Lights from the Valley

Lights from the Valley
Studio album by Chilliwack
Released 1978
Recorded Mushroom Studios, Vancouver
Genre Rock
Length 36:02
Label Mushroom Records
Producer Bill Henderson, Ross Turney & Marc Gilutin
Chilliwack chronology

Dreams, Dreams, Dreams
(1977)		 Lights from the Valley
(1978)		 Breakdown in Paradise
(1979)

Lights from the Valley is the seventh album by the Canadian rock band Chilliwack, released in the summer of 1978; the album marked the recording debut of Brian MacLeod with the band.

Intended to consolidate the success of the precedent Dreams, Dreams, Dreams album, Lights from the Valley was somewhat of a disappointment, as it only did about as well as its predecessor. The album was recorded twice, as the label rejected the original version as insufficiently commercial; MacLeod and outside producer Marc Gilutin were added to the group for the second go-round, and none of the old recordings were used. However, the group, which had held together for many albums, disintegrated during these redone sessions, with everyone except MacLeod and Bill Henderson quitting by the end. The financial problems at Mushroom Records (Canada) due to litigation with the rock band Heart also caused Lights from the Valley to be underpromoted.

The album's title derives from the lyrics of its lead single "Arms of Mary", the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver song and "In Love with a Look" were, at Gilutin's urging, the first outside material Chilliwack had recorded since the outfit had changed their name from the Collectors in 1970. "Arms of Mary" became the fourth single by Chilliwack to reach the Billboard Hot 100 but like the band's precedent Hot 100 entrants it failed to become a major hit, peaking at #67.

After the collapse of Mushroom Records, Chilliwack would subsequently be absent from the Hot 100 for three years until the autumn of 1981 when the band would score its US Top 40 breakthrough with "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)". In 2013, all of the Chilliwack albums on Mushroom were rereleased in CD format, and the song "Mary Lou and Me", from the original (scrapped) version of this album, was added as a bonus track, as well as a songwriting demo from that album.

Tracks

  1. "Never Be The Same" (Henderson) (3:30)
  2. "I Wanna Be The One" (Henderson/Turney) (3:20)
  3. "How Can You Hide Your Love?" (MacLeod) (3:46)
  4. "(We Don't Have To) Fall In Love" (Henderson) (3:45)
  5. "Lookin' For A Place" (Henderson) (4:55)
  6. "Arms of Mary" (Sutherland) (3:01)
  7. "Tonight" (Henderson/Turney) (3:10)
  8. "She Keeps On Cryin'" (Henderson/Turney) (3:03)
  9. "In Love With A Look" (Myers/Jalananda) (3:20)
  10. "No Love At All" (MacLeod) (4:12)

2013 Bonus Tracks

  1. "Mary Lou and Me" (Henderson/Turney) (3:47)
  2. "The Hardest Things to See" (Henderson/Turney) (songwriting demo) (2:07)

Musicians