SAP

Flashback Time

I want to talk about some music since I haven’t posted at this blog since December. Sorry I haven’t talk to you in a while. Was hibernating for the winter. So I feel like taking a little flashback to the fall of 1995. I was in my third semester of college and me and the boys were drinking and smoking late one night and listing to an EP by a band called Alice in Chains. The CD was simply titled SAP. It only consists of four tracks. But we must’ve played that particular album on repeat about 40 times on that evening for a cloudy haze of teenage escape from school and life on a Saturday night. But that EP was my lifeline to my friends for at least a decade until I ran into my friends again. The songs on that record were mellow and acoustic for the most part. The vocals and the harmonies were so hypnotic and really spoke to me and got me through many tough times.

Ann Wilson from Heart, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney all make appearances on this campfire chill of a musical treasure. Chris and Mark sing along with Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell on “Right Turn” which is my personal favorite track. So the harmonies and the emotions just oooze into my soul. With Anne Wilson being my favorite female vocalist of all time, I was glad to hear her backing vocals on not just one but TWO tracks on the record. BROTHER and AM I INSIDE.

Of course, Layne Staley really steals the show here on this EP as this powerfully emotional singer that takes you, the listener, into a blackhole of despair and yet somehow brings you back into reality in the end with the silly hidden 5th track that sounds like insane circus punk music. But ultimately, Layne is such an incredible vocalist and its so sad he’s no longer with us. But the memory remains. Every time I hear these songs, I think of that night in college with my friends Nate and Geff.

Give it a listen for yourself: