What happens in Amsterdam...

“Tribute bands are big business nowadays, but very few record actual tribute albums,” says North County Neil Diamond impersonator David J. Sherry, whose new full-length, Glory Road, includes hits from his long-running Diamond Is Forever stage show. Taking personal inspiration from the title track (“It tells the story of a regular guy with a special dream”), Sherry went to Morgan Ranch Studios in Encinitas to record covers such as “Sweet Caroline,” “September Morn,” “Hell Yeah,” “Holly Holy,” “I Am...I Said,” and “The Boat That I Row.”

A video was filmed for the title track while Sherry spent a month in Europe doing TV and radio appearances. “We shot all over London,” says Sherry, who once played a nine-month U.K. residency at age 20. “Our next stop was Amsterdam, where we met with booking agents and continued filming the music video. We had a very scary landing, making us all feel that we walked away from what could have been a tragically bad scene. It left us all a little shaken and introspective. I used that to my advantage for the moody shots in the video.”

Once set loose in the Netherlands, “I’ve never in my life seen so many people on bicycles, and I mean tons of them everywhere. Got some interesting video and had some great times.” Asked for print-worthy details, Sherry laughs. “What happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam. And maybe on the video outtakes reel.”

Sherry will be returning to the AVO Playhouse in Vista for his seventh annual Diamond Is Forever tribute show on September 21. A new video for his cover of “Crunchy Granola Suite” is playable on his band page in the Reader’s online Local Music Database.