ry cooder david lindley family tour

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Tour de Four : Pop music: Ry Cooder and David Lindley team up with two of their kids at the Coach House for a test run before leaving for Europe.

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It’s not easy being a Ry Cooder fan. The payoffs are great, given that he’s one of the most soulful and distinctive guitarists on Earth, having absorbed the warmth and nuance of nearly every American music form, along with those of several other cultures for good measure.

But as bountiful a rain as a Cooder concert is, fans are more accustomed to drought. He rarely tours, and when he does, it typically is in Europe or Japan. If memory serves, he’s made only one Southland performance under his own banner in the past decade. He may appear unannounced at a Chieftains concert here or John Lee Hooker performance there--as he has in recent months--but otherwise, Cooder has been in short supply.

So why is he, with scarcely a week’s notice, popping up Sunday at the Coach House with longtime musical accomplice David Lindley and their respective offspring Joachim Cooder and Rosanne Lindley?

They are preparing to embark on a European tour, and Sunday’s show, Cooder says, is “a shakedown cruise. We’ve got a lot to learn and to tighten up, so we’re shaking it down so we can shake it down , you know?”

Unlike most musicians, who need to tour for a livelihood, Cooder has an active career scoring soundtracks--including “The Long Riders,” “Trespass,” “Crossroads” and “Paris, Texas”--and he’s long been on record as disdaining the oftentimes hellish road life away from hearth and home.

Even his tour a few years back with the amiable supergroup Little Village--with John Hiatt, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner--was “horrendous, a true nightmare,” he said by phone from his Santa Monica studio Wednesday.

Cooder, however, was gushing about the prospects of the new tour.

“This, I think, is different,” he said. “This isn’t like some horrible death march to Bataan, where you find yourself just out there hanging from the yardarm. This is family .

“It just has to do with another kind of dynamic and another kind of idea about playing music, for its own sake,” he said. “And I’m hoping that will pay off emotionally for us. It should. If we can’t make this work and have fun, then nothing will ever be fun. It’s got to be fun ‘cause I can’t stand ever doing that other thing anymore.”

He and Lindley are musical soul-mates, if ever there were, from their soaring mastery of the slide guitar to the way each explores exotic sonic cultures--from Madagascar to Hawaii--with an ear for the heartbeat rather than just the tourist trappings of those cultures.

The two have been crossing paths since the ‘60s, when both came up in the folk-music scene centered at Los Angeles’ Ash Grove club. In the psychedelic era, Lindley played with the wildly eclectic Kaleidoscope while Cooder surfaced in Captain Beefheart’s first Magic Band.

Both moved into studio work, and Lindley, after accompanying Jackson Browne for several fruitful years, followed Cooder into a solo career. They first recorded together on the 1980 “The Long Riders” soundtrack and have collaborated off and on ever since.

Lindley’s daughter Rosanne had her own band, the Casual Girls, for a few years and last year performed with her father at the Coach House. Cooder’s 16-year-old son, Joachim, backed him and Lindley on hand drums when they toured early in the decade.

In performing with their kids, Cooder doesn’t think they’re breaking any new ground.

“You know, if you go back to the 1800s, parlor family music was the main form of entertainment. Companies did a tremendous trade in pump organs, mandolins and things because people used to sit at home and play, singing church music and whatever else they knew.

“It’s really where music is organic on that level, because in that kind of context you’re sharing something,” he said. “It must’ve been incredible to sit around for an evening or on the weekends like that. We don’t do too much of that nowadays. Everybody’s scattered running around or watching TV or doing what they do.

“I always thought, ‘I wish I had somebody to play around here with. Drums would be great.’ Lo and behold, that’s what happened,” he said. “And growing up with David, Rosanne became involved in music, because when music is what you do around the house, that’s what your kids hear and come to understand.

