BlueTearsMusic.com - Blue Tears Music

These websites contain relevant information on Blue Tears in particular and quality music in general. Please click below to visit:

> SunCityRecords.com
> Fire-Fest.co.uk
> MaydayGround.com
> JessMarie.com
> BillyFalcon.com
> MelodicRock.com
> HeavyHarmonies.com

		Blue Tears June 12, 1990 The rock solid, highly acclaimed debut.

		Mad, Bad & Dangerous August 1, 2005 Volume 1 of the classic unreleased tracks.

		Dancin' on the Back Streets December 13, 2005 Volume 2 of the classic unreleased tracks.

		The Innocent Ones April 2006 All newly recorded material from the re-vamped and re-amped lineup.

		Rockin' with the Radio 1990 The debut single from the Blue Tears album.

		Revealed and Revisited September, 2003 MelodicRock.com, Vol. 1.

		Listen Up October 12, 2005 AOR & Metal Heaven Promotion Sampler, Vol. 1.

Through
Others' Eyes
No Release Date
Unreleased compilation of Blue Tears songs performed by other artists.


	Future Blue Tears Additional information on what fans can expect in the coming days, months, years, and so on. More...

Blue Tears

June 12, 1990
Impact/MCA Records

"I remember the Friday nights,
In the heat of the summer time.
With a restless heart and a rebel soul,
We were all dressed up with no place to go."

"It's the reckless abandon you feel when you're seventeen, stuck in Smalltown, U.S.A, want to get out, and you think, 'What if I'm here the rest of my life?'," says Blue Tears leader Gregg Fulkseron about the motivation behind the hard-driving rock 'n' roll anthems on his band's self-titled Impact/MCA Records debut. "We are them. We all used to gather at the edge of town, sit on the hoods of our cars, and talk about how we are gonna get out. There are kids like that everywhere."

And they should all be chanting with Blue Tears' singalong choruses and big beat sound. Founding members Gregg Fulkerson and Michael Spears are Tennessee natives who have been playing together since they were eight years old, harmonizing with acoustic guitars around the fire at summer camp. Memphis-born Bryan Hall and Alabama-based Charlie Lauderdale came aboard more than seven years ago when they attended college in Fulkerson's hometown of Henderson, Tennessee.

Fulkerson grew up listening to Queen, Van Halen, Boston, Springsteen, and especially, Elvis. He picked up a guitar at age four and never looked back. When he met Michael, they promised one another, when they grew up, one day they'd form a band. Blue Tears is that promise come true.

"It's American heartland rock 'n' roll," says Mike. "Not heavy metal. Not pop."

Even before they signed to Impact/MCA, Blue Tears' demos--recorded at Gregg's own eight-track home studio--were being requested at the local radio station, starting off with a version of "Innocent Kiss". The demo led them to a deal with Left Bank Management, whose stable includes Richard Marx, L.A. Guns, Vixen, Ratt, and Thomas Dolby, and subsequently a recording contract with Impact/MCA.

"One of this band's strongest points is we're real," explains Gregg. "We all grew up together. This is not some put-together group playing a bunch of songs someone else wrote for us."

Blue Tears' accomplished major label bow confirms this. The group's trademarks are propulsive three-part harmonies, with taut arrangements which recall glam-rock luminaries like T. Rex on the opening "Crush", while the power ballads "Halfway to Heaven" and "True Romance" emphasize the quartet's melodic bent. Powerful tunes like the first single, "Rockin' with the Radio" and the climactic clap of "Thunder in the Night" prove Blue Tears can knock yer socks off, too.

"We're real song-oriented," says Gregg, "which makes us different from other groups down South. Other bands might have the fastest lead guitar player around; we concentrate on songs with fifteen-second guitar solos. Not just because we're trying to write a hit single; this is what we like, and it comes out genuinely portrayed in our music."

Locally, Blue Tears attracts upwards of 3,000 to their live shows. "We really connect with our audience," adds Gregg. "Most of our songs are real simple, with just three chords or so, but they're masked by the harmonies and the power. We can sound just like the record live, with the stacked vocals coming from the kids in the audience singing along."

