Alexander Harvey
Every Now And Then I Have To Cry
Buddah
1977

Most things aren’t what they seem.  Can we all agree on that?  A simple rule is: never trust appearances.  The first thought is a deceiver.  Throw it out.  And the second.  Rely, if you must, on the third or forth.  Fifth is better, sixth better still.  Mistrust intuition.  Argue against your own opinions.

When I first saw this record in a 50 cent box I passed it by.  The name, I thought, was familiar but it wasn’t for me.  I had a vague thought that he was a British rock and roller…

Do you see how wrong first impressions are?  Do you see how arrogant we are?  How we think we know things when really we know nothing?

I thought again about Alexander Harvey.  I seemed to remember a little something.  I did some more thinking, some asking around.  And of course my first thought had been wrong.  There were two Alexander Harveys, one American, one British.  The American was a Nashville based songwriter who wrote ‘’Delta Dawn’ and ‘Rueben James’ and ‘Tulsa Turnaround’.  He also made a great run of solo records.  As Billy Edd Wheeler said: you’ve given us music about peepers and people … with a voice that life and joy and hurt and loving gave you.

This record, Alexander Harvey’s fourth, is a masterpiece of southern melancholy.  The album cover doesn’t look like it.  The album title (Purple Crush) doesn’t sound like it.  Nothing about this record is what it appears.

Another simple rule: buy this record.  Don’t let yourself tell you not to.  You may think you’re smart but you’re not.  You’re human.  Don’t listen to yourself, don’t listen to me, listen to Alexander Harvey singing ‘Every Now And Then I Have To Cry’.

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