“You have to have a cool time making music--it just isn’t worth it otherwise--and if you can do it with your kids, that’s about the best thing because families really do connect in non-linear ways that you can’t package or promote. I think it’s great. I think everybody should do this.”

Playing music is something that necessitates approaching one’s kids as equals, he said.

“If you were [an authoritarian parent], you couldn’t do this. I never told Joachim how to play drums. I never told him to play drums, never even thought he would. But when he was 6, he started, so I said, ‘Hey, let’s play,’ and we would sit at home and play music, and then he said he wanted to play onstage with me. So it was a nice evolving thing.

“And, of course, as far as family roles are, you’ve gotta forget all about that. I know that people have bullied their kids, making one play the banjo, and the other one the mandolin and all that, but if you want to have good time doing it, you gotta skip all that.”

Along with whatever it might do for family communication, Cooder says the generational team-up is doing exhilarating things for the music.

“Rosanne sings [the Depression-inspired] ‘How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live,’ and it’s fabulous to me to hear another generation’s take on a song from that generation, extending that tradition,” he said. “And with Rosanne, we’re doing Staple Singers songs and all these three-part harmonies that really make the songs come alive.

“It’s so pretty, it’s such a hook, harmony singing,” Cooder said. “It gives a richness there so that the instruments don’t swamp the vocal aspect of the thing. What we have going is this kind of mini high-powered folk band that’s just wide open.

“Meanwhile, Joachim is playing this drum kit he put together with hand drums, strange parts and oddball things so it’s like a supercharged jug band thing. He’s sort of getting the total body workout on the set. And why not just the kitchen sink? That’s what most of this music needs. It doesn’t really need a standard drum set. It needs sound effects. That’s what we’re doing, me and David--we play for sound and for character rather than some sort of studied, preordained thing.

“And with all this going, it makes it possible to play freer,” he said. “You don’t have to supply so much of the rhythm yourself, so now me and David can solo more. I find myself able to express more the way I like to play guitar ‘cause I don’t have to tie everything down.”

While there are few stringed instruments that he and Lindley can’t pull a meaningful performance out of, Cooder is straying into some new territory this time.

“I’m gonna try to play accordion on ‘The Girls From Texas.’ Oh, ho ho, that’s a hard one. An accordion? Whatever. I’m willing to take a chance and walk the plank. That’s kind of where this tour can get real interesting for us, is if we take some chances and land running somehow. And if you crash, it’s all right too. I don’t mind crashing sometimes during this show. It keeps you interested.”

Cooder refers to the rich songbook they’re drawing from as “American heritage music.” “In other countries, you’ve had your traditional forms that have stayed the same, up until now when everybody’s got electric guitars. But, generally speaking, this country here is where people just made [stuff] up right and left and messed with it, and look what we all came up with? It’s really good.

“It lets us have a good time too. ‘Cause as musicians, we’ve gotta have some fun. We can’t just do business, answer the phone and score dog-food commercials all the time,” he said.

The irony isn’t lost on him that most of the audience he has found for his American music has been overseas. Except for the Coach House show and a similar gig the following night at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, the only shows planned for now are in Europe. Cooder did seem to be hinting at the idea of a U.S. tour, though.

“We’re gonna go around and see if we’re on to anything and if people are paying attention. There was a time when if you didn’t organize yourself, have a jean jacket and look like the Eagles, you couldn’t be heard here. Nobody’d pay any attention. I was out there trying to do my thing with Flaco [Jimenez] in the ‘70s, and nobody gave a damn.

“But, it’s the ‘90s now, and some time has gone by, so maybe we’ll be lucky. It’s clear to me that people are more interested now here and they’re looking at more things.

“I just recently in the past two years got two Grammys for these little world records I was messing with,” he said, referring to best world-music album nods for one collaboration with Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure and the other with Indian slide guitarist V.M. Bhatt.

“And I’ll tell you, that came completely out of the blue. I thought, ‘No one’s ever gonna hear this. I don’t even care if they do.’ But the NPR guys picked up on it, and folks really liked it,” he said. “Who’d have figured it?”

