Description

Drowning with Land in Sight is the sixth studio album by the American rock band The Seventy Sevens, released on Myrrh Records in 1994, a division of Word. The album was recorded by band member David Leonhardt at Mom’s Sewing Room in Sacramento, California; with the band producing. Mixed by Steve Griffith of Vector fame at Mom’s Sewing Room.

One cannot overstate the impact of Drowning With Land in Sight and Pray Naked, the band’s previous album, on the Christian alternative rock movement. Drowning With Land in Sight was tagged by CCM Magazine critic Greg Rumburg as “the struggle of life through a Christian lens, cloaked in rockin’ music.” “We spent a lot of time rehearsing for (the album) and playing together. It wasn’t hard to play; it was just hard to write and stay in emotionally. That was the part that was hard.” – Michael Roe, HM Magazine March/April ’94 interview. (Trivia: Word had “Dave’s Blues,” a track about guitarist David Leonhardt’s illness with cancer, originally recorded to include the line “this ol’ world has kicked my ass,” remixed and the offending line replaced with that section of the vocal track played in reverse.)

The fun begins with an incinerary cover of Led Zeppelin’s «Nobody’s Fault But Mine». On Zeppelin’s version, the drive ebbs in and out, and the band (Robert Plant, in particular) sounds a bit weary. The Sevens’ version easily upstages the original, fading in suspensefully before it proceeds to kick your miserable butt all over the room for five minutes. The thorough butt whooping continues with «Snowblind» and «Snake». Along the way, the band presents a few gritty blues songs, and some great undistorted mid-tempo ditties before it begins its exit with two masterful, broken-hearted ballads, «The Jig is Up» and «Alone Together». Mike has always been the king of “nyah” adolescent attitude, and still is even in his early forties. The attitude has always been a huge selling point for the Sevens, and here it permeates the whole album so perfectly and appropriately – as mentioned, the planets must have aligned. [Dallas Music]

Perhaps more than any other Christian rock band, The 77s have consistently featured songs which are the musical embodiment of Paul’s confession in Romans 7:19 – “The good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” Few artists have described that struggle as graphically as The 77s. Drowning … continues in that vein, coupling brutally honest lyrics with music which (except for a few moody pop numbers that acts as a breather) is steeped in bone-crunching blues/rock.

The album opens with the band’s woofer-rattling version of Blind Willie Johnson‘s «Nobody’s Fault But Mine» (via Led Zeppelin), long a concert staple for the Sevens. Like many blues themes, its moral is simple – “I got a Bible in my house/ If I don’t read it and my soul dies/ Well, it’s nobody’s fault but mine.” Following that, «Snowblind» illustrates the pain and shame we feel when the darkness in our lives is exposed to the light, while «Snake» is a metaphor not only for Satan, but for anything which would distract us from our relationship with Christ. «Indian Winter», with its intriguing Middle Eastern modality, offers a backdrop for the realization that despite our plans, our lives often turn out quite differently than we imagine they will.

A bit of a musical respite finally comes with «Film at 11», a pop-based tune which again belies its melancholy subject, a seemingly impassable rift between lovers. After a short instrumental break, it’s headlong into the blues again, with «Cold Cold Night», a bit more caustic look at a broken realtionship; still, singer Mike Roe vows to keep his “love fire burning” in case reconciliation can happen – the extended coda features some of Roe’s best fretwork. «Dave’s Blues» points to the need for reconciliation of a different type, as the singer realizes that “I’m caught in this world/ Heaven sent but hell possessed …I do believe I finally need a savior at last.” Again, some radical riffing is turned in by Roe. Drummer Aaron “A-Train” Smith does a brief, military-styled solo which leads into a pair of pretty pop numbers; one with the unlikely title «The Jig is Up», the other called «Alone Together». A troubled relationship haunts both these songs, as in the former tune, Roe sings, “I’m in the poorhouse forever/ I’m in the doghouse forever and ever with you,” while in the latter song, he laments “When you found me, I was one man/ Now we’re two who won’t become one for the life of me.” The album’s closer, the acoustic-based «For Crying out Loud» (which sounds like a Lost Dog out-take), invites the listener to “Look up/ Cry out/ Don’t be afraid to scream, gotta let it all come out … You’ve both been waiting for this day for a long time now.”

Though the lion’s share of the attention is focused on Roe’s vocal and lead guitar, mention must be made of the terrific support of guitarist (and co-songwriter) David Leonhardt and bassist Mark Harmon who, together with Smith, make this 77’s best album to date, one which will hopefully take the band beyond critical acclaim to long overdue commercial success. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, May 1994]

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CD tracklist:

01. Nobody’s Fault But Mine – 6:14
02. Snowblind – 3:48
03. Snake – 4:47
04. Indian Winter – 5:53
05. Film At 11 – 4:09
06. Mezzo (instrumental) – 2:51
07. Cold Cold Night – 6:07
08. Dave’s Blues – 4:22
09. Sounds O’ Autumn – 1:50
10. The Jig Is Up – 4:12
11. Alone Together – 6:14
12. For Crying Out Loud – 3:59

