Del Amitri fan, I don't know how my review of Justin's solo work would be different.  Would I love the songs and records even more?  Would I love them less?  I am not sure and it would make a great experiment to compare the reviews from those of us who have been fans since the late 1980s to those who are new fans or maybe have never heard Justin's music before.  As I have stated before, I can't fairly review Justin's records.  It is a bit like Francis Ford Coppola.  How can you review any of his movies fairly after the brilliance of Godfather 1 and Godfather 2.  The bar has been set high, maybe too high.

This is My Kingdom now is a solid record.  All of Justin's solo records have been solid.  His voice and song writing is amazing.  However, there is a catch 22.  He is a living breathing evolving artist who continues to write and create.  As an active musician who produces new music, I can't fairly expect him to make the same record every time.  The catch 22 is that there is a part of me that wants that same record and will ultimately be slightly disappointed when I don't get an album full of songs that sound like "Hatful of Rain."  With the exception of Lower Reaches, which I will give a score of a B, all of Justin's solo work in my opinion has been a solid B+  Justin's solo albums have all been very good, but in my opinion none have reached the greatness of Waking Hours and Change Everything. This is My Kingdom now is a B+ in my opinion.  All of the songs are good, there are some songs that are fantastic and among the best Justin has ever written.  I can't say enough about how good "The Dead Sea" is.  I think all of the solo albums have had great songs: "No, Surrender", "The Fight to be Human," "Ready to Be," Every Song's the Same" but as a whole the albums have for me have never reached the level of greatness that Twisted, Waking Hours, and Change Everything did.

I often dream of Mary Washington College and Fredericksburg.  Those years made such a tremendous impact on me.  I do realize that a good part of the Mary Washington and Fredericksburg that I hold so dear is gone and is never coming back.  Mary Washington in 2017 is not the Mary Washington of the early 1990s.  Once I was the student body president who felt the pulse of the campus, today I follow the school on social media and there are things happening on campus that I simply don't understand.  Just as the school is different, I am not the same person in 2017 as I was in 1994.  A 45 year old father with a 10 year old kid who has been in government school classrooms for 22 years straight is not the same kid who yelled from the Madison Hall 3rd story window.  Logically I know that the music of Justin Currie in 2017 can't be the music of 1992.  But just as I dream of Mary Washington I remember from the early 1990s, I also long for that sound of Del Amitri that I was listening to in Russell 2nd South or Madison 3rd Floor.

Though it might not come across this way in this review, I appreciate and love the fact that Justin's music has not stayed the same.  Like the old cliche when breaking up with a girl, when you tell her "it's not you it's me," I think my review of This Is My Kingdom is the same way.  The issue is not the brilliance of Justin's voice and song writing, the issue is my inability to move my taste in music past 1995.

Who is Michael Anderson?

A few years back Justin Currie of Del Amitri played a small gig here in Phoenix.  Del Amitri is different from my other favorite bands.  My all time favorite band is the Who.  I can hear The Who on any classic rock radio, when I see them in concert they are playing an arena with over 10,000 people.  Some of my favorite newer bands : Mumford and Sons and The Lumineers have gotten so big they now also play arenas and huge festivals.  Even Lord Huron, my current favorite band, is constantly gaining popularity and is selling out medium size venues and has really hit it big with their song on the 13 Reasons show on Netflix.  By the way, I called "The Night We Met" the best closing song on an album ever two years ago.  Well, I am going to make the case for perhaps an even better closing song in this blog.  But back to Del Amitri, what is different is that in the states they never got huge.  They were bigger in the UK, but never huge.  Roll to Me is their one major US hit, forever and unjustly labeling them a 'one hit wonder' here in the states.  Most people don't know Del Amitri but thanks to 'Roll to Me' and a loyal fan base there are some fans here.  As obscure Del Amitri may be, they are not unheard of, you can hear many of their songs played as background music when shopping, don't get me going on this, and like I said they are still well known in the UK.  Even though Justin played a very small bar here in Phoenix there was a small but committed turnout of fans and like me they sang the words to pretty much every song.  My point being as obscure Del Amitri might be to the average music listener in the US, they have a pretty decent footprint.  I can talk about them and at least a few people will know who I am talking about.  You can find plenty of videos, old and new, and easily keep up with Justin's solo work or reissues of the great Del Amitri records.  Sometime around 1988-1989, I discovered Del Amitri and the Waking Hours album for the first time.  It was around that same time that I also heard Michael Anderson for the first time, who was coincidentally on the same label as Del Amitri, but unlike Del Amitri, I honestly do not know ANYBODY who has heard of him (outside of my college roommates who heard me play his 'tapes' nonstop at Mary Washington and a few too many ladies at Mary Washington who got a mixed tape with a couple of his songs) and there is still very little information about him both online and on YouTube.  Del Amitri, might not have gone as big they should, but 30 years later I know plenty about them and their story and music.  30 years later, I still know very little about Michael Anderson.