Next month, Warner Bros. Records will issue “Music by Ry Cooder,” a two-disc retrospective of his long and largely uncompromising career. Like Lindley, Cooder generally doesn’t undertake musical projects that don’t intrigue him. And Cooder sounds plenty intrigued right now.

“Playing with David is like a great game,” he said. “When you grow up looking at music the way we have, you come to think of it as an elaborate hobby, so that you please yourself first and then the rest of it is gonna take whatever shape it’s gonna take. . . .

“You don’t look into it and see only a rapid succession of phone calls and lawyer deals and things,” he said. “You see something real in there. Otherwise, to me, it’s something I can’t personally contend with very well anymore. So I’m having a pretty great time with this.”

* Ry Cooder, David Lindley, Joachim Cooder and Rosanne Lindley play Sunday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. $25. 8 p.m. (714) 496-8930.

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Friday, February 5, 2016

Ry cooder and david lindley - 1995-07-06 - vienna, austria.

6 comments:

Wow, thanks for this! Breathtaking quality and great fun!

Thanks again for digging this one out. I've listened many times already :)

I heard this years ago - - it's a keeper. Cooder is brilliant. He's incredibly talented and is able to almost be chameleon-like in adapting to different genres of music.

not possible to have version FLAC

this is an official release

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Ry Cooder & David Lindley Concert Setlists & Tour Dates

Ry cooder & david lindley at kan-i hoken hall, tokyo, japan.

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Ry Cooder & David Lindley at Folkfestival Dranouter 1995

Ry cooder & david lindley at wiener staatsoper, vienna, austria.

• Promised Land
• Jesus on the Mainline
• Mercury Boogie
• Afindrafindrao
• Si Beg Si Mohr
• Paris, Texas
• Vigilante Man
• All Shook Up
• The Girls From Texas
• How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
• Leave Home Blues
• I'm a Lonesome Fugitive

Ry Cooder & David Lindley at Villa Arconati, Bollate, Italy

Ry cooder & david lindley at piazza duomo, pistoia, italy, ry cooder & david lindley at viale di tor di quinto 57/b, rome, italy, ry cooder & david lindley at elvis costello's meltdown 1995, ry cooder & david lindley at royal court centre, nottingham, england.

• Goodnight, Irene

Ry Cooder & David Lindley at Manchester Apollo, Manchester, England

Ry cooder & david lindley at l'olympia bruno coquatrix, paris, france.

Ry Cooder & David Lindley

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• Jesus on the Mainline ( 14 )
• Crazy 'bout an Automobile (Every Woman I Know) ( 11 )
• Mercury Boogie ( 10 )
• Vigilante Man ( 10 )
• Goodnight, Irene ( 9 )

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Artists covered

[traditional] Liz Anderson Big Maybelle Johnny Cash The Coasters Ry Cooder K.C. Douglas Clarence Garlow Woody Guthrie Freddie King Lead Belly J.B. Lenoir David Lindley David Lindley & El Rayo-X David Lindley & Wally Ingram Little Village Memphis Minnie Carl Perkins Elvis Presley Blind Alfred Reed Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs Santo & Johnny The Valentinos Warren Zevon

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123 people have seen Ry Cooder & David Lindley live.

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David Lindley obituary

When Ry Cooder famously made his debut appearance at Glastonbury, playing on the Pyramid stage on a damp day in June 1990, he chose not to be backed by a band but by a second guitarist who came on sporting bright red trousers, and hair and sideburns that were very long, even by rock music standards. The duo perched on stools, surrounded by a dozen guitars, mandolins or bouzoukis, and proceeded to prove that they were both virtuoso players who could sound as thrilling as any amplified band as they switched from the atmospheric Paris, Texas to songs made famous by Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly or Jerry Lee Lewis .

