Jerry Arhelger- Front Porch

My good friend Jerry Arhelger passed away earlier this year. We’d been friends since a series of unconnected incidents brought us together.
It was 1994. I had been made redundant from my job as a bookshop manager. My redundancy insurance paid my bills, and so I took a year out to work on my music. I became friends with Pat Wallace (RIP) and we would sit in my back garden chatting about music. One day, right out of the blue, he said that I should meet up with Jerry Arhelger, an American singer who regularly came to the UK to play churches, clubs and festivals. Pat thought that we would get along together. I thought no more about it until I was contacted out of the blue by a lady who lived on the Wirral. Jerry was in the UK and needed a place to stay in Northamptonshire. So a couple of days later Jerry was in my living room, chatting over a mug of coffee. He stayed with us for a couple of days and we wrote a couple of songs together. We kept in touch, meeting up whenever he was in the UK.
In the late 90s he was diagnosed with cancer and was very ill for several years. After a miraculous recovery he returned to the UK in 2007, spending a few hours in my home studio where he sang some songs for a possible album. We toured the UK in 2008, playing churches up and down the country. He returned to the US and we never met face to face again.
In 2016/7 I revisited Jerry’s recordings and added a bit of guitar, mandolin, bass and vocals as required. He sent me a couple of songs that he had recorded (including this track) and I worked on those as well. The end result was an album called ‘It Only Takes a Moment’ that was released on all the download sites.
Jerry died in April 2023. I made this video as a tribute to his memory. I love this song and I hope you do too.
I am privileged to have had Jerry call me friend. Rest in peace old buddy.