Sometime around 1988-1989 I was at the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington, New York with my high school buddies.  We were in a Record World.  Does Record World even still exist?  Back in the days when there was at least one record shop in every mall.  CDs were not really big yet.  The front of the store was still LPs.  The back of the store was filled with the increasingly popular cassette tapes.  In the back they also had some TVs where they played music videos.  On this day they were playing Michael Anderson's "Sound Alarm."

Over the years, before Spotify, I have bought a lot of music.  Records, tapes, CDs.  However, in my almost 40 years of buying music there have been very few, minimal, cases of me hearing music at the record store and buying it on the spot.  I was in a Tower Records in Westbury when I heard Terry Garland play the blues for the first time:

I was in a Nobody Beats the Wiz in Huntington Station when I heard the amazing 6th Avenue Heartache and One Headlight and bought one of my favorite albums of all time right on the spot: Bringing Down the Horse by The Wallflowers:

Michael Anderson's Sound Alarm cassette was one of those rare cases of me doing that.  In those days I would hear music on 92.3 K-Rock in NYC or WBAB on Long Island or watch VH-1 or MTV and discover music that way, actually I am pretty sure for a teenager back then it was the only way.  But I bought the tape right on the spot.  At the time, I was in a classic rock and blues phase.  The guitars and harmonicas on this album drew me right in.  1988ish was great year of music for me.  Some of my favorite albums to this day all came out around that time: Robbie Robertson's first solo record, Del Amitri's The Waking Hours, and Michael Anderson 'Sound Alarm'.  30 years later, I have read Robbie Robertson's autobiography and seen the Last Waltz countless times, I have seen Del Amitri live 3 times and thanks to the internet can stay connected with fans and with Justin's solo career.  30 years later, I still know very little about who Michael Anderson.

The Sound Alarm record was in my opinion very blues influenced rock.  One girl who was lucky enough to get a song from this album on a mixed tape from me told me that he sounded like he was trying to be Bruce Springsteen.  I never felt that way, but I could see you putting him in the same rock genre as Bruce or a John Mellencamp.  Heading into the 1990s we entered a time in music where I feel record companies and bands took advantage of fans.  I remember in the early 1990s you could spend almost 20$ for a CD and there would only be one or two good songs on that CD.  This greed and poor project helped lead to the rise of NAPSTER and MP3s.  However, it was not like that in the late 1980s and the Sound Alarm was a perfect example of a record where every single track was awesome.  There was a lot of range and variety on the Sound Alarm record.  There was pure good old guitar and harmonica driven rock in songs like "Until You Love Me," and "Little Bit o'Love."  There was some rock history of blues and Memphis in "Memphis Radio," there was a powerful ballad "Sanctuary" and even a political track about South African Apartheid in "Soweto Soul."

Here is some awesome audio of "Until You Loved Me"

  As I mentioned earlier, Lord Huron's "The Night We Met" is probably one of the best closing tracks on a record ever.  However, Sound Alarm can give Lord Huron a run for the money.  Sound Alarm closes with an absolutely beautiful and stunning track "Time to Go Home."  Why this song has not been in countless films or on soundtracks I will never know.  There is no justice in the music world, that is for sure.  Time to Go Home paints a vivid image and both lyrically and musically is an unforgettable track that is just as powerful when you listen to it today as it was when I first heard it back in 1989 while in high school.  According to Michael Anderson himself, in an email he sent me:

I wrote "Time to Go Home" in the studio while recording the "Sound Alarm" album. It was about my father, who I hadn't seen. Right after that I did go home and see him and we re-established a relationship. It is a very emotional song for me. He died a few years after that and I was always grateful for that song pushing me to see him.

This was a record with great lyrics, raspy vocals, great guitar riffs and old fashioned harmonica.  This was a rock record.

I also noticed on the credits for "Sound Alarm" were several mentions of "The Legendary Buck Silvertone."  Years later I am not quite sure if The Legendary Buck Silvertone is actually Michael Anderson.

I was kinda of by accident that in 1990 while browsing through the tapes at Tower Records in Long Island that I saw that Michael Anderson had released a self-titled second album.  It wasn't until fairly recently thanks to YouTube that I found out there was a video for the song True Love that went with this album.