Cooder’s companion, David Lindley, who has died aged 78, was a musicians’ musician. He may never have been as well known as those he played with, but he was one of the most sought-after session players in the US. Best known for his collaborations with Cooder and Jackson Browne, he also recorded with an astonishing list of musicians that included Leonard Cohen , Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, John Prine , David Crosby , Graham Nash, Ben Harper, Rickie Lee Jones and Bruce Springsteen. They wanted to work with Lindley not just because he was a great musician who could play almost any stringed instrument, from guitar and fiddle to slide guitar and mandolin through to oud and bouzouki, but because he knew how to interpret the mood of a song, adding texture and emotion without ever dominating.

His own musical taste was far more varied than the rock or singer-songwriter styles of the stars for whom he acted as sideman. When leading his own band, El Rayo-X, he was able to branch out and demonstrate his sense of humour as he explored blues, funk and reggae. Like Cooder, he was fascinated by musical styles from around the world, and some of his most original recordings were with musicians from Madagascar, Hawaii, Norway and Jordan.

Born in San Marino, Los Angeles, he was the son of Margaret (nee Wells) and Jack Lindley, a lawyer and music fan. He grew up listening to his father’s eclectic record collection, which included music from the Middle East and Asia, and he learned to play his father’s ukulele, then the banjo. While at La Salle high school in Pasadena he formed a bluegrass band, the Mad Mountain Ramblers, and then the Dry City Scat Band, which played around the Los Angeles folk clubs and at Disneyland. He was still a teenager when he first won the annual Topanga Canyon banjo and fiddle contest, but was asked to stop competing after he had won it five times.

Lindley’s reputation was growing fast, and in 1967 he landed his first major session, playing on Cohen’s debut, Songs of Leonard Cohen. By then he had formed his first electric band, Kaleidoscope, along with Chris Darrow, with whom he had played in the Scat Band. They released their first, wildly experimental album, Side Trips, in 1967, mixing Middle Eastern music with rock, cajun, country and bluegrass, but, though they were praised by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, their unique brand of “psychedelic folk” didn’t sell records. They broke up in 1970, after recording four albums, and Lindley moved to England to work with the singer-guitarist Terry Reid, who had famously turned down Led Zeppelin.

Moving back to the US, Lindley teamed up with Browne, with whom he spent the rest of the 1970s, touring and recording as a key member of his band, playing acoustic and electric guitar, slide guitar and fiddle. He perfectly complemented many of Browne’s best-loved songs, playing lap steel on Running on Empty and fiddle on Before the Deluge. Browne called him “my hero”, and other musicians asked him to play on their records when Browne did not require his services. His recordings during that period included three albums for Ronstadt, including her first No 1 album, the exquisite Heart Like a Wheel (1974), two with Rod Stewart, including his bestselling Atlantic Crossing (1975), along with albums with Crosby & Nash, Taylor, Warren Zevon and Parton.

He first recorded with Cooder on Jazz (1978) and Bop Till You Drop (1979), after which the duo began performing live together, touring in Australia and Japan. A 1979 live radio recording from Osaka was released on CD in 2021. On their tour in 1995 they were joined onstage by Cooder’s son, Joachim, and Lindley’s folksinger daughter, Rosanne, and released the album Cooder/Lindley Family Live at the Vienna Opera House.

After leaving Browne’s band in 1980, Lindley moved from sideman to band leader with El Rayo-X, which he called “more or less a party band”, and in which he matched his own songs along with a bravely varied assortment of old favourites. The band’s self-titled debut set in 1981 included a glorious, furious treatment of KC Douglas’s Mercury Blues, while Win This Record, released the following year, included the Toots and the Maytals song Premature. Mr Dave (1985) included his own reggae composition Alien Invasion, and the band’s final album Very Greasy (1988) continued to demonstrate his fascination with the Caribbean. Produced by Ronstadt, it included Ronstadt adding harmony vocals on Lord Kitchener ’s calypso classic Gimme da Ting (on which Lindley played guitar and kora) and a reggae reworking of Zevon’s Werewolves of London.

