This Weeks Forgotten Gem of the 80s Dwight Twilleys Touchin the Wind

Tulsa, Oklahoma native Dwight Twilley served as one of the leading lights of the power pop revival of the mid '70s in America, which almost guarantees that his music never reached as many ears as it should have. When Twilley went solo at the end of the '70s, he somehow became even more obscure, releasing records that radio wouldn't touch and the industry wouldn't promote. Even the advent of new wave and college rock during the early '80s couldn't help Twilley's 1982 release, Scuba Divers, an album that featured refreshing acoustic arrangements and a guitar-centered Beatles fixation. Nevertheless, the synthesizer-obsessed new wave needed Twilley's throwback mentality far more than anyone ever acknowledged at the time.

That's why songs from this record like "Touchin' the Wind" deserve to have their unsung and relatively unheard status challenged. Twilley stands with Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello as one of the era's finest singer-songwriter voices in terms of both lyric-writing and expressive vocals. It's never too late to learn this truth as a music enthusiast, and song for song this record doesn't disappoint - despite some lukewarm reviews of its content at the time. Lovers of songcraft and the uniquely American modern singer-songwriter sound should stock up on some Twilley records, from his heyday years when he led his own band to his less noticed solo output of the '80s. Myself included, of course.

• Sample or download "Touchin' the Wind" here.
• Compare prices on Dwight Twilley CDs here.
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Album Cover Image Courtesy of Capitol Records