Spring 1984. The song "In a Big Country" hits the US airwaves and I find a new band to obsess over.
My first reaction to the song was "cool, bagpipes!" It wasn't long after that I found out that the bagpipe sound was created by engineering the guitar work of Stuart Adamson (lead singer) and Bruce Watson. That discovery didn't diminish my love for the song or the album as a whole. In fact, this album stayed on my turntable for weeks after I bought it.
I feverishly picked up 12" singles form the album, including what I always thought was their saddest and most haunting song called "Chance". Mixes back then primarily consisted of just lengthening the original song with a few flourishes, but Chance changed up the chorus entirely and made it even more poignant than the album version. Other standout tracks included Harvest Home, Fields of Fire (their second US single), and Parrohman. I found the CD in a bargain bin years later and snatched it up...I was never one to convert very much of my vinyl to CD (or mp3 for that matter), but this one was worth it.
I slowly lost touch with the group after their second album Steeltown. Maybe the bagpipe sound kind of lost it's charm by then.
The band stopped touring recording and touring in 1999. The lead singer Stuart Adamson's untimely death in 2001 put an end to any hope of another Big Country release.
Just like the vinyl version years ago, the CD has been in my car for a few weeks now. It's like calling up and catching up with an old friend.
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