The Daily Deep Cut

The editors at JamsBio like to think of ourselves as music fans first, not critics, and that’s the sensibility we strive for at JamsBio and that we seek in other sites as well. That’s why we’re so jazzed about Damn Fine Day, a site that each day profiles a deep album cut that’s been overlooked, but deserves a place in everybody’s collection. In the name of spreading the gospel about great music, we present “The Daily Deep Cut,” where we add our two cents about the songs featured on Damn Fine Day. Once you read our unique take, we’ll send you over to Damn Fine Day so you can stream the full track and download it if you like. Sometimes we might even suggest another deep track from the same album or present some other novel twist on what their hawking.

Damn Fine Day has dug up another blast from my past with its spotlight of the great Marshall Crenshaw track from 1985, “Lesson Number One.” Taken from his slick album Downtown, “Lesson Number One” is a gentle ’50’s style ballad with jangly guitars, soaring harmonies, and some sinewy guitar lines snaking underneath the layers of instrumentation. Perhaps most striking is the level of songwriting craftsmanship. Listen to this song and you become instantly aware that Crenshaw is no slouch in the music and lyrics department – a real songwriter’s songwriter on par with other unsung heroes such as Peter Case, Joe Henry, Steve Wynn, and Michael Penn. Just look at the supporting cast on Downtown – Mitch Easter, T Bone Burnett, Mitchell Froom, Larry Klein, Tony Levin, Jerry Marotta and G.E. Smith – a virtual who’s who of the nation’s finest session players who came to prominence in the 1980s.

It’s been over five years since we’ve been treated to a collection of new Crenshaw songs. So until we get another tasty platter, I urge you to visit (or re-visit) his deep back catalog, starting with “Lesson Number One,” which you can hear in its entirety over at Damn Fine Day.

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