Big Mountain

Much like UB40, American reggae band Big Mountain brought a very commercialized version of Jamaican music to the American mainstream when their cover of Peter Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way" reached the Top Ten in early 1994. To the band's credit, though, its three albums contain reggae roots music combined with only several R&B-ish covers, and the lineup includes two Jamaicans with excellent credentials: rhythm guitarist Tony Chin and drummer Santa Davis -- both of whom played with Peter Tosh's band and the Soul Syndicate. Big Mountain were originally formed in San Diego as the Rainbow Warriors. After several years of dizzying lineup changes and two name changes -- first to Shiloh and finally to Big Mountain -- the group settled around vocalist/guitarist Quino, with rhythm guitarist Jerome Cruz, drummers Gregory Blakney and Lance Rhodes, keyboard player Manfred Reinke, and bassist Lynn Copeland. That lineup released Wake Up on the Quality label in 1992 and charted "Touch My Light" early the following year. The single reached number 51 in America, but only one year later Big Mountain began to experiment with several different guitarists. After several changes, Tony Chin becam... more...