There are a number of girls who attended Mary Washington who were given a mixed tape by me where I confessed my love through lyrics and music.  I am scared that one of these days someone will find one of these tapes and my linear notes and interpretations that went with it.  Many of these tapes, and there were many, had this song.  "If True Love Were Only for the Innocent, you know I don't qualify."   "My Love is like a Sinner learning to repent."

See, back to my point about Michael Anderson and his music.  I would love to include more lyrics and videos of his songs to go along with this blog, and they simply are not out there.  I originally had both Sound Alarm and the self titled album on cassette tape.  At some point I upgraded to CD, but they are long gone.  A few years ago I found Michael Anderson's website and ordered copies of these CDs, but they don't have the lyrics and thanks to streaming I no longer have any devices that play CDs!

The self-titled album is very different from Sound Alarm.  Michael Anderson on his website I think sums it up best:

"This record was done in Los Angeles with Michael Omartian-bit more polished."

Where "Sound Alarm" was rootsy and raspy, the Michael Anderson album was absolutely more polished.  Pop is not the correct description, it was by no means a pop record, but it is a lot smoother and yes more polished.  There is only one track on the follow up that reminds me of the first album and that is "Slip Away."  Sound Alarm was raw, the follow up was polished.  Despite not having that bluesy rock style I loved so much about the first album, the self-titled album was just as good, but the sound was very different.  Listening to the first tracks of each album: Sound Alarm vs. True Love is a great way to tell how these albums were different.  Once again the lyric were great and there were a variety of songs from the epic "Let It Rain" to the moving song about the sacrifices made by our military in "Heartbeat From Glory."  There was a very jazzy film noirish track "Raymond Chandler Said" and there was a very intense "Flame in the Fire."  But, I really loved how "Slip Away" brought everything back to the Michael Anderson music I initially fell in love with.

I have had a number of articles in the Mary Washington College newspaper during my 4 years there.  Many of the articles got some heated responses both positive and negative.  But for better or worse, most of what I wrote got reaction.  I wrote a very positive review of the self-titled album for the paper and got zero response.  And unfortunately, that is a microcosm of me being a fan of Michael Anderson.  Nobody knows who I am talking about.  I noticed a tweet from a former student of mine talking about 13 Reasons and "The Night We Met."  They tweeted how I used to play Lord Huron in the classroom everyday and now everyone is finally realizing I was correct about how great a band they were.  I also once had a student write an end of the year evaluation of my class and all they wrote about was how I "was right about Mumford and Sons," another band I talk about for months all the time before they got huge.  30 years later, other than a few emails to Michael Anderson himself, there is nobody for me to talk to about this great and powerful music.  The Mary Washington article just adds to the mystery.  I have copies of just about everything I ever wrote for the Mary Washington College Bullet, and yet for some reason my review of the second Michael Anderson album is not there.  To make matters worse, just like Michael Anderson's music, I can't find this article anywhere on the Internet.

Years went by and my musical tastes changed.  The late 90's saw the Wallflowers and Matchbox 20.  The 2000s were dominated and are still dominated by Mumford and Sons, Lumineers, Avett Brothers, and Lord Huron.  The constant in this musical thread are Del Amitri and The Who.  But I always wondered about Michael Anderson.  I never heard of him touring and I never saw or heard any new music.  Well to be honest, I felt like I was the only one who was hearing his music.  Outside of that day at Record World, my car, or my dorm room at Mary Washington: I have never heard a Michael Anderson song anywhere.

With the emergence of the Internet I finally got some clues about Michael Anderson.  He has a website and I learned that he had actually written a number of songs for other artists including "Blame it on Memphis."  It also seemed he had put out a couple of Christian albums.  I also found a lone review of "Sound Alarm" ranking it the #28 Christian Album of all time.

https://greatestchristianalbums.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/28-sound-alarm-michael-anderson/

So, again adding to the mystery about Michael Anderson.  Did he become a Christian artist or was he a Christian artist all along?  Was "Sound Alarm" a Christian Rock Album and I just didn't realize it?  Was the follow-up a Christian album?  Or did he try to rock albums and then turned to Christian rock?  I really don't know.  Again let me back track a bit....

I am not a Christian.  I am a New York Jew.  I don't listen to Christian music.  I had a roommate in college who loved Michael W. Smith and DC Talk and played it in the dorm room all the time, but I tuned it out.  I would never listen to Christian music.  Again, let me back track do I really not listen to Christian rock?  If "Sound Alarm" was really a Christian Rock album that I played for years and didn't realize was a Christian Rock album it would not be the last time it happened.

In 1995 I first heard the song "Flood" by Jars of Clay.  The Jars of Clay debut album was one of my favorite CDs of the that year and of the mid-1990s.