After the release of Blue Tears, there should be many more shouting to those hook-filled refrains.

I'm not trying to be commercial," Gregg insists, "but I have to write about what I know. People have tried to get me to write more about partying and stuff, but that's not what I'm about."

There's actually little danger that Blue Tears will go Hollywood, either. In fact, Gregg just bought a house in Henderson, whose previous claim to fame was as being the home of law and order Sheriff Buford Pusser of Walking Tall renown, as well as being the home of Carl Perkins. Now, there's another reason for the good citizens of Henderson to walk tall.

"We're in it for the music. We do the music we love that's about real people and real places."

MCA Sight & Sound Promotional Literature
May, 1990

This album is dedicated to all the Hometown Heroes and Teenage Angels... Wherever you are.

Gregg Fulkerson
Blue Tears Liner Notes
1990

01 -

Rockin' with the Radio

4:23

(Gregg Fulkerson)

Lyrics

Gregg's Notes:
We did a video for 'Rockin' With the Radio.' Our director was Merrit Avis, great director. He has done some of my favorite videos in history, most or all of The Joshua Tree era U2 videos, Springsteen videos, etc. It did okay on MTV, had medium rotation. I was happy with the video, a lot of fun to make. It was actually filmed in my hometown, the one I grew up in, Henderson, Tennessee. A beautiful little town, great place to grow up, it had that American Graffiti look to it. We had this Hollywood film crew in this little town for a week, a blast.

Webmaster's Notes:
Closing a chapter on a story that began over 10 years prior (see my notes on "Crush" for details), I happened to receive this CD in my mailbox the very same day the autoshop called to tell me my tires were all mounted and ready to roll on the brand new wheels I'd ordered online for my 1995 Mustang Cobra.

SIDE NOTE #1: Just as I like real rock and roll, I like real cars, too. Big hooks, vocals, drums, etc. for the music, and big American engine, power, etc. for the ride. Somehow, the two just seem to go hand in hand.

Anyway, I drove over to my best friend's house to swap my stock wheels for the new ones, but it turned out that the salesman who had sold them to me was not that well informed when he answered my very specific question about whether they would accomodate the Cobra's bigger (than GT) front brakes. (They didn't.)
     It sucked, since I would have to take the wheels back to the shop to have the tires unmounted and ultimately returned, and then I would need to box up my new wheels, ship them back to where they came from, and begin my search anew for wheels with just the right look. (True to the appearance of REAL vintage muscle cars - NOT 20+" chromed-out spinner crap.)
     The back ones DID fit, though, and I wasn't ready to simply throw in the towel on the time and money I'd invested without taking at least those two wheels along for just one ride (with the stock wheels taking care of business up front, of course).
     I drove by my house in the hopes that the Blue Tears CD I'd bought on eBay a few days before would be waiting in my mailbox, and sure enough, it was. Having only heard "Crush" thus far, I had high hopes for the other nine songs this CD was about to bring into my life for the very first time.
     Those hopes were lived up to... and then some.

SIDE NOTE #2: When you bought a CD based on just one song back in the day (before internet sample clips, downloads, etc.), it was always a gamble. Sometimes you got an album full of greatness, and other times (like most of the time during and ever since the grunge years), you got the one good song to put the band on the map, and nine or so pieces of rank, steaming filler.

I will discuss my thoughts on subsequent tracks in the appropriate areas below, but suffice to say the high point of that day for me was cruising off into the twilight with the opening notes of "Rockin' with the Radio" blasting out my speakers. I was particularly moved by the sound of the electric guitar riff behind the line, "in the heat of the summer time", and by the time the song kicked itself up another notch for, "Now, I remember the song that was playing...", I was so overblown with youthful excitement that I just had to skip the CD back to the start to hear that opening one more time. Or two... Or more.
As my taillights vanished from the view of my hometown, somewhere down the highway (Yup, these songs carried me across the river and into the next state before all was said and done.), I knew "Crush" was coming up next, and this CD was on a roll that I was fully confident just wouldn't stop... (unlike the roll of the two rear wheels on my Mustang I'd be swapping out the next day.)