Warmer

The 1979 debut of this Colorado-born singer-songwriter includes ‘Just When I Needed You Most,’ which reached No. 4 on the general American chart, No. 1 on the adult-contemporary chart and No. 8 in Britain. Used in Japanese television commercials too, it was familiar to listeners of Western music at the time.

Raised with gospel music, he moved to Britain in the 1970s for family reasons. After playing steadily in local folk clubs, even occasionally performing as a professional, he returned to America and signed with Bearsville Records in Woodstock, New York, in 1979. It was a fortunate start. As its one enormous hit suggests, the album sustains a peaceful world through warm, simple, unadorned singing and a pastoral sound. That song concerns a lover who left him at 18, while living in Britain. It originally appeared as the B-side of the second single ‘Your Light,’ then was promoted to the A-side at the record company's suggestion. Further hits did not follow. In January 2004 he died of leukaemia at 48.