#29 Red Wanting Blue: These Magnificent Miles
Red Wanting Blue first released These Magnificent Miles independently in 2008 as the band’s eighth full-length album. The title was a nod to the band’s lifestyle, a perpetual ride through the country performing night after night as if they were members of the circus coming to town.For the members of Red Wanting Blue, the music industry is exactly like a circus; it’s a world of dreams, a place where everything is seen through the wonder of a child, a new town every night, and a funhouse where anything can happen. Unlike bands that curse the distance logged on tour, Red Wanting Blue cherishes each mile and treats the road as a badge of honor because each mile is proof of their survival.
Oh you can’t be in the circus
If you don’t wanna leave town
No destination’s too far from us now
-- “Where You Wanna Go”
Years of patience and hard work earned them a deal with Fanatic Records (EMI/Caroline) and a rerelease of These Magnificent Miles nationally in 2010. To go along with the compact disc, Fanatic also issued a deluxe double-LP edition which included full-color LP sleeves in a gatefold jacket featuring the art of John Terry (brother of the band’s lead singer Scott Terry).
As if destiny was in the cards, film director Ken Davenport was alongside the band during the recording of the album. The recording process, traveling on the road, and those precious moments in time just before a band gets signed formed the basis of a documentary called These Magnificent Miles: On The Long Road With Red Wanting Blue.
Highlights include “You’re My Las Vegas,” “Where You Wanna Go,” “The World Is Over,” “Finger In The Air,” “Red Ryder,” “The Air I Breathe,” “Spacetime,” “Probably Nothing,” and “The Band.”
From the book Are You Listening? The Top 100 Albums of 2001-2010 by New Jersey Artists by Gary Wien
Gary Wien has been covering the arts since 2001 and has had work published with Jersey Arts, Elmore Magazine, Princeton Magazine, Backstreets and other publications. He is a three-time winner of the Asbury Music Award for Top Music Journalist and the author of Beyond the Palace (the first book on the history of rock and roll in Asbury Park) and Are You Listening? The Top 100 Albums of 2001-2010 by New Jersey Artists. In addition, he runs New Jersey Stage and the online radio station The Penguin Rocks. He can be contacted at gary@newjerseystage.com.
