Lately, singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg's career has been guided by a couple of accidents.
His successful run with acoustic concerts began because he was grateful he could still play music after severely cutting his hand a few years back.
A more recent accident, however, didn't cause any bodily injuries; it happened when Fogelberg was recording his Christmas album, "The First Christmas Morning."
"I was sequencing the Christmas album on a DAT (digital audio tape) that I had previously recorded some of my live shows on," Fogelberg explained during a phone call from his ranch in Colorado. "I was sequencing the music and it came to an end. All of a sudden, 'Songbird' jumped out of the speakers.
"I said, 'What is this?' I thought the band sounded great. So, I compressed it and realized it was from a concert back in 1995."
Fogelberg will return to Utah, to perform at the Sandy Amphitheater, 1300 E. 9000 South, tonight. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
The Peoria, Ill., native is touring in support of the new live album, "Something Old New Borrowed and Some Blues," which was the result of his DAT discovery.
"I couldn't believe I had all this music on these tapes," Fogelberg said. "There were songs I hadn't heard in quite a few years. But here they were, because we'd run a DAT every night. And they sounded pretty good."
All winter, Fogelberg shifted through stacks of DATs trying to find the 14 cuts that would eventually wind up on "Something. . . " "The fun thing about this album was the fact that I didn't have to do any studio tricks to make it sound good. I didn't have to do any overdubs or anything like that. It's a live album in a true sense of the word."
Fogelberg said his recent live album is much different than his most recent live release, 1991's "Greetings from the West."
"I already did a serious live album for my previous record company," Fogelberg said. "This one was so much fun. It was like I was rediscovering myself again. And the band, I can't believe how good the band sounded. I mean, I knew they were good, but it was amazing to me that I was able to make the album straight from DATs."
Although Fogelberg loves the sound of the band on the album, he's still touring acoustically. "I do admit I'm getting the itch to put the band together. But I'm still having a great time rediscovering my songs with acoustic music."
Fogelberg said there are so many songs he never thought he'd get to play because of his solo tours. "But I've been going back through my catalog and really finding some songs that I didn't think would work with just guitar or piano at the time, but as I got down to the spirit of the song, I found they worked wonderfully. I still play the hits, like 'Leader of the Band' and 'Same Old Lang Syne,' because that's what most of the audience wants to hear. And I'm not going to take that away from them.
"But I'm finding out how enjoyable it is to go back to more obscure songs like 'Souvenirs' and 'Nether Lands,' get down to how it sounded when I was first writing the song on the guitar. That's the enjoyment and the challenge of finding songs for the solo tour. I'm trying to find the spirit of the song before they were produced for an album. It's wonderful going back and drawing on the wisdom and experience that has taken place since I first wrote the songs."
Rearranging his songs to fit the acoustic set is much the same way he writes songs in general.
"I never write songs while on the road," Fogelberg explained. "There are too many distractions, and I just don't have time. Songwriting is a very solitary thing for me. Although sometimes when I'm touring with a band, we start doing a jam and something comes out of that, but I write better when I'm alone."
E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com