Big Country: A case of bad timing?

Scottish rock band was one of rock's great "not-quites"

As far as I know, I have no Scottish blood. On my father’s side, Polish and Russian. On my mother’s side, English and French-Canadian. Never was big on kilts or bagpipes or haggis (not even sure what it is.)

But the first time I heard the Scottish band Big Country, which I’m pretty sure was on trusty old MTV — remember the days you’d watch MTV for MUSIC? — I caught a New Year’s Eve performance from the band at a Scottish concert venue called Barrowlands and it just knocked me over. I’d heard their hit single, “In A Big Country” with their uplifting, inspiring video and loved the impassioned vocals of singer/songwriter/guitar hero Stuart Adamson, and right away, I had to hear more from this two guitar, rockin’ band of Scotsmen.

It wasn’t Southern rock like the Allmans or Lynyrd Skynrd, wasn’t British blues-based like Led Zeppelin or Cream, these were well-crafted, guitar-led songs from the Highlands, fresh, energetic, a whole different sound that some people heard as bagpipes-influenced and I heard as an alternative to the standard old rock and roll that seemed to be everywhere else. It was original, distinctive, electric music with fire.

Honestly, coming out of the chute, don’t tell Bono or The Edge but I liked them better than U2!

If you missed Big Country's "Steeltown" -- you're missing something!

Once I saw U2 at Red Rocks, that converted me and as I’ve written, I’ve loved the Irish band ever since. But I also really liked Big Country and didn’t really know anyone else who did. (Until Jeff Cameron a few months ago)

When I heard their second album, “Steeltown” - I hear it as an unofficial concept album — I couldn’t understand why their rise didn’t coincide with U2. True, they didn’t have a breakthrough album like “The Joshua Tree” and maybe their sound was a little too exotic for American ears, I don’t know. But they were a great band.

If you love guitar-oriented bands, thoughtful, well-constructed songs with some snappy, kick-ass guitar playing, how could a band like that miss? Comparatively speaking, they did. They sold some records, did some tours but to me, they should have been much bigger than they were.

There were a few radio hits on their first album, “The Crossing” - “In A Big Country” and “Fields Of Fire” and to me, “Steeltown” was an even better album with “Where The Rose Is Sown” as a potential hit single that never really took off.

They kept recording and the albums kept coming. “The Seer,” the hard-rockin’ “The Buffalo Skinners” all the way to “Why The Long Face,” there wasn’t a bad album in the bunch. And yet, America could care less.

I didn’t get it and when I mentioned them to my music-listening friends, all I got back was “Oh yeah, they’re the band that sounds like bagpipes.” Not to me.

Because they were an acquired taste, there wasn’t a lot of publicity about them, not after the first album. So it was a surprise to me when I learned that Stuart Adamson, their gifted lead singer, songwriter and guitarist had some serious problems with drugs and alcohol or alcohol and drugs, however you want to put it, whichever came first. There were off-stage issues with the band, things weren’t running as smoothly as it sounded to me, once they were in a recording studio.

A great live band, they threw out some live albums, even did an album of covers called “Eclectic” which included a killer version of Roxy Music’s “Prairie Rose” — they loved Roxy Music, too. Kept working, recording, not really going anywhere on the charts like I thought they should have.

Then came the horrific news that Adamson had died, killed himself by hanging in the Best Western in Honolulu, nine days before Christmas in 2001. Wasn’t he the guy who hollered out “Stay alive!” in his first hit, “In A Big Country”? Sadly, why couldn’t he didn’t take his own advice?

It made me wonder how alone and lost he must have felt being in a paradise like Hawaii, a guy from the hills of Scotland, troubled with drink and maybe drugs — who knows — going back to his room at the Best Western and deciding to end it all. How the love of his fans — and they were devoted, too — and his family wasn’t enough to keep him going, to get over this awful hump.

You wonder if, at some point, he looked at the success of U2 and maybe R.E.M. or Roxy Music, bands like them that weren’t following the conventional musical path and wondered why his band didn’t quite catch on the way theirs did. Ever feel like you’ve poured your heart and soul into something you’re proud of and it pretty much goes nowhere. Hey, I recently got a royalty of 14 cents for selling a copy of book that sells for $25. I can relate.

Unlike some of these troubled artists, whose aches and depressions are all over their recorded work — Neil Young, Lou Reed, Steve Earle, Kurt Cobain, Paul Westerberg and I could keep going — Adamson’s music never hinted at that sort of anguish. At least, if it did, I never heard it.

Sensitive, reflective, almost gentle at times, Stuart Adamson almost came out firing on all cylinders, writing stirring, innovative, guitar-led songs all the way to the end. Give “Buffalo Skinners” or “Why The Long Face” a spin and see if you can hear otherwise because I can’t.

What’s left of the band, Bruce Watson, Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki have done some touring, trying to keep the name of the band alive. But without Stuart Adamson, it just ain’t the same.

Maybe it’s just me. My unusual eclectic music tastes landed me in Big Country and I’m glad they did. I wish Stuart Adamson knew how much his music touched so many. And I wish he listened to himself more closely on their biggest hit.

Here are a couple of Big Country clips that I certainly loved and thought I’d share. I found the full Barrowlands concert that played on MTV that introduced me to the band and here as is the entire “Steeltown” album. If you have a few minutes and want to honor a terrific Scottish rock band and remember their unique sound, give ‘em a listen.

I did again this afternoon. They still sound great. And not like bagpipes.

HERE’S THE BARROWLANDS NEW YEAR’S EVE SHOW I SAW ON MTV

LINKS TO STEELTOWN, WHICH MAY BE EVEN BETTER THAN THE CROSSING