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Recently I got a voicemail message from my friend Ray, who was taking an extended road trip on his way to his sister?s house in Indiana. ?I?m standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona,? he said, ?where there?s a statue of Jackson Browne and people are having their picture taken next to it, like he?s Elvis.? I left him a message (phone tag: America?s REAL National Pastime) and asked whether there was a smaller statue of [tag]David Lindley[/tag] seated with his lap slide guitar next to the Jackson Browne statue.

Lindley?s slide was the secret ingredient in Browne?s songs. Find any classic radio station in America and eventually one will hear ?Running On Empty.? That song is a prime example of Lindley?s slide work during his period with Browne: beautiful melody with teeth. His solos on slide, violin, mandolin, and electric guitar graced Browne?s vocals in the same way Lester Young?s tenor work stood next to Billie Holiday?s voice on their recordings.

Lindley?s discography is eclectic and always interesting. His 1960s band, Kaleidoscope, was a blend of psychedelia, world music, Delta blues, and x factor weirdness (at least twenty years ahead of its time then and now). He spent ten years with Jackson Browne, held a prominent role as a member of The Mighty Jitters, the backup band for David Crosby and Graham Nash?s ?Wind On The Water? recording (that morphed with and without Lindley into The Section and became the Southern California Sound of 1970s Top 40 radio). Lindley was leader of El Rayo X, his own backup band for four wonderful Asylum Records releases during the early 1980s. He traveled to Madagascar with Bay Area guitarist Henry Kaiser to record with that country?s prominent musicians for the ?World Out Of Time? anthologies on Shanachie Records in the 1990s. His current work with percussionist Wally Ingram on his own label is available only at his own website and at gigs.

There is just not enough room on the corner of Winslow, Arizona to celebrate Lindley?s accomplishments. If there was, his 2003 recording [tag]Twango Bango III[/tag] with Ingram would be featured as one of his shining moments. Lindley and Ingram overdub multiple instruments and vocal parts on this CD. Along with his usual above-mentioned instruments, Lindley also plays oud, sax, bouzouki, and chumbush. With him, it?s not a matter of ?Name That Tune? but ?Spell That Axe.? Ingram plays drums and all percussion instruments. The CD booklet contains photos of his marching band drum, dumbek, and djembe, and also lists him playing shaker and cajon. Jorge Calderon occasionally joined them on bass, Glenn Hartmann on accordion, Jai Vatuk on keyboards, and Vatuk, Jahfadduh, and Lindley?s daughter Rosanne on vocals. Mostly, though, it?s all Dave and Wally.

The music ranges from the greasy slide opener of ?Meatgrinder Blues,? which features Rosanne Lindley?s ?so hard to win, so easy to lose? choruses and Dave?s wry commentary like ?Turn that handle, now grind yourself up…I think we?re gonna need some more intestinal sacks.? From there it?s straight to a John Lee Hooker boogie riff and the too-much-food-late-at-night cautionary tale of ?When A Guy Gets Boobs.? Lindley and fellow guitar legend Ry Cooder teamed up to write ?Tokyo Bootlegger Man,? another cautionary tale about a musician who is tired of having concerts secretly taped and sold by a member of the audience. ?Tokyo bootlegger man/I?m gonna get you sometime/He ain?t laughing, he ain?t clapping/And he ain?t no friend of mine.? Grrrrr!

After these electric rockin? songs to begin the CD, the format changes to an acoustic-based sound for the duration of the recording. Dave and Wally do a number of traditional songs using witty and imaginative arrangements. ?Hesitation Blues? becomes a banjo-based reggae tune with a slide solo. ?The Johnson Boys? and ?Young Man Who Wouldn?t Hoe Corn? have an Middle Eastern/North African feel and are played on bouzouki, shakers, and cajon, both sounding like something from the soundtrack of ?Deliverance? if it had been filmed on the Nile River. ?Shame And Scandal In The Family? is another reggae tune, with harmonies that conjure up images of Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh singing with Bob Marley and some well-placed Ingram rim shots. Why Marley and the Wailers never bothered to do a reggae version of ?Pilgrim Song/Will The Circle Be Unbroken? medley like the one on this CD is beyond me. ?Little Sadie? gets two versions, one with vocals and one without. Add to these outstanding songs a pair of George Jones? songs, ?You Done Me Wrong? and ?A Drunk Can?t Be A Man? with Lindley?s ?Meti?s Reel? as a final song, play often, and PRESTO! a CD worthy of every music lover?s collection, not to mention a statue on a corner in Winslow Arizona.

To order and for additional information, visit www.davidlindley.com. And really, do so: this is one of the best CDs money can buy. I?m not just saying it because I?m part of The International Dave Conspiracy plotting to take over the world?s musical tastes (it includes Lindley, Brubeck, Crosby, Grisman, Douglas, Mason, Allen Coe, etc. At our meetings Letterman always sends me out for sandwiches and cold beverages: ?Here?s a C-note, punk, and don?t dillydally!? All part of being the new guy.). No, I?m saying it because it?s as true as things get these days. Besides, no one dances to a statue, but I guarantee you?ll want to two-step to ?You Done Me Wrong.? Brubeck always does.

[tags]cd review[/tags]