Under the Milky Way by the Church was first introduced to me by Mike Phillips in the summer of 1990. He sat in the Market Data Services room by O’Connor’s Trading floor in the CBOT building where we worked. I visited him quite frequently because he had the best taste in music. I’d heard the song upon it’s release in 1986 but it didn’t register as anything special. I borrowed the tape from Mike and would play it loudly on Saturdays in my 1978 Oldsmobile 98 as I drove it down southwest highway.

I soon tired of the song, but it resurrected again a few years later during a jam session. Al, Paul and Bill (my brother) would gather weekly in my apartment in Worth, IL and practice guitar. Al was our teacher. Our first lesson was Under the Milky Way because it was recorded with two acoustic guitars, one open and one capo’d on the 5ft fret; a perfect song for new students. My homework was to practice it on the fifth fret. I practiced every spare moment and presented the song back to my classmates the following week.

That same year, Al got a weekly show at the Irish Times in Brookfield, Illinois. One Saturday night, he invited me on stage. It was my first time playing in front of a crowd, and this was the song we played. I’d eventually get my own shows and invite him on stage.

The best part of this song was that it was born at a time when I got to be with my two good friends and my big brother Bill once a week.

Enjoy

This was from a live show in Java Joes Chicago in 1998/99. Al joined me on stage. (forgive the bad joke, I tried for 15 minutes to trim it out but it would not work)