Big Country - The Crossing

For a while producer Steve Lillywhite was a machine. From his earlier work with Peter Gabriel to U2, where I first read his name in their liner notes, the guy was at the helm of some incredible albums. Then in the summer of '83 a very strange song hit the airwaves. "In a Big Country" was big and bombastic and had these melt your face electric bagpipes. A lot of people really liked this song. It was a big hit going top five here in Canada, and the album went platinum here and in the UK and gold in the US.

Being the contrarian I treated their hit the way I treated songs by Culture Club. I just turned it off or changed the station. Still there was a begrudging respect. These guys were proud Scots and their mix of traditional and rock music was quite frankly pretty freakin' awesome.

One of the cool things now in listening to this album in it's entirety for the first time is how cohesive the songs are as listening experience. I love that the credits actually highlight both Bruce and Stuart's use of an E-bow, which is used to great effect throughout the album. An E-bow is essentially a small hand held sustainer you hold over the bridge pick up and it acts as a virtual bow allowing you to have endless notes (sustain, hence it being a sustainer) with harmonic overtones. I have one, and to get really good at it takes practice. I need more practice.

I remember my old roommate playing a cassette copy of their follow up Steeltown that I liked at the time. Still, for most people, and I'll have to lump myself in this category too, The Crossing is the album people associate with the band.

It is a solid album and if I find more from their discography in the bins I'll pick them up. This one only took me just shy of forty years to pick up.

Sadly Stuart Adamson took his life in 2001 - he was only 43.

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