While running the band, he still managed time to visit London to play alongside Richard Thompson and Rory Gallagher, and revive his love of flamenco with Juan Martin, at a Guitarists Night concert in March 1984. And he continued his session work, including albums for Browne, and for Emmylou Harris, Ronstadt and Parton on Trio (1987). In 1990 he worked with Dylan on Under the Red Sky.

Still keen to expand his musical range, he travelled to Madagascar with the guitarist Henry Kaiser to record the musicians and unique instruments of the vast island off the east coast of Africa. The aim was to present local stars to an international audience, but Lindley and Kaiser joined in several of the sessions. The resulting albums, A World Out of Time, Vols 1 and 2 (1992-93), included Lindley playing slide guitar with the traditional band Tarika Sammy and joining guitarist Rossy on a reworking of I Fought the Law, the Crickets song popularised by the Clash.

Moving on to Hawaii, this time in the company of Cooder, he recorded with the Pahinui Bros (1992) on a set that included a Hawaiian reggae treatment of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy. Further musical travels included recordings in Norway with Kaiser for The Sweet Sunny North (1994). In 1994-95 he also recorded with the Jordanian oud player Hani Naser, and between 2000 and 2004 with the reggae percussionist Wally Ingram. Their third album together, Twango Bango III (2003) included When a Guy Gets Boobs, a comment on the American diet. “I have always liked songwriters like Warren Zevon who could write something goofy and also really serious,” he explained.

In 2006 he was reunited with Browne for a short Spanish tour on which they were backed by a flamenco percussionist. Love Is Strange, a live album recorded on that tour, was released in 2010, when Browne and Lindley toured Europe and the US, and played at Glastonbury, with a set that included Running On Empty and Mercury Blues. In the same year Lindley also worked with Bruce Springsteen on The Promise. His own final solo album, Big Twang, was released in 2007.

Lindley had a wild stage image, thanks to his colourful clothes and long hair, but he never favoured a rock’n’roll lifestyle, and would often retreat to his hotel room to rehearse after a show. He hated being disturbed in the morning by hotel workers, and would imitate a dog, scratching at the door and barking, to keep them away.

He lived in Claremont, California, in a house filled with musical instruments, and was married to Joan Darrow, the sister of his Kaleidoscope colleague Chris Darrow. He is survived by Joan and Rosanne.

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On The String: Joachim Cooder’s Family-Inspired Adventures On The Rhythm Road

By training and persuasion, Joachim Cooder is a percussionist. As a little boy he was gifted a drum kit by his father’s friend, the great drummer Jim Keltner. Joachim tagged along and played at gigs and sessions with musicians from Africa and Cuba, adding hand drums to his rhythmic tool kit. Now he’s a singer-songwriter with a 2020 album doing strong Americana chart business, an album surging with percussive sounds and ideas unlike anything else in the format.

Joachim’s dad is the incalculably important guitarist, songwriter and producer Ry Cooder. And ordinarily I’d be taking pains to show how far the son has come in making his own distinct identity from the famous father. In this case though, that doesn’t exactly apply; theirs is a cross-generational musical partnership that’s been going strong for decades.

Many of us had our first glimpses of Joachim as a teenager with a backward ball cap playing hand percussion and helping out in the historic sessions for Buena Vista Social Club, the surprise hit record and movie documenting some of Cuba’s senior musicians coming out of retirement. Another key memory that Joachim talks about in Episode 158 of The String was being in on Ry Cooder’s sessions with Indian slide guitar (Mohan veena) player V.M. Bhatt for the 1993 Grammy-winning record A Meeting by the River . But his journey from drum set to hand drumming was really inspired he says by Ry’s collaborations with legendary Los Angeles session instrumentalist David Lindley.

