A Sunny Day

Some people spend their time wondering about the meaning of life .......others worry about death and the afterlife. Me, I'm trying to figure out just how many people have recorded and released records over the last 60 years. I've concluded the answer is way beyond a million and even that may be a low estimate. Every year my brother and I take a road trip to "dig" for records, this year we did 3,000 miles, 5 states and looked at what we estimate to be over 2 million records. Our goal is to find those undiscovered gems of music that have been lost in the black hole of vinyl releases. Music that truly deserves attention but for various reasons never received any when they were released. Music that has remained unheard, sitting in the bin of a used record store until folks like us give them a spin and discover the magic within.


In Cedar Bluffs, Iowa there is an amazing store packed with vinyl called Kanesville Kollectibles....three levels of an old manufacturing plant with enough records to build a suspension bridge to neighboring Omaha......more records than most people see in a lifetime.....heaven for nuts like me. We arrived at this vinyl Mecca at 10:00AM and proceeded to spend the next 8 hours digging through racks and boxes of LP's....hoping to find that unknown gem, that musical golden ticket that makes all our time and effort worthwhile. This year's winner was found hidden away in the Country & Western section...an LP by a young couple, Kris & Jerry, who were from rural Illinois titled "A Sunny Day" released in 1966. The second the needle from my portable turntable hit the grooves we knew this was special...a great discovery....the reason we dig.


There are many amazing things about this record. The music is unlike any I've ever heard in my 30 years of vinyl addiction, sounding like a real down to earth Sonny & Cher without the Hollywood glitz that tainted their records. A folky duo that use saxaphone, accordian and viola all to their advantage.  The songs are beautiful monuments to young love and innocence and must be more powerful than both as Kris & Jerry are still married today some 43 years later.  When I realized I was in love with this record I decided to try to find Kris & Jerry which turned out to be pretty easy.

Still living in the same area, Jerry is a Music Director at a local school and had fond memories of the record he recorded in 1966. "I loved to write songs" Jerry told me, and the songs on the LP were written in very short order. "I didn't really have too many influences, I just wrote what I felt. It was a way for me to communicate". Very humble about his record I think Jerry was surprised that someone had unearthed his past.

The LP is a "vanity press", one of those records that have a generic catalog chosen cover which just happens to capture the feel of "A Sunny Day" in an uncanny fashion. The songs are short and to the point, all original songs except for the fitting cover of the Rolling Stones "As Tears Go By". This LP has that magic that very few LP's exude, something that occupies it's own special time and space while having a sound that has proven to be timeless. Cuts like "The Boy I Really Loved", "In A Far Away Place", "See The Shape I'm In" and "Little People" all reach out from my speakers and make the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention...an eerie journey into the private lives of two people who have no shame in sharing it with us. Kris's vocals which don't really jump out at first really grow on you in a beautifully haunting way that penetrates deeper with each listen.


It is with great honor that I am now able to share their music with the world and know that the message they placed in a bottle some 43 years ago has been found by an appreciative audience. Hopefully some enterprising re-issue label will want to get their music to a wider audience, until then click on the tunes below and enjoy the sounds of Kris & Jerry

The Boy I Really Loved


Can’t You See What You’re Doing To Me



In A Far Away Place