MICHAEL PACKER - ANTHOLOGY ("LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF")

1. Lazy Day 2. Give Her Time 3. Smile In The Sky 4. The Country 5. Judson Queen 6. Louisiana Woman 7. My Woman Tonight 8. Love Comes Easier 9. Bad Time Jackson 10. I’m In Love 11. She Left This Morning 12. The LetDown 13. In My Getaway 14. California 15. Straight To Her Heart 16. Wicked Feeling 17. Love Of Woman 18. River of Wine 19. Good Tmes, Sad Times 20. Run Wild 21. Took My Gun 22. Christmas On The Bowery 23. The Sunny Side Of Me

Compilation Produced By Alan Lorber

LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF:

Let me introduce myself. My name is Michael Packer. I am a musician. I sing and play the guitar. I am a recovering alcoholic. I was a bum who lived on the streets of New York City on and off for ten years. I had a good childhood. I was raised in the affluent town of Bedford NY in Westchester County. I am a convicted felon. I did time at Rikers Island. I recorded four albums for major labels RCA and Atlantic records. I hung out with famous people. I hung out with winos and junkies on the street. I loved and lost and I loved again. I slept with whores. I robbed, lied and cheated. I lived my life honestly and got good results. I blamed God and everyone around me for my misfortunes. I blamed myself and accepted my responsibilities. I wanted to be someone else and found out that I wasn't so bad after all. Let me introduce myself. My name is Michael Packer.

A LIFE WORTH LISTENING TO:

In this most honest and revealing anthology of a life far beyond one which most anybody would admit to, Michael brings us a vivid reflection of 40 years of living and working as a musician, artist, songwriter. The album cover shows a 17 year old who started performing in high school.

There is an underlying sense of romance in the songs, certainly adventure, definitely real life pain, bleeding. Early on there is a sense of promise, of ease, freedom in “Lazy Day”, “The Country”, perhaps calm before the storm in “Give Her Time”, “The Smile in the Sky”, and even a later a brief return in “Run Wild.”

There are imagined desires lived in “Louisiana Woman” and “Judson Queen”, and real desire lived in dark contradictions in “Wicked Feeling” “Bad Time Jackson”, and “My Woman Tonight”. There are the getaways, (“In My Getaway” and “California”), and the run away into the depths of alcoholism, told in “Drowning In A River of Wine” (which took him down from a rising recording artist), and recalled in “Good Times, Sad Times”.

There are the love-life letdowns and ups, and downs again found in, “I’m In Love” “She Left This Morning”, “The Love of a Woman”, fury in “Wicked Feelings”and the regrets in “Straight to Her Heart”, giving wise advice by someone who knows, but also knows, you can’t go back again.

Always, there is the need to touch the flame too closely, riding high under devil-may-care false realities as in “Roll With The Punches”, only to fall to a real reality of prison incarceration, the true story told in “Took My Gun”, to an even lower low revealed in “Christmas on the Bowery”.

But this is a life worth listening to. Look at the “Sunny Side of Me”, the life of Michael Packer, who introduced himself to you 40 years ago, and today lets you in on a review, not just for a peek, but for a full length motion picture of missed opportunities and survival, still living to sing the blues – with a right to sing the blues — with his own blues band, in a better balance and frankly, lucky to be alive, to still be kicking, writing, singing, celebrating a life with much more to come.

By Alan Lorber, Michael’s record producer & friend from the beginning