At the heart of our record, Silent Spike, is the 21-minute epic, Dead Line Creek. The song is a musical depiction of one of the worst atrocities in American history, the murder of over 30 Chinese gold miners by a gang of horse thieves led by Bruce Evans.

A lot of research went into this song, as with all the songs on Silent Spike. The most useful resource is the excellent book Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon by Gregory R. Nokes. In 2017, Oregon Public Broadcasting released this excellent short documentary about the events, and you can learn more on their website here. 

The song is in five sections. The middle section is a guitar solo which is intended to depict the violence and horror of the massacre itself. It was inspired, in large part, by Jimi Hendix’s solo on Machine Gun, itself a depiction of the senseless murder of the Viet Nam war. Here’s an excerpt from one of many live versions.