  I must have played that CD for about a year before I realized they were a Christian Rock band.  Fast forward to 2011, I heard "Drive All Night" by Needtobreathe.  I love that band.  I bought the Reckoning, I downloaded songs from before that 2011 release, and I bought the follow-up Rivers in the Wasteland.  I have even seen them in concert.  Once again, I did not realize I was listening to a Christian Rock band.  I had no idea that Needtobreathe was Christian Rock.

  So, if those two Michael Anderson albums were Christian rock, I have a track record of listening to some Christian Rock and not realizing it is Christian Rock.  But ultimately and more importantly good music is good music: That Jars of Clay CD was awesome, NeedtoBreathe is an awesome rock band and I highly highly highly recommend their albums both past and present.  The fact that I am non-Christian and that the Michael Anderson albums may indeed be Christian Rock has no impact on how much I love those two records.  Rock, Blues influenced Rock, Christian Rock, it does not matter, great music is great music.

On Michael Anderson's website there was a book on song writing, a short bio, and a link to a 2015 gospel album:

https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/michaelanderson5

According to his website the album is: " A collection of songs profoundly influenced by the Greater Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church of Los Angeles."

There is also a link to a 2006 collection of songs called "White Trash Shakespeare."  There is a song on that collection called "Temptation (In a Little Black Dress).  Like "Slip Away" this song, to me, reminds me so much of the sound of "Sound Alarm."  This track reminds me of that bluesy rootsy raspy sound that first drew me to Michael Anderson.

What I have not found on the website, or on the internet beyond that #28 Christian Album Review (which is a very informative review), or on YouTube or really anywhere is much about Michael Anderson and those first two albums.  How did he get signed by A&M?  Was he in a previous band?  Was he big in a particular area?  I doubt A&M just handed out recorded deals, so there must be part of his musical story before 1988 that I am missing.  I know "Sound Alarm" was released in 1988 and produced by Terry Manning.  I know the follow up was released in 1990, is self-titled, and was produced by Michael Omartian.  I know both albums were released on A&M records.  I know I love both of those albums very much.  But other than that, I know so little about these great records and the artist.  In 1983, as a little kid I watched an amazing New Year's eve concert by Big Country.  Today, I can go to YouTube and watch that same concert.  When I saw Justin Currie in Phoenix a few years ago, I got to be around fellow fans and got to sing along to all these great songs we all love so much, some of which are close to 30 years old.  I remember watching a lady next to me singing along to "Move Away Jimmy Blue" with tears in her eyes.  It was an amazing moment to sing along live with Justin Currie just a few feet in front of me here in Phoenix over 25 years after I first listened to that song, on tape, driving in my car along Route 110 on Long Island as a high school senior.  I wish I could have that moment where I was at a venue surrounded by Michael Anderson fans with tears in our eyes singing along to "Time to Go Home."  I wish I could go to YouTube and find a Michael Anderson concert from 1990 and watch him perform "Flame in the Fire."

Last October I went to one of the most amazing concerts I have ever been to.  It was the Lumineers, it was a fairly large venue and their was a connection between band and fans like I have never experienced.  Around 2010, I saw Mumford and Sons in a very small venue in Phoenix, just before they blew up big time.  The room held maybe 150 people and the ticket was 10$ bucks.  I remember you could feel it in the air that this band was going to blow up big time, it was electric.  I would see them less than a year later and the crowd went from 150 to 12,000.  In the six times I have been to giant stadiums to see The Who there is a magical connection between the music of The Who and myself, my brother, and my beloved uncle who passed away too soon.  I can listen to Big Country and commiserate on just how good they were, how they were screwed over in so many ways by the music industry and circumstances and how Stuart Adamson is gone too soon.  I can listen to my Del Amitri records and be grateful that I got to see them live 3x before they broke up and that there is such a strong online community of loyal fans to share our love of this band with.  I don't have any of that with Michael Anderson.  Even on Spotify there is very little presence.  There is a small website, a couple of grainy videos online, and my two burned copies of those first two albums.  I would have liked to have done a better job of selling just how good the music is on "Sound Alarm" and the self-titled album by posting lyric videos, and clips, and concert footage.  But I can't find it.  I have mentioned several times just how good "Time to Go Home" is and yet I can't find a single reference or mention of this song online anywhere!  Had I not walked into that Record World at the Walt Whitman Mall on that day or at that time would I have ever known that there was a Michael Anderson?  Would I have ever heard any of his music? How different would those mixed tapes that floated around the girls dorms at Mary Washington sounded between 1990-1994 without "Until You Loved Me" or "True Love?"

I can share my love for The Who with millions, I can share my love for Del Amitri with a small but loyal group of devoted fans on social media.  However, my love of those two Michael Anderson albums has been a solo project.