Bob Lefsetz: Welcome To My World - "Big Sky Country"

One track can build a reputation and cement a career.

Chris Whitley's "Living With The Law" was released in 1991, almost a decade before the Napster era, when if radio didn't play it most people didn't know it. There was no YouTube clip to click, no free Spotify tier, you had to buy it to know it, or know someone who played it for you, otherwise it's like it didn't even exist.

As great as Chris Whitley was, what made that debut so haunting and striking was Malcolm Burn's production, it was like the record was cut in the next room over, but there was no door, you could hear it, feel it, you wanted to get closer but there was no access, only mystery, who cut this? And, this also being the pre-internet era we didn't know much about Chris Whitley, we were in the dark, all we had were these songs.

And "Big Sky Country" is not the only great track on "Living With The Law," I point you especially to "Poison Girl," and be sure to listen to the opening, title cut, "Living With The Law," which is anything but a single, what balls to start the record with something other than a hit.

But next up was the killer, "Big Sky Country."

Kind of like "Royals," you're enraptured by "Big Sky Country" from the very first note. It's a missive from another world that you just want to inhabit, something music used to strive for before everybody was looking for endorsements and was more interested in being a celebrity than being a musician.

"Now when this is over, over and through When all the changes have come and passed"

Mmm... He's talking about the future, in a world that's positively focused on the present. And what is it that's going to happen in the interim? Is he in trouble, is it law trouble or love trouble or... We just don't know.

"I want to meet you in the Big Sky Country"

Montana owns that moniker, but Whitley seems to be referencing a state of mind more than a particular place. Well, somewhere where the law doesn't interfere, where you can stretch out and be yourself.

"I wanna prove, mama, love can last, yes"

Can it? I don't know. But there was that article in the "New York Times" that said women look forward, but men are all about regret, they concentrate on the one that got away. The love burns on in their heart.

"Like hallelujah in the Big Sky Country"

This is the line you remember. The expression of exuberance.

And there are more words, but there's also guitar-playing, ethereal slide while the title is sung over and over again, allowing you to ponder...the song, the place, the playing... You can do nothing but queue this track up again.

And it's stuck in your head. It certainly plays whenever you think of Montana.

And it's private, it's yours, but you're also a member of a club. Those who know "Big Sky Country" and those who don't.

And if you don't, WELCOME TO YOUR INITIATION!