I
'ain't too proud to beg', 
So here goes...
Mr.
Sullivan, please,
please, p-l-e-a-s-e, strongly consider having the audio portion of
all your solo shows recorded for official future release? We've had official live recordings by
New Model Army,
Sullivan +
Blomberg,
Red Sky Coven released in the past, but never have we had a
live Justin Sullivan album, of
just you + your guitar + your harmonica --- just you, on your sole-own.
It would be a wonderful dream come true
(colossal understatement, that) to purchase and listen to an official, proper double CD/LP live release of your
incredibly moving and
astounding solo material as performed in this more fundamental, essential, naked, raw, yet still highly effective, conducive, emotive and personally affective, subtly impactful, intuitive, organic kind of way.
Several reasons why we'd
all benefit from an official double CD/LP live
Justin Sullivan album. Well, because...
1. For those of us that will likely never have the luxury / pleasure / blessing / fortune of attending one of these super-rare, stripped-back, completely solo
JS shows in our lifetime, this would be an exceptional alternate way of
tasting, taking in and enjoying the songs, solo concerts. Goes without saying, that those who
are lucky enough to attend any or all of the solo
JS dates in person, well, they'd have something to purchase as a quality keepsake of the tour too!
2.
'Time keeps ticking a tick tick tock', away, for
all of us. How many more years do we have? Really, how many? I'm being serious, especially with the way things have been developing lately. Between the pandemic / covid variants and the atrocities occurring in Eastern Europe, global warming.... really, who can say?
I've never been one who counted on tomorrow. I live in hope for a tomorrow, but I've never lived as though it is a given, a guarantee, fixed. The older I get, the more time seems to go by faster and faster and faster. Ever since the turn of the millennium, especially, I've come to understand how startlingly brief and precious our time here, on this earth actually is. Something youth take completely for granted. Right now the 'sun is shining in your favour'. Best be taking full advantage, making the most of this blessing while the moment / chance is still here. 3. The band /
NMA comes first, is priority number one, after which all side projects follow... n'est-ce pas? So once things get back on track, return to some sort of
normalcy, these strictly solo
JS shows will likely become even more scarce. I genuinely pray to be proven wrong in this assumption, but my instinct is telling me otherwise. If we had an official double CD/LP of
every song that made the two solo
JS tour setlists, we'd at least have
a recording to fill that void.
The album would hit the spot, satiate those intense cravings of wanting and needing to listen to the subtly rich and exquisite live, solo material. 4. Covid fcuked up everything! A lot of it financially. Releasing a double live solo
JS CD/LP might prove to be a decent way to make up for a bit of the financial losses you've likely had to endure over these past 3 years. Making back some lost revenue is by far, much better than none at all, no? Didn't all those 40th Anniversary DVDs sell out? Not only that, they went very,
very quickly too!
Mark my words, an official live solo double CD/LP will sell out also!! I don't understand, what or where is the obstacle, hurdle? 5. Even though some of us won't be able to attend these sacred solo
JS gigs in the flesh, many of us still want to show our love and support. What better way is there, than to purchase a double, live,
JS CD/LP via the
official NMA online shop.
The packaging doesn't have to be fancy, just something doable, durable, feasible, yet still beautiful and of good quality. It's what inside that matters and counts above all else, it's the music itself, the songs themselves. Allow us to pre-order the album -- to better gauge interest -- and work out from there, roughly how much to invest in production so that you'd still make some kind of decent or better profit from the sales. I really don't know what's involved in producing CDs / records, I'm just guessing... and pretty wildly, at that. 6. If any of
JS' solo material gets the symphonic treatment at the Tempodrom in Berlin (this coming July 15th), then you might also want to seriously ponder adding those live versions to the double CD/LP of live solo material that made the "
Surrounded Tours" as well.
They could perhaps be the second "bonus" disc of the set / release. 7. Should a 2CD live solo
JS album come to light, I wouldn't just purchase one copy. I'd aim to send / gift it to music loving folk! Especially those that never grasped
NMA, they may find that they like and understand your solo material far better.
Your solo material is so very different from NMA's repertoire, well, with the exception of just over a dozen songs or so, of the rarer quieter and dreamy variety released under the New Model Army banner. I can totally see a solo live recording finding a new, non-NMA-familiar, yet highly appreciative listening audience... especially here in North America, parts of Canada in particular. Again, it's just a gut feeling I have, that I've never been able to shake off. 8. There is SO much worth, truth and beauty in your solo material and live performances, Mr.
Sullivan. Every single one of your songs --- off both "
Navigating By The Stars" and "
Surrounded" --- the songs from those two remarkably brilliant albums deserve not only to be experienced and heard in a true live setting, but also deserve to be preserved for future generations to come, in recorded form, from the very live setting / experience itself.
Mr. Sullivan, please consider the idea of releasing a 2CD/LP live solo album? Perhaps in time for the winter holidays? Ohhh. We need one, and you're already touring, might as well have Mr. Harvey record these shows, yeah? Well... here's to hoping.
To everyone, please forgive the length of this post. Hard as I might and do try, I can't ever seem to successfully articulate what it is that I am aiming to say / get across. Thank you for your time, tolerance, patience, understanding and kindness. I hope that today is and or will be good to you, and the same goes for the evening hours too. Look after yourselves and each other. If you're lucky enough to live on the right continent, please, GO SEE HYMmmN. GO FOR THOSE OF US WHO CAN'T. Then please, come back here and tell us all about the super-rare sacred solo JS shows you attended. Enjoy the shows. Cheers. .oOo.