“Because (Lindley) would tour around with a percussionist, and he had this Turkish doumbek with the jingles on the inside. You hit the sides of the thing and you get the low sound and a high sound at the rim. It's like this little drum set into itself. It was an incredible thing, because you can do get so much sound out of it, you don't have to be lugging around a kit, you can just pop up and play with somebody. And I started going that way for a while - being less drum set oriented.”

It’s the light touch and intricate dynamics that made these hand drums and global rhythms so compelling, Cooder says. And that eventually led him to a game changing instrument. “It’s called the array mbira,” he says. “It's made by this instrument builder named Bill Wesley. He's down in San Diego.” The mbira is a family of African-derived instruments with tuned metal tines mounted on a sounding box, sometimes called a thumb piano. Cooder eventually discovered that Wesley made an array mbira with electric pickups so that it could be plugged in, adjusted with effects and amplified for records or a venue. “That's what enabled me to start to do my own shows, because I don't play guitar or I don't play other normal things that people play,” he says. “Once I had this under my fingers, I was able to start singing and writing my own songs. And wow, yeah, it changed everything.”

The enhanced mbira certainly sets the tone for Cooder’s acclaimed 2020 album Over That Road I’m Bound , a set of 12 covers songs from seminal Grand Ole Opry star and old-time vaudeville-style banjo entertainer Uncle Dave Macon. Its woody, plunky tones define the chords and melodies like big tropical rain drops or temple bells. Along with some light percussion, Ry Cooder’s banjo and the fiddling of Nashville’s Rayna Gellert, the overall effect is transcendental, airy and meditative, with Joachim’s striking voice over and within the music. Uncle Dave’s lyrics come off as innocent and playful, pointing to more family chemistry behind Joachim’s musical direction.

One day Joachim heard father Ry casually playing an old-time banjo tune that sounded deeply familiar. It was “Morning Blues” from Uncle Dave, and Joachim remembered that Ry had picked that for him as a boy. He got back into the artists’ catalog from the 1930s and 40s, collected into a big box set. “I started listening to all the songs with my daughter who became really obsessed with Uncle Dave Macon,” says Joachim. “Like it would be the only thing we could listen to in the house. From the minute she woke up, I had to put on a specific song before she would start eating breakfast. It just became this whole thing that she insisted upon. And because it was so immersive in our house at the time, I couldn't help but learn these. And then pretty soon I had ten songs that I knew, and that's what made me think I should record this. That would be that'd be so cosmic.”

Indeed it is, for its sound, so nurturing in a time of sacrifice and loss, and for its unpretentious, democratic tribute to a bygone country music pioneer. As Cooder notes, “Had I said I'm gonna go make a record where I'm reviving or thinking about a bygone era musician, I don't think I would know what to do. Or I would maybe get caught up and then overthink it. But because I went into it so backwards and because it was rooted in this thing that I was doing with my daughter, it was just so personal, because we all just loved the songs. And then once the record was done, upon reflection, it did seem that I was able to kind of frame Uncle Dave and his music in a more inclusive way.”

Enjoy the conversation with Joachim Cooder and a bonus chat with Nashville’s Daniel Tashian about his surprising collaborative album with songwriting legend Burt Bacharach in Episode 158 of The String.

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"One of the greatest ever to ever play music" – musicians pay tribute to David Lindley, who has died at the age of 78

Jackson Browne, Crosby & Nash, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart and Ry Cooder collaborator passed away months of illness

The respect David Lindley commanded as a player's player has echoed through the guitar world with the news of his passing yesterday (3 March) at the age of 78. Although known best for his work with Jackson Browne, Lindley's musical legacy goes wider and deeper.

"Rest in Peace to one of the greatest ever to ever play music," said Joe Bonamassa in tribute. "David Lindley changed the game for all of us."

No cause of death has yet been given but a fundraiser to help cover for Lindley's medical expenses for an undisclosed illness had been set up earlier this year.

