As far as I am concerned the single most underrated band of all time is the legendary Scottish quartet, Big Country. They are known primarily for the infectious single, "In A Big Country", which was the first song on their first album. Often considered a bit of a novelty piece, due to its almost exaggerated Scottishisms, this band was far more than that, and they proceeded to display that on a further eight albums, as well as a vault reveal that has nearly doubled the band's songwriting output. Leader and principal songwriter, Stuart Adamson, had cut his teeth as the guitar player in The Skids before following his own vision and he quickly transformed into one of the most literate, thought-provoking songsmiths of his generation. His tragic death in 2001 hit me harder than any other musician's death this side of Jerry Garcia, but his words and songs live on forever.

I will never forget my earliest experience with Big Country. Their first album dropped when I was nine years old and I can't say that I recall anything about it at the time except that I would see references to them, by older kids that I knew. But it wasn't until I was in high school that I came across their debut album, The Crossing, in the budget bin at Record Mart. It was a Sunday evening and my family was starting to wind down before the new week. I put that record on the turntable in my bedroom and, literally, my life was never the same. I wish I could go back to the moment that I first heard that album. It was one of those feelings that my life was all of a sudden so much more complete, that the songs and sounds on that album were so blindingly obvious, I couldn't believe that it was only my first time hearing it. To this day, that album still gives me chills - it is one of those timeless classics (though these days I more often reach for their second album, Steeltown). Soon, I was scouring all the record stores for every album, 12" single, CD, whatever I could find for this band, and I followed them very closely throughout their entire recording career.

To this day, along with a very select few others, this band always feels like home.

There have been several instances over the years where I have worked up some of Adamson's songs, and I have performed both "In A Big Country" and "Fragile Thing" on stage. This particular session was found on a CDR that had no date information. While I am pretty sure it was recorded in The Room in maybe 2015 or 2016. I have absolutely no recollection of this particular session. It is, however, very typical of the kind of thing that I would do, as I have done so with many other artists (as evidenced by some of the other titles in this collection). Most of these songs are ones that were learned on the spot, for the sake of this session, and it definitely shows. I won't go anywhere near claiming that I am doing any sort of justice to these songs, but it was fun and it was cathartic and that's what it's all about.

As far as a set of songs goes, it is hard to come up with a better body of work than this, but the song list of this session barely scratches the surface of Big Country, one of the absolute top, most important bands in my entire life. Everyone should dig a little deeper into this band.

-CA, 4/3/20