David lindley - string master

[Treblemaker]

Lindley's instruments site:

http://www.davidlindley.com/instruments.html

Note the gorgeous F4 and cutaway jazz mando among many other cool things...

Treblemaker

[david blair]

Ah, the "Prince of Polyester"
David is an amazing musician and a favorite of mine. Never a dull moment in concert! One year at the Telluride Bluegrass festival Jackson Browne had a set, and invited Bruce Hornsby, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, and-Bonnie Raitt. David played fiddle, and absolutely tore it up over a stable of who's who. Very impressive. Jackson sang a bunch of Eagle's songs.
David mostly plays slide guitars now at live shows. Don't miss him!

[Treblemaker]

Not to ignore my initial posting - but in 1991, among many notable acts at Telluride I recall seeing most of Strength in Numbers back James Taylor in one of the most memorable sets I've ever seen that I have never found a recording of in regular circulation.

If anyone knows where I might find that let me know....

Lindley and Cooder are both the best of the best for eclectic roots inspired string madness with a rock n roll bent...

TS

[Paul Kotapish]

Here's a little interview I did with Mr. Dave a few years back. His house is packed floor-to-ceiling with musical artifacts--instruments, recordings, books, and accessories. I never got to play that gorgeous three-point F-4, but he let me paw some of his many other axes.

David Lindley Interview

David Lindley Gear Profile (Scroll down a little.)

A show with Mr. Dave is always a pleasure--solo, in duet with Wally Ingram, or with the full-blown El Rayo-X band.

[Steve Ostrander]

I have been a big Mr. Dave fan ever since I first heard El Rayo X back about 1980. He is truly eclectic: multi-instrumental, multi-stylistic, all blended together together to make a delicious musical hash.

[ledmandlin]

Guess I go back to the '70s awed and inspired by Mr. Dave, so I'm always glad to commune with other fans. #Can anybody help me find his album "Mr. Dave"? #By which I mean, can anybody burn me a copy you might have made from that lp, or tell me how I might obtain one. #More than happy to pay Dave his share and you yours. #Thanks.

I just went to Amazon and for my first time ever found someone with a copy--can't tell if it's lp or cd.

$120, folks! And worth every penny of it, I'm sure, but I can't afford that many pennies for one cd. That's almost as much as I'm pulling together for a James tailpiece.

Might there be sufficient interest collectively to purchase this rare (I think) gem? Any thoughts welcome; I truly don't know if I'm offbase in making such a suggestion and I even suppose that at a flusher time, I might spring for it myself (I still ache with the memory of "Hurt So Bad", another sublime musical revelation from Dave).

[Paul Kotapish]

I really like the Mr. Dave album, too, despite--or maybe because of--the cheesy electronic drums.

It's got some of his best material and some wonderful vocal and guitar performances.

When I asked Lindley about re-releasing Mr. Dave he said it was hopelessly tied up in contractual red tape and he'd pretty much given up on ever getting control of his own recordings for that. I think this experience was a significant factor in his rejecting the major labels and moving to a strictly low-budget DIY approach for his own releases.

I know that there are a few digital copies floating around, so maybe you'll get lucky. Mr. Dave will be cool with that as long as you send him some money to cover his share.

http://www.davidlindley.com/

PK

[Lefty&French]

#Can anybody help me find his album "Mr. Dave"? #

PM me.

[mando5280]

I will have to check out David Lindley. The brief clips I could find reminded me of Xavier Rudd. Cool stuff.

[Dagger Gordon]

I've got a couple of his live cds with Hani Naser and Twango Bango 111, and while I do play them (particularly Live in Tokyo - playing real good), I would recommend that you look to his work as a sideman for some of his best playing.
Particularly the album 'Trio' by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton (where you can also hear Mark O'Connor, Ry Cooder, Albert Lee etc) and most of Jackson Browne's early work.
I saw him doing an acoustic set with Jackson a couple of years ago. He played a bit much fiddle, which I don't think is his best instrument. No mandolin, but a fair bit of bouzouki and oud. Good stuff.

[mandocrucian]

The first El-Rayo-X album and Very Greasy are musts. I didn't like Win This Record as much as the other two, but it does have oodles of hot electric slide playing to recommend it. #There's also an El-Rayo-X Live In Japan album which is real good, but very hard to find (it took me years to locate one).

[plunkett5]

I have some live CDs of Lindley and Ry Cooder in a smoking duo. Unreal stuff. Mandolin and lap steel in the hands of some masters!

[Arto]

The man is a marvel in his knowledge about different music cultures, intruments and how he uses all that in his music. Just one example: in link above about his instruments, it is mentioned that he owns "an oud". Seems an understatement to me.

