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.
David Lindley & El Rayo-X
“Tiki Torches at Twilight”
(1988, Asylum)
I didn’t know much about David Lindley’s slide guitar prowess and history as a sought after session man when I purchased a copy of Very Greasy back in 1988. I was 15 year-old budding music-phile who happened to have tickets to see Jackson Browne at the local sports arena, and Mr. Lindley and his band El Rayo-X were the supporting act. Wanting to know what I was in for prior to a hits-filled Browne set, I pedaled my way to the neighborhood Sound Warehouse and picked up Lindley’s latest cassette. I really had no idea what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard: an eclectic assortment of ragtag cover tunes (”Bye Bye Love,” “Werewolves of London,” “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”), Tex-Mex rave-ups (”Texas Tango”) and odd island grooves (”Gimme Da’ting” and “Tiki Torches at Twilight”). This latter song was the one that really hooked me to Lindley’s sound and pushed me to dig deeper into his career. And once I did, I realized that his solo work didn’t even come close to the brilliance he created for the likes of Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Ry Cooder, Warren Zevon, James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash, not to mention Jackson Browne, throughout the 1970’s. When I finally attended the Browne concert a few months later, Lindley’s opening set was enjoyable enough, if trite, but his performance as the main attraction’s multi-instrumentalist later that evening was magical.
Check out Lindley’s island gem at Damn Fine Day.
