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The Studio Albums

My junior year in high school, my good friend Eric brought home two CD's that his brother gave him. It was some band I had never heard of, Vertical Horizon. Eric played it constantly in his car and after about a week I had to borrow his copy of Running On Ice. I played it for a week straight despite Eric's constant nagging for it back. I returned it only on the condition that I got to borrow the other CD, There and Back Again. I quickly fell in love with Vertical Horizon's music. The studio albums display something that can get lost in the live performance: the emotion of their lyrics and the intricacies of the guitar playing and the harmonies. If you like great acoustic music, I highly recommend these two albums.


VH's Sophomore Studio Release Running On Ice

Running On Ice is an excellent compilation of fourteen original songs written either by Matt or Keith. This album contains many crowd favorites including "Japan," "Famous," "Heart in Hand," "Wash Away," and the love ballad "Sunrays and Saturdays." There are guest appearances on the album by Jackopierce's Jack O'Neil and Cary Pierce on vocals. Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band performs on the drums for all 14 tracks. Personally, "Famous" and "Sunrays and Saturdays" is what got me hooked on VH.

There and Back Again is a purely acoustic album. Rarely are there other instruments heard on this album. All that accompanies Matt and Keith are their guitars and a drum machine. They put this album together in a basement studio of a friend. They used the money they had saved playing small shows all summer to produce the album. This album is carried by the beautiful harmonies and the pure emotion of the songs. The crowd favorites "On the Sea" (often played with the Police's "Message in a Bottle"), "Willingly" and "Liberty" are on this album.

Links

VH Review on MTV.com

Live Pages, The Vertical Horizon Official Homepage

Patrick Garrity's VH Guitar Tablatures

Raymond Garcia's VH Concert Photos



ME!

Here's a picture of me with some of my Sigma Chi brothers. I'm the one on the far left.






Jonathan M. Bifro

https://www.angelfire.com/oh2/verticalhorizon/index.html

February 26, 1999

All images courtesy of verticalhorizon.com.