Red, White & Blue Chris Isaak Headlines American Music Festival

Relationships have been fodder for millions of songs since the birth of music.

From collapsed relationships, to new-found loves, to longing for companionship, to one-night-stands to romantic diversions, all aspects of human relationships have been discussed, again and again and again.

Some songs pretentiously restate the obvious. Others find a unique way to examine the human relationship in ways that move us.

In the case of Chris Isaak, relationships - one to be exact - are the centerpiece of his latest album, “Forever Blue.”

Isaak, who performs at Riverfront Park as part of the American Music Festival on Saturday, only deals with one part of the relationship: the fallout.

As the title might convey, “Forever Blue” finds Isaak sifting through the rubble of a relationship with a recent lover that flamed out.

In some cases, he becomes obsessive and punishes himself, trying to find a logical answer as to why his woman - a former manager - bailed out. “Don’t tell me that your love has changed/ don’t tell me it can’t be the same/ don’t be so quick to say were through/ things go wrong/ but I still love you,” he wails with a Roy Orbison falsetto on “Things Go Wrong.”

This particular relationship affected the handsome singer so profoundly Isaak manages to conjure up all the different emotions one feels after a relationship crumbles.

“Forever Blue” chronicles the different episodes that occur throughout the breakup process. It starts with the anger and the disbelief that follow immediately after getting dumped. From there, it shifts into the mourning and the paralyzing sadness. Then come the desperate come-back-to-me pleas and with time, the acceptance, the healing and the recovery.

Isaak doesn’t hold any tears back, he opens his heart and 13 arresting songs come pouring out. Admirably he doesn’t sound calculated and contrived.

Although “Forever Blue” is a deeply personal album, it’s something we who have been dumped can understand.

“Forever Blue” is a soundtrack for all those sleepless nights, the midnight drives to nowhere, the evenings watching the sun set and the moon rise, the aimless strolls, hoping that, by chance, you’ll run into your former lover and find that he or she, too, has been suffering just as much as you have. It’s all in there.

By the end of the album, you get the sense that the whole experience has been therapeutic for the singer, but not at our price.

Brilliantly, to lighten the mood, Isaak includes some chirping birds at the close of the 13th song “The End of Everything,” leaving you with a sense of hope, the hope that someone else will come along.

“Forever Blue” marks the fifth album for the 39-year-old singer.

Isaak completed his first album 11 years ago with the rockabilly-tinged “Silvertone,” (also the name of his band). In 1987, he put together his eponymous sophomore album. Both releases came and went and didn’t make as much as a whimper. Heck, Isaak wasn’t even a darling of the critics.

“Heart Shaped World” followed in 1989, and that album, at first, failed to boost interest. In 1990, one of the LP’s songs “Wicked Game” appeared in the film “Wild at Heart.” A radio programmer in Atlanta took a chance and started spinning “Wicked Game” and it caught on almost immediately, becoming a huge summer hit.

Intermittently, Isaak has worked as an actor. He played significant roles David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Little Buddha.” The singer also appeared briefly in “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Married to the Mob.”

Isaak followed up his most successful recording in 1993 with “San Francisco Days.” The album yielded no hits, but was still a commercial success, moving more than 500,000 copies - a gold record.

“Forever Blue” has also fared well, thanks to the hits “Somebody’s Cryin”’ and “Go Walking Down There.”

Saturday, expect to Isaak to feature some new songs in his set.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT Chris Isaak will perform at Riverfront Park on Saturday with Patti Rothberg at 8 p.m. Tickets are $22.50 and are available at G&B outlets.