After forming the folk-rock band Kaleidoscope in 1966, Lindley began to share his gifts as a valued and inspirational sideman with respected blues-rock musician Terry Reid in England during the early 70s before he came to the fore in his work with Jackson Browne . Lindley's contributions to 1977's multi-platinum Running On Empty proving to be a highlight with his lap steel solo on the title track is rightly regarded as a masterwork. 

The multi-instrumentalist would also contribute to three Linda Ronstadt albums, Rod Stewart's Atlantic Crossing and A Night On The Town, and Warren Zevon’s eponymous 1976 record.

Ry Cooder hired Lindley for his Bob 'Til You Drop and Jazz albums in the late '70s and the duo continued to collaborate on tours together in later years.

“The loss of David Lindley is a huge one," said Americana musician Jason Isbell in tribute. "Without his influence, my music would sound completely different. I was genuinely obsessed with his playing from the first time I heard it. The man was a giant.”

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Lindley would explore his own take on new wave with his band El Rayo-X in the early 80s and throughout his career displayed an ability to take to a wide range of stringed instruments as a creative spirit exploring musical possibilities. That perhaps explains why he moved away from mainstream rock in the late '80s, while occasionally returning to contribute to albums from Bob Dylan (1990's Under The Blood Red Sky) And John Prine 's 1991 release The Missing Years. 

"David could play pretty much any instrument you put in front of him with incredible versatility and expression," wrote Graham Nash on Instagram. "He was truly a musician’s musician and has been admired with awe and respect for such a long time now."

During the '90s Lindley and experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser released a series of albums built around their field recording expeditions in Madagascar and Norway, but he would return to Browne's band for a Spanish tour in 2006, releasing his last solo album a year later with Big Twang. 

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Remembering David Lindley, Multi-Instrumentalist With Jackson Browne’s Band

David Lindley and Jackson Browne in 2006

David Lindley, the multi-instrumentalist who was the featured accompanist for Jackson Browne’s band throughout the ’70s and performed on recordings by Linda Ronstadt, Graham Nash and David Crosby, Rod Stewart, and Warren Zevon, among others, died March 3, 2023. The news of his passing at age 78 was shared by many acquaintances on social media. The cause of death was not revealed but it’s known that Lindley had faced several serious medical issues. His daughter, Rosanne Lindley, announced in December that he had been hospitalized with pneumonia and also had kidney issues. A medical fundraiser had recently been started on his behalf.

Throughout the ’80s, while continuing to collaborate with many other musicians, Lindley fronted his own band, El Rayo-X. From his official biography: Lindley performed music that redefined the word “eclectic,” long championing the concept of world music. The David Lindley electro-acoustic performance effortlessly combined American folk, blues and bluegrass traditions with elements from African, Arabic, Asian, Celtic, Malagasy and Turkish musical sources. Lindley incorporated an incredible array of stringed instruments, including but not limited to, Kona and Weissenborn Hawaiian lap steel guitar, Turkish saz and chumbus, Middle Eastern oud and Irish bouzouki. The eye-poppingly clad “Mr. Dave’s” uncanny vocal mimicry and demented sense of humor made his onstage banter a highlight of the show.

Lindley was born on March 21, 1944, and grew up in southern California, first taking up the banjo as a teenager, and subsequently winning the annual Topanga Canyon banjo and fiddle contest five times as he explored the American folk music tradition. Between 1967 and 1971, Lindley founded and led the psychedelic rock band Kaleidoscope. In 1971, Lindley joined forces with Browne, serving as his most significant musical co-conspirator until 1981. He performed lap steel guitar and fiddle, and sang the falsetto on “Stay” on the 1977 tour in which Browne recorded his brilliant live-from-the-road Running On Empty album.

