Jim Riccioli

Meet Jim Riccioli from Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Call me Columbus. Because I can still remember the day I discovered America, via a Caribbean connection and quite by accident. More than that, I belief fate has always lent a hand.

A close friend of mine of Haitian descent then living in Rochester (Minn.) had joined a record club in 1976, when he decided (for no particular reason) to buy "History - America's Greatest Hits." I don't know if it was the stark white album with the stand-out illustration or the stylistic logo that caught my eye, but I noticed the new album sitting in his upstairs bedroom this particular summer afternoon. Being a 14-year-old with "little else" to do during summer vacation from school, I ventured to listen to the album.

Upon hearing the first cut, I guess I could say I rode into America on a horse with no name, because I was immediately hooked. Within the next few months, I had purchased my own copy of the album and quickly began wearing a deep groove into each track on the vinyl. (I can't help but to feel a little outdated when I realize some music buyers today have no idea what I mean by that last sentence.) Within several more weeks, in the coolness of winter, I added the most recent America album, "Hideaway," to my collection. As much as I liked "History," "Hideaway" offered something more. The music echoed in my mind. More than that, having just read (and loved) Richard Adam's novel "Watership Down" in the previous year, I couldn't believe that my new album so expertly captured the feel of the story with a Gerry Beckley song from the same source.

It wasn't long before I began trying to backfill my collection, adding "Hat Trick" and the new "Harbor," then the original "America," and then, by the end of 1977, "America Live." After adding "Silent Letter" (and silently bemoaning Dan Peek's absence from the group's first studio album since his departure), I set sail toward more choppy waters: trying to locate older America albums which were already becoming harder and harder to find. I took a "Holiday" at an obscure downtown Rochester record store in 1980. Loved it. After finding a new "Alibi" in 1980, I resumed my search for the older albums still missing from my collection, 1975's "Hearts" and 1972's "Homecoming." In the spring of 1982, I found "Hearts" where my heart was leading me: My future wife bought it for me in a college bookstore in Winona, Minn. The, as a gift, she bought me "View From the Ground" that fall. I could've married her on the spot. A little more than a year later, we WERE married and took a honeymoon trip to New York (where I had lived until I was 12) in the summer of 1983. We met family, old friends,...and stopped at every record store I could easily access in Manhattan to look for the last missing album. Believe it or not, my "Homecoming" came during my homecoming -- I found the album at what was likely the closest record store to my original home in Brooklyn.

Obviously, my fandom never ceased as the Hourglass has let the sands of time slip by. Not surprisingly, I have purchased each subsequent album within weeks of their initial release dates. I didn't actually get to see the guys perform until 1985 (?), when they appeared at the Carlton Celebrity Room (on what is now part of the Mall of America campus). The next time was even more meaningful for me. In July 1996, I had just moved to Waukesha, Wis., for a new job less than two weeks earlier when I found out that the group would be appearing at the city's new community festival, Riverfest. Feeling somewhat like one of the Lonely People (my family was still in Minnesota in the transition), I was cheered up from the moment America opened with "Riverside" along the beautiful river-side park. America came back to southeast Wisconsin in June 1997 to perform at Milwaukee's massive Summerfest, and I was there. (Sadly, I was unaware of performances in 1998 and 1999 close to home.)

Perhaps it is Human Nature to believe in such things, but fate continues to amaze me. I wrote a comical piece to friends in November 1998 upon hearing about the gubernatorial election of Jesse "The Body" Ventura back home in Minnesota, never envisioning that both America and another favorite of mine (Warren Zevon and his "Werewolves of London" tune) would appear at Gov. The Body's inaugural party two months later. I recently backed out of participating in a baseball tournament in Phoenix (AZ) due to work commitments, but you can guess how hard I kicked myself when I found out that America would be performing in neighboring Chandler the same weekend as the tournament's conclusion. Upon discovered some new web sites on America, I recently also discovered that Phil Hartman, one of my all-time favorite "Saturday Night Live" comedians (and whose murder both shocked and saddened me), designed the very album cover that caught my eye 23 years ago. I wonder, did Columbus find the world as small in 1492?

It's November 1999. I'm using the Internet to aggressively purchase the last CDs not in my America collection. "Live" and "Harbor" are on the way. "America in Concert" continues to elude me, but I won't let it. Fandom probably shouldn't be measured by how many material things one owns (and I do have a 1980 logo belt buckle, 1997 tour hat and 1996 tour shirt to prove I'm not immune to accessory trinkets), but such things do prove something: I have crossed America, and I keep coming back.

Feel free to send your comments or questions to Jim.