Blue Healer (Raphaels) Live - First Show Ever - Douglas Corner Cafe, Nashville, 1998

This amazing document is the very first show ever from the collaboration of Stuart Adamson and Marcus Hummon. Unlike the Big Country show from Nashville in 1999, I did not film this.

At this point, the band was still calling itself "Blue Healer." To be honest, I'm not even sure they'd settled on THAT name yet. They would soon change that name to "The Raphaels." You could tell how excited both Stuart and Marcus were here as they debut their new songs, most of which would later appear on their first and only album release.

There's some great banter here, too, and also a very touching poetry reading from Stuart that, in hindsight, will hit very close to home among his fans. The poem in question is by Wendell Berry, and it's called "Requiem." The portion Stuart reads is as follows:

We will see no more
the mown grass fallen behind him
on the still ridges before night,
or hear him laughing in the crop rows,
or know the order of his delight.

Though the green fields are my delight,
elegy is my fate. I have come to be
survivor of many and of much
that I love, that I won't live to see
come again into this world.

Things that mattered to me once
won't matter any more,
for I have left the safe shore
where magnificence of art
could suffice my heart

Those last three lines especially hit hard.

But hopefully this show won't be viewed as something that's too sad. It's a really interesting look at the very beginnings of a project that really seemed to be inspiring Stuart. We even see a brief glimpse of Ian Grant at the end.

Enjoy.

1. Soundcheck (Shattered Cross)
2. Old Country Country
3. Simple Man
4. My Blue Rose
5. Shattered Cross
6. Stuart Poetry Reading
7. Broken Road
8. The Flight of the Haggis (a.k.a. The Travelers)
9. Private Battlefield
10. Too Many Ghosts
11. Supernatural
12. In a Big Country
13. Stuart message to someone named Andy