Two weeks after his passing, Browne posted a lengthy tribute to his friend, writing in part, “My own world is shattered by David’s passing. He was my friend and my teacher. It was with great pleasure and certainty that I revisited our special connection over the years. I guess I thought that he would always be around.”

In 1979, Lindley began working with old friend Ry Cooder on the latter’s Bop Till You Drop and The Long Riders soundtrack. Their musical collaboration continued for decades with recording projects and world tours as an acoustic duo.

In 1981, Lindley created El Rayo-X, which integrated American roots music and world beat with a heavy reggae influence. Throughout his distinguished career, Lindley was one of Hollywood’s most in-demand session musicians, working with a broad range of artists that included Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, and Joe Walsh.

In 1990 a chance meeting of Lindley and Jordanian-born percussionist Hani Naser led to an impromptu jam and an instant decision to take it on the road. The pair toured the world for the following six years. The duo recorded two self-released “Official Bootleg” compact discs, Live in Tokyo Playing Real Good and Live All Over the Place Playing Even Better .

Lindley and Browne reunited on stage many times over the years, including this performance of “Take It Easy” in 2006.

Related: Musicians we lost in 2023

Leland Sklar was among the many musicians who posted a tribute. “I will forever think off David and Jackson as one of the best teams I have ever played with. Both so gifted and so connected ….. so glad for all the years to have enjoyed with you both.”

It’s so sad to hear of David Lindley’s passing. He was a giant among musicians. Always his unique sound and style gave him away in one note. My thoughts are with his family. — Peter Frampton (@peterframpton) March 4, 2023

I’m crushed beyond words losing our beloved David Lindley. His brilliance, humor, kindness and total uniqueness will shine forever. RIP, dear friend. Thank you for the gift you will always be. My deep condolences to Joanie, Roseanne and all the family. — Bonnie pic.twitter.com/U7LlEuH8hq — Bonnie Raitt (@TheBonnieRaitt) March 9, 2023

Karla Bonoff wrote, “We have lost a very special soul.”

No words can describe the loss of David Lindley. He changed the game for all of us. Rest in peace sir. pic.twitter.com/eEqMaQM99v — Joe Bonamassa (Official) (@JBONAMASSA) March 4, 2023

Warren Haynes wrote, “David Lindley was a true stylist and a unique voice on whatever instrument he picked up. His lap steel playing in particular was a big influence on me. I’ve always put David on a short list of major influences on my slide playing- especially on the melodic side. Often times when I’m approaching a song or solo in a major key Lindley’s influence will appear automatically. His style was so vocalesque and his sense of melody was a deep well. I think of some of those Jackson Browne songs with David that we all heard on the radio in the seventies where his solos became part of the song to the point where even non-musicians could hum along. David leaves behind a beautiful trove of music for music lovers to enjoy for centuries to come.”

So sorry to hear the great David Lindley has passed away. The world has lost a brilliant musician. — Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 3, 2023

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5 Comments so far

God I love this man. So bad, so cool, so hip to the bone. Funnier than stink. I mean the shoes alone! And a pedal steel to melt your face. David, I am “crazy bout the Mercury”. Me too buddy. I will miss yo so very very much. Thank you David.

First time i heard of him was in the early 80’s. I saw Rockpalast concert in tv, where he played with El Rayo-X. I was stunned how good he was! Today i own all the El Rayo-X and Kaleidoscope cd’s. I also own many cd’s which he play as session musician. Thanks Mr. Dave and may you rest in peace. I will play your records as long as i live!

Damn! We will miss you. Too many cat food samwiches no doubt. He did one of the best driving songs ever, Mercury Blues. T for all the years of truly great music.

I saw David and El Rayo-X open up for Joe Walsh in 1981, one of my first concerts. We were really impressed, the crowd was there for Joe but everyone just ate up that opening act. Thanks for your talent and gifts to music.

Mr. Reggae Rhythm & Blues

There’ll never be another like you, oh how we’ll miss you, Rock the heavens man!

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