Mr Lindley has lately been writing to Mike´s Oud Forums. I don´t know how many ouds he actually owns this moment, but he has mentioned having played at least 150 different ouds, and has a truly impressive knowledge about the different (mainly Turkish) ouds, luthiers past and present, their instruments including styles, bracing patterns, top plate differences and you name it.

Besides he seems to be a nice person and a wise man. Truly impressive person.

[Paul Kotapish]

The man is a marvel in his knowledge about different music cultures, intruments and how he uses all that in his music. Just one example: in link above about his instruments, it is mentioned that he owns "an oud". Seems an understatement to me.

Mr Lindley has lately been writing to Mike´s Oud Forums. I don´t know how many ouds he actually owns this moment, but he has mentioned having played at least 150 different ouds, and has a truly impressive knowledge about the different (mainly Turkish) ouds, luthiers past and present, their instruments including styles, bracing patterns, top plate differences and you name it.

Besides he seems to be a nice person and a wise man. Truly impressive person.

Arto,

I'm certain that you are right about Lindley's oud collection. At the time of the interview--seven or eight years ago, now--he was playing a lot of saz--and he had loads of them in every size and variation in his house when I visited him there. I didn't see an oud on that occasion, and he didn't really mention much about ouds in our discussion, but I know he plays, so I included in the list. That particular gear roundup was oriented for a guitar-playing audience, so it was a little skewed to begin with.

Now that I think of it, I've never seen Dave play an oud on stage, either. I've seen him perform many times--solo and with Hani Nasser, with Wally Ingram, and with El Rayo-X--and he's played loads of different things, but never an oud. I'll have to check the live albums, I'm sure there is some oud on some of those. Whatever he does is incredibly musical.

[Dagger Gordon]

Fairly certain he was playing an oud in Glasgow 2 years ago.

One album I should have mentioned is The Blind Boys of Alabama 'Spirit of the Century', on which he is a member of their cracking little 5 -piece back-up band. He plays oud on one track. He also plays it on one track on Jackson's 'I'm Alive' album (1993) - Too many angels.

[bluesmandolinman]

that´s David after I told him I can play much better than he can

[Paul Kotapish]

Photo credit to Nicolas Wilson: http://www.nwilsonphoto.com

[David M.]

Yep. #A picker-hero of mine from way back, too. #Only caught him live once or twice on his own, but have seen him live some w/J. Browne.

At the Omni in Atlanta during the Hold Out tour, JB introduced him as "the strangest man in Atlanta tonight..." or something like that.

EDIT: there was at one time a cool YOUTUBE vid of him and jackson playing acoustic. DL was on fiddle and they were doing (I think) Take It Easy, but I'm not sure if that was it or not. may be still on there. don't know.

[Klaus Wutscher]

I think that David played Oud on the Crosby-Nash "Live" Album (late 70ies), on "Deja Vue" - the sound is "far out" indeed and just what the song calls for.

He´s definitely one of my favourite musicians.

[Lefty&French]

Great slide (acoustic and electric) and fiddle on
"Wind On The Water" album (Crosby & Nash, 1975).

[AlanN]

Here's a caption for the photo of him on the F-4:

"This chord HURTS!"

[Klaus Wutscher]

Great slide (acoustic and electric) and fiddle on
"Wind On The Water" album (Crosby & Nash, 1975).

Great album - Croz and Graham Nash were really at their peak around that time. Aaik Lindley is all over the Crosby Nash albums from the 70ies (4 total). I seem to recall he is even on at least one CSN track, playing fiddle on "Wasted on the way", but I´m not sure.

[HotTunaHead]

I recently bought GE Smith's new dvd 50 watt and there's a segment which might be GE's whole set with David as a bonus on the dvd. It's great to see the two greats jamming.

I was lucky enough to see david about a year ago in a small/intimate setting, the show featured Fareed Haque, GE Smith, and David. Each playing a solo set with the finale consisting of all 3 jamming also joining for the finale was Jorma Kaukonen. What a night of picking and grinnin:D

[Spruce]

"I have some live CDs of Lindley and Ry Cooder in a smoking duo. Unreal stuff. Mandolin and lap steel in the hands of some masters! "

Indeed.....
A must-hear for you Lindley fans is a recording of David and Ry in Osaka, Japan on 11/6/79....
I mentioned this recording to Mr. Dave, and he retorted with "Oh, that's a good one!"
High praise from a guy who doesn't exactly encourage bootleg recording.... #

This recording is a lap-steel instructional tape--just smokin' tones and great playing.

"Great slide (acoustic and electric) and fiddle on
"Wind On The Water" album (Crosby & Nash, 1975)"

How about his great fiddle work on the Youngblood's "Darkness Darkness"....??
One of my all-time favorite tunes....