12. June 2025
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Songs Of My Life: Joshua Kadison – Picture Postcards from L.A.

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

In my Songs Of My Life section, I try to introduce you with very different songs, which influenced me during my life. This time, I am writing about a song in the mid-1990’s, even though the event I am linking most with it happened about 15 years later. The Song Of My Life I write you about today is Picture Postcards from L.A. by Joshua Kadison – and I am happy to present this posting right on his 58th birthday – Happy birthday, Joshua Kadison!

 

Picture Postcards from L.A. – The Story Of The Song

Joshua Kadison was born on 8th February 1963 in Los Angeles, California. He is majorly known for his piano-driven soft rock / pop rock tracks. He started playing the piano at the age of twelve and moved to Nashville after his mother died. After signing a contract with SBK, his debut album Painted Desert Serenade has been released on 18th May 1993. The statistic basics do not read too overwhelming. The album made it to the 69th spot in the US, peaked 45th in the UK and has been granted a golden record in Norway from 25,000 sales. It however created some hits.

The globally most important one was right the first single Kadison released, Jessie. The song is about an intense and erratic relationship to a lady called Jessie. The song was Top 20 in multiple countries. With a fifth place in New Zealand and sixth one in Austria, Denmark and Switzerland, it has indeed been a global phaenomenon. The second single release of the album was Beautiful in My Eyes, which was a big hit in Australia and reasonable chart positions in many other markets (including Germany).

Picture Postcards from L.A. – his third single

Picture Postcards from L.A. was Joshua Kadison’s third single. It has been released on 20th September 1994. The song made some global chart placements. The song is about Kadison being a piano player who struggles to tell his colleague Rachel that he does not really believe in her talent:

I’m the piano player down at Eddie’s bar
And Rachel she’s the waitress who wants to be a star
She swears she’s gonna make it, make it big someday
And she’ll send me picture postcards from L.A.

After Painted Desert Serenade, Kadison released six more studio albums. Deliah Blue (1995), the second album, was still quite successful. His last release, apart from compilations, is the 2008 Return to the Dragonfly. Since 2012, Joshua Kadison is practically inactive from music business. He is popping up here and there for concerts, though. For example, he did an online stream gig in 2020 to support Black Lives Matter.

 

Picture Postcards from L.A. – My Story Of The Song

Honestly, multiple Painted Desert Serenade songs would qualify for this Songs Of My Life episode – the album is one is my absolute favorites and I feel it contains a couple of amazing songs. Picture Postcards from L.A. is simply my favorite – and I really miss new music by this amazing artist.

A very special concert in Bonn

I have been gifted to be at the very last Germany tour (at least as far as I can reconcile) by Joshua Kadison as well. The concert was likely the most amazing, intimate and beautiful experience I had with an artist on stage. I visited the tour stage in Bonn, at the Brückenforum venue. The show took place on 22nd May 2008 – and I was looking forward to it weeks before the concert, especially as I had quite central front row tickets for the show. Apart from light and sound, the stage was just a grand piano. When Kadison entered the stage, he asked the audience, whether we just don’t want to sit around him on stage. No doubt about that, so I did. Thus, we enjoyed the whole show with the amazing artist, singing along with him sitting on the stage floor. Even if I spoiled a front row seat, this experience was simply unique and I never explored something similar again.

Luckily, I happened to find a short video footage of exactly that concert on YouTube. Hope it slights transports the magical atmosphere of this evening.

 

Picture Postcards from L.A. – Spotify / Lyrics

Here is the Spotify link to Picture Postcards from L.A.:

You can find the lyrics of the song here.

 

Songs Of My Life Playlist

I created a playlist with all the Songs Of My Life songs so far. It will be updated with very new episode:

 

 

 

Title Picture: Painted Desert Serenade album cover

 

Flyctory.com in Greater Los Angeles

Here are all Flyctory.com postings related to Greater Los Angeles:

 

Postings about Concerts

All postings about concerts I visited:

 

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