Late in 2016, I posted on Facebook about the contents of a mix tape I put together sometime in early 92. It’s the only sixty-minute tape of its kind in my collection. I’ll be re-upping modified versions of those sixteen posts over the coming weeks.
I traveled between Urbana, IL and Florence, KY a number of times each year while in graduate school. As I’ve mentioned previously, sometime in the very late 80s I started tuning in to the amazing WOXY (97X, The Future of Rock and Roll), a modern rock station located in Oxford, OH, for the stretch between Florence and Greensburg, IN. I learned a lot about what turned into the alternative music scene over those 90-or-so minute periods. I wish the station still existed.
During one of those trips in late summer of 91, on State Road 1 in SE Indiana, I heard “Breathin’ Easy” by the Reivers, an Austin band unfamiliar to me. Intrigued, I told my roommate Greg about it. Not surprisingly, he knew about them, as he had a couple of their LPs. After listening to those albums, they quickly became my “it” band for that last year in Illinois (and for a couple of years beyond, too). I bought the new CD (Pop Beloved, their fourth release) and soon began what became an obsessive hunt for the CD versions of Saturday and End of the Day, their second and third albums (even though they were only 4 and 2 years old, respectively, they’d already gone out of print). For months, EVERY time I went to a record store, I’d head straight to the R’s, then to the used CDs (remember, this was pre-Internet). Finally, in the summer of 92, just a few weeks before I moved back to KY, I found them used while visiting friends in St. Louis.
I know the Reivers aren’t the greatest band of all time, but I enjoy their music thoroughly to this day. The voices of Kim Longacre and John Croslin blend so well (though you don’t get to hear much evidence of that today), and the melodies are just plain appealing. As it turns out, they broke up soon after I first learned of them, though they’ve periodically reunited for shows in Austin, and even released a new album in 2013.
This is one of my favorites –a charming rocker about being in love. Contrary to the annotation below, it’s from 1987.
The Music of My Life 
I was fortunate enough to discover 97X in the autumn of ’83 (not long after the station went on the air). Coincidentally to your post, I was living about fifteen miles from Greensburg, IN. It was the place that I first learned about Talking Heads, The B-52s, XTC, Siouxsie And The Banshees, and so many more. It was also the first station where I’d hear stuff like Nena’s “99 Luftballoons,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” and Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom,” which they played months before the songs became mainstream hits. RIP 97X
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