Album review : BIG COUNTRY – Driving To Damascus (Deluxe 4CD boxset)

Cherry Red [Release date: 30.6.23]

The late great Stuart Adamson and his band, Big Country, made an indelible musical mark on UK popular culture before the man’s untimely demise. The history is well documented.

The nineties was a hugely fertile decade of activity for the band … releasing four outstanding albums from 1991 to 1999, peaking with 1999’s Driving To Damascus, their last with Adamson. All gaining critical approval, if not commercial success.

Adamson had moved to the USA in 1995, and so his new environment had a huge influence on the songs he was writing.

This 4 CD boxset comprises the original Driving To Damascus album (plus The Nashville Sessions), a disc of B sides and edits, and two discs of demos/alt mixes.

It’s clear from the opening (and title) track that Adamson is aiming to evoke something of the USA’s deep south mythology. His exaggerated southern boy drawl, undercut by a melancholy keyboard motif, takes a bit of getting used to, but the song, epic in scale, is one the band’s best.

And so we learn, quickly, as we move through the album, that Adamson and the band have moved firmly away from last decade’s blazing Celtic stomp, toward a more intimate, almost arthouse style. ‘See You’ and ‘Fragile’ (the vocals shadowed by Eddi Reader’s sweet counterpoint) both enjoy sophisticated melodies, rich in colour and mood. As good as if not better than anything ever recorded by the band, it seemed like a new beginning.

The approach allowed for the freedom to record “The Nashville Sessions”, comprising 6 tracks (including ‘Chance’ and ‘Look Away’) laid down in the style of a radio session… live with only the occasional overdub. These tracks are included on CD1.

B sides are always interesting, but it’s probably the demos/alt mixes that will raise most interest, with quite different mixes of ‘Somebody Else’ (written with Ray Davies), ‘Trouble The Waters’, ‘Dive Into Me’ and several other songs spread across the 36 tracks on CDs 3 and 4.

As a wide ranging collection, with its focus on one outstanding album, Driving To Damascus Deluxe confirms itself to be a magnificently apposite tribute to Adamson.

His music lives on. *****

Review by Brian McGowan

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

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