Chris Isaak: In Love Again

I still remember the first time I heard Chris Isaak, way back in 1990. I was working in the back room at

Main and the radio was turned on at low volume. I heard this haunting melody, this voice, and wondered, "Wow, what is that?" It was "Wicked Game", a song I'm sure most of you have heard. The video is also pretty famous (or infamous; I always like to say every American male of a certain age is familiar with the video!) I remember going to Zip's to pick up the cd that Wicked Game was on (Heart Shaped World), but they didn't have it. They did have the album that was released previous to Heart Shaped World, the self-titled Chris Isaak (1986). There are some great tracks on that one, including "Blue Hotel", "You Owe Me Some Kind of Love" (awesome video), "Lover's Game", and "Lie To Me". In some ways I think this album has held up better over the years than Heart Shaped World.

Here's my "I met Chris Isaak" story. "Wicked Game" was quickly becoming a huge single...
KRQ used to do a Christmas benefit every year, usually with a semi-big name. It was November 1990, and that year's benefit starred Donny Osmond (I kid you not) and Chris Isaak. I was so excited, but....the benefit was aired during the morning show, which meant things got under way at around, oh, 7 AM! I was an 18 year old college student at the time and the idea of being ANYWHERE at seven in the morning wasn't my idea of a good time. But.....it was Chris Isaak! You bet I got up early (and ditched my morning classes.) There was Donny Osmond, at a huge red-velvet draped table with a long line of fans waiting to greet him. And where was Chris Isaak? At a little card table off to the side, by the entryway to the kitchen, with about 20 people in line to meet him. I brought along my Chris Isaak cd to be autographed and when I handed it to him, he said, "Wow! Where did you get this?" I told him I had wanted to buy the cd with "Wicked Game" on it but the stores were sold out and this was all I could find. Both he and his drummer, Kenney Dale Johnson autographed my cd and I had my picture taken with Chris. Let's just say we both look like it's seven in the morning!

I've stayed a Chris Isaak fan since then and have seen him live twice. We don't have an extensive collection

of his albums, but we do have what many consider to be his masterpiece, 1995's Forever Blue. I've blogged about the album before, so I won't get into a huge discussion here. The album he released after that, 1996's Baja Sessions, is a personal favorite of mine. I often play this at parties and I remember making certain it

was in the rotation for my brother's wedding rehearsal dinner. Perfect for mellow springtime listening and

just plain PRETTY.

His most recent album, Beyond The Sun, took me some time to get into...two years, in fact. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get into it when it first came out. I think part of the issue is that it's an album of mostly covers, and it just seemed like a cop-out to me. Chris has always been compared to Elvis and Roy Orbison, and although you can definitely hear those influences I always thought Chris was pretty good at doing his own thing, which was why I was somewhat annoyed   when I first heard Beyond The Sun. I decided to give it another try this weekend and am I glad I did. As I said, it's mostly an album of covers of Johnny Cash, Elvis, and Jerry Lee Lewis, recorded at Sun Studios where these legends originally recorded the songs. I've always loved Elvis' "Trying To Get To You" and now I'm in love with Chris' version as well. He also does covers of "I Forgot To Remember To Forget", "Can't Help Falling In Love", Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" (fantastic), Carl Perkins' "Dixie Fried", Jimmy Wages' "Miss Pearl", and Johnny Cash's "I Walk The Line". I ended up playing the album non stop this weekend.

So glad I gave you another chance, Mr. Isaak!

Until next time,
GingerMusicKid