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Myrrh Records. Remastered and re-issued by Lo-Fidelity Records as a Deluxe 2 CD in July 2018 (includes the original album with a second disc of bonus tracks + 16 page booklet featuring extensive liner notes by Michael Roe and outtake photos from the original “Drowning” photo shoots). Also released as a 12-inch vinyl double LP for the first time by Lo-Fidelity Records in 2018, housed in a deluxe gatefold jacket. Available at Bandcamp: https://the77s.bandcamp.com/album/drowning-with-land-in-sight-deluxe-remaster

Drowning With Land in Sight (Deluxe Remaster) 2CD Set, Lo-Fidelity Records, March 7, 2018. – Fully remastered with a second disc of bonus tracks, the Limited Edition 2 CD set is housed in a 6 panel deluxe digipak with art restored from the original CD release. The 2 CD set, entitled Drowning With Land In Sight + Water Runs Up, features a total of 26 tracks (12 original + 14 bonus) and a 16 page booklet containing an extensive essay from Michael Roe on the recording of the album plus never-before-seen photos from the era. This is the album as the band had originally intended to release it, before the record company got involved back in 1994. (A DVD entitled Drowning Naked was released as well, featuring over 4 hours of live footage from the Pray Naked/Drowning era of the 77s, cut together by Todd Zeller from EdenZFilms.)

On August 30, 2018 the album was released on vinyl for the first time by Lo-Fidelity Records through a Kickstarter campaign. Released as a 12-inch vinyl double LP housed in a deluxe gatefold jacket. (Pressed as Limited Edition Splatter 180 gram vinyl, as Limited Edition Transparent Green 180 gram vinyl, and as Limited Edition White & Blue 180 gram vinyl.)

Drowning With Land in Sight – Deluxe Edition, Lo-Fidelity Records 2018

Michael Roe and his 77s have always been about honestly reflecting where they are as people, and the band’s 1994 opus Drowning With Land in Sight is no different. Take a second to deal with that title. The cover, as originally released, depicts a playground slide in the middle of the ocean, basically a short ride to nowhere. You can feel the hopelessness just radiating off this thing. And it makes sense – Drowning catches the 77s as guitarist David Leonhardt began his battle with cancer and Roe watched his marriage fall apart.

The album is in no way a slog, but it is difficult. It opens with a note-for-note cover of Led Zeppelin’s rewrite of «Nobody’s Fault But Mine», Roe performing the Robert Plant and Jimmy Page parts himself. It’s a track the band didn’t want to include here – the record company made them – but it sets the tone well. What follows is a barrage of fiery ‘90s-style guitar rock with titles like «Snowblind» and «Snake», and it’s some of the most vicious material Roe and his band have ever put down on tape.

The record gets more diverse as it goes along, with the pretty «Film at Eleven» (a heartbreak song that could have fit on the previous album, Pray Naked), the instrumental «Mezzo» and the Rolling Stones riff «Cold, Cold Night» coming in rapid succession. But it never gets less bleak, and this reissue restores it to its even more bleak original running order, removing «For Crying Out Loud», the one ray of hope. (Like «Nobody’s Fault», its inclusion was mandated by a nervous, meddling record company.) Drowning now ends with its two saddest songs, «The Jig is Up» and «Alone Together», both of which are about Roe’s divorce. Both of these songs are almost inhumanly beautiful, too, and the record leaves you hollowed out. (Don’t worry, «For Crying Out Loud» is included as a track on the bonus disc.)

The 77s, at this point in their evolution, were an incredible rock band, and Roe has always been one of the world’s most underrated guitarists. And it’s a good thing, too, because the powerfully alive music keeps you going through one heartbreaking sentiment after another. «Dave’s Blues» is a shimmying powerhouse that hides a tough lyric about Leonhardt’s cancer, punctuated by the line “this ol’ world has kicked my ass,” an honest assessment that the record company censored. (The line is here in all its glory on the reissue.) «The Jig is Up» marries a swaying folk melody to lyrics of absolute isolation.

There is no light at the end of this tunnel. Drowning With Land in Sight documents a spiral, catching Roe and his cohorts at a moment in which they didn’t know what to believe, or why. It’s a record full of turmoil, one with no easy answers, so you can imagine the disdain with which it was greeted in the Christian marketplace. But that honesty makes it one of my favorites in the band’s extensive catalog. It’s a searching, difficult piece of work, and I love it for that. [Andre Salles, Tuesday Morning 3 a.m., September 25, 2018]

CREDITS. Produced by The 77s. Recorded by David Leonhardt at Mom’s Sewing Room, Sacramento, CA. Additional recording at Paradise Studios, Sacramento, CA, by Kirt Shearer, Craig Long, and Barry Dixon. Mixed by Steve Griffith at Mom’s Sewing Room. Mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA. Guitar Technician And Equipment Guru: Howie Brisco. Art Direction by Diana Barnes. Design by Anne Burdick. Photography by Susan Burdick. Band Photography by Ann Cutting. Cover Photography by Margo Chase. Executive Producer: Gene Eugene and Ojo Taylor. This album is dedicated to Jan Eric.

Musicians: Michael Roe (Guitar, Vocals, Blues Harp, Mandolin), David Leonhardt (Guitar), Mark Harmon (Bass, Vocals, Keyboards), Aaron Smith (The Most Pounding and Thrashing Ever).