SEPTEMBER - Dreams & Lessons (1987) [bootleg CD]

Founded by bothers Russ & Doug Kirkland and their sister Dale, the St. Louis-based band SEPTEMBER was already featured on this blog some years ago with their second album Lines Are Falling.
"Dreams & Lessons" - from 1987 - was the band's last release and musically the most complete in my opinion, mixing classic '80s AOR with Melodic Rock and some Westcoast touches.

Both Russ and Dale share lead vocals most the time providing a very nice counterpoint on the varied material on offer here, as the Toto-esque "It Hurts Me", the highly harmonized midtempo "If You Believe", the poppy "Over My Wing", and the hardest rocking track on the record; "Stand Up Follow Me".
Dale leads solely on the Tane Cain sounding "Heaventime", while Russ does the same on the anthemic "Checkin' My Six" (somehow akin John Parr), the Starship-like rocker "I Fool Me" and the ballad "Sean's Song".
September even flirts with hi-tech stylings on "Animal Land", plenty of keyboards all over.



Unlike the more known groups from the CCM movement, September remained independent releasing their material through their own Sugar Records label. That's why their LP's are so hard to find and never were reissued on CD.
This is a rare, limited bootleg CD edition of "Dreams & Lessons" which sounds million bucks.
Get it while it's hot...


01 - It Hurts Me
02 - If You Believe
03 - Over My Wing
04 - Heaventime
05 - Sean's Song
06 - Animal Land
07 - I Fool Me
08 - Checkin' My Six
09 - Stand Up Follow Me

Dale Kirkland - Lead vocals, Keyboards
Russ Kirkland - Lead vocals, Synth, Electric Piano
Doug Kirkland - Keyboards, Vocals
John Hayes, Rob Williams, Scott Payne - Guitar
Jim Bullard, Jay Hungerford - Bass
Carl Albrecht - Drums, Percussion




SEPTEMBER Dreams & Lessons bootleg CD
.

SEPTEMBER - Lines Are Falling (1984)

SEPTEMBER was a project of the Kirkland brothers Dale, Russ & Doug, all from a Christian family, that's why this band has a CCM background (CCM=Contemporary Christian Music).
But don't be scared if you're not religious, song lyrics are cool and the music is a wimpy and nice Lite AOR / Melodic pop-rock.

Lead vocals are shared between the bros, alternating their roles song by song.
This is their 3rd album, and overall sounds like classic commercial early 80's AOR bands.
The opener "Lines are falling" is a clear example of the above mentioned, a good female fronted AOR rocker that reminds me TANE CAIN solo album, while "Ready to live" is a beautiful candy-floss keyboard driven song with pounding drums.

Side B of this album only released on vinyl is better in my opinion.
Starts with "Never never", reminds me T. CAIN again, especially the vocal intonation and the amazing synths [Prophet 5].
"Somethin's comin" has a very good old style guitar playin' in charge of Scott Payne (lead guitars). Check this out... good pickin' !
But my definitive favorite here (altough all tracks are good) is "Hold your ground"... awesome song! Think PAUL DELPH + BENNY MARDONES and you got it, really good electric piano [Rhodes] playing too.

This record was requested by a reader in the 'REQUEST & FILL CORNER 2' section (NorthSwede this is for you!) and I had forgotten how good it is, long time no listening.
So I've decided to clean up the vinyl scratchs & clicks, and now sounds really, really good.
A true rarity (and a good one), hard to find, even between CCM collectors.
Don't miss it...


01 - Lines Are Falling
02 - Too Little Time
03 - Ready To Live
04 - Calling For You
05 - Night Song
06 - Never Never
07 - Somethin's Comin'
08 - You Don't Love Me
09 - Hold Your Ground
10 - Far From There


Dale Kirkland - Lead vocals, Percussion
Russ Kirkland - Lead vocals, Synth, Electric Piano
Scott Payne - Guitar
Chuck Kofahl - Guitar
Jim Bullard - Bass
Carl Albrecht - Drums



DOWNLOAD