Pirates and Poets
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{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Pirates and Poets
| type = studio
| artist = Bertie Higgins
| cover =Pirates and Poets.jpg
| alt =
| released = 1983
| recorded = October 1982 – January 1983
| studio =
- Pyramid Eye's Recording Studio (Lookout Mountain, Georgia)
- Southern Tracks (Atlanta, Georgia)
- Creative Workshop (Berry Hill, Tennessee)
| genre = Soft rock
| length = 42:25
| label = Sony
| producer =
- Sonny Limbo
- Scott MacLellan
| prev_title = Just Another Day in Paradise
| prev_year = 1982
| next_title =
| next_year =
}}
Pirates and Poets is an album by the American singer-songwriter Bertie Higgins, released in 1983.{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Zell |title=They Heard Georgia Singing |publisher=Mercer University Press |page=140}}{{cite news |last1=Defendorf |first1=Richard |title=Bertie Higgins |work=Orlando Sentinel |date=9 June 1985 |department=Calendar |page=11}} The first single was ""When You Fall in Love (Like I Fell in Love with You)".{{cite news |title=Higgins Is Coming |work=Omaha World-Herald |date=October 27, 1983}}
Roy Orbison sang on "Leah". The CD version of the album includes Higgins's hit single Key Largo as a bonus track.
Critical reception
The Philadelphia Inquirer called Higgins "just about the most weepy, sentimental, insufferable singer-songwriter in existence," and ironically deemed the album, "in its own way, a demented masterpiece."{{cite news |last1=Tucker |first1=Ken |title=Bertie Higgins Pirates and Poets |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=10 Apr 1983 |page=R9}}
Track listing
- "As Time Goes By" (Herman Hupfeld) - 0:45
- "Pirates and Poets" (Bertie Higgins, Sonny Limbo) - 3:11
- "When You Fall in Love (Like I Fell in Love with You)" (Higgins, Limbo, Jeff Pinkham) - 3:36
- "Leah" (Roy Orbison) - 3:28
- "Under a Blue Moon" (Gary Baker, Quentin Powers) - 3:55
- "Tokyo Joe" (Higgins, Limbo) - 3:25
- "Beneath the Island Light" (Higgins, Limbo) - 4:04
- "Only Yesterday" (Higgins) - 3:50
- "Marianna" (Higgins) - 4:09
- "Pleasure Pier" (Higgins) - 3:28
- "Never Looking Back" (Higgins, Deniece Dupey) - 7:18
- "As Time Goes By (Reprise)" (Hupfeld) - 1:15
Personnel
Musicians
- Bertie Higgins – vocals, acoustic guitars
- John Healy – acoustic piano, organ, synthesizers
- Steve Nathan – acoustic piano, organ, synthesizers
- Ken Bell – acoustic guitars, electric guitars
- Shelton Irwin – acoustic guitars, electric guitars
- Kenny Mims – acoustic guitars, electric guitars
- Jeffrey Dale Pinkham – bouzouki, mandolin
- Gary Baker – bass guitar
- Owen Hale – drums
- Mickey Buckins – percussion
- Edward Higgins – percussion
- Doug Johnson – percussion
- Mark O'Connor – fiddle
- Ed Leamon – saxophones
- Scott MacLellan – flute
- Linda Penny Baker – oboe
- Albert Coleman's Atlanta Pops – orchestra (1)
- The Atlanta Strings – strings
- Wayne Mosley – string arrangements and conductor
- Karen Norwood – copyist
- Roy Orbison – vocals (4)
The "Doo-Bobs" (backing vocals)
- Gary Baker – BGV arrangements and conductor
- Cathy Dover, Bertie Higgins, Beverly Higgins, Edward Higgins, Gloria Higgins-Burke, Mike Jones, Phyllis & Manny Loiacono, Scott MacLellan, David Powell, Mike Sullivan and Cheryl Wilson – singers
Production
- Sonny Limbo – producer, additional engineer
- Scott MacLellan – producer, additional engineer
- Doug Johnson – engineer
- Brent Maher – additional engineer
- Jim Stablie – additional engineer
- Glenn Meadows – digital consultant at Masterfonics (Nashville, Tennessee)
- Bertie Higgins – cover concept
- Mike McCarty – cover concept, cover artwork, design
- Joe Kahl – cover photography
- Tom Corcoran – additional photography
- Joel Cherry – direction