RIP David Lindley

Yet another great musician gone. I fear the next ten years (or even the rest of this decade) will be brutal, at least as far as the 60's and 70's generations of musicians is concerned.

I have been a huge David Lindley fan since I first heard him on Jackson Browne's 'Running on Empty' cut 'Stay'. His plaintive falsetto "Oh, won't you stay ... just a little bit longer" always cracked me up. Then I learned how great a musician he was, and bought all his albums. His 'Mercury Blues' cover even made it on 'Miami Vice' in the late 80s.  It wasn't until the early 2000s that I ever got to see him live, once with Jackson Browne, and twice as a solo. An Incredible talent and unique persona, he will be missed. 

David Lindley was an incredible talent. He was one of those people who could take a banana with a string on it and make it sound spectacular. I started taking banjo lessons (and later on, guitar and mandolin) from David when I was 15, and he was extremely helpful and supportive – he even loaned me his banjo (because I still had a “cheapie”) for my first “real serious gig” at Disneyland when I was 16. When I was 17, he started the band Kaleidoscope, and offered to give me his students to take over from him. About a year and half later, I went to college, and he came back to the same music store and took over his students again. Then a year later, after I returned from college, he told me he was going on tour with Terry Reid, and asked me again to take over his students! David was one of those rare musicians like Larry Carlton, Jeff Beck, and Ry Cooder, would always play something that was exactly “right” for the song. I miss him.

Wow...El Rayo Ex was the hottest obscure band during its relatively short time and Lindley was brilliant solo or as a sideman. I listen to his stuff often. Mister Dave...

David Lindley was one of my favorite musicians.  Some enduring memories...

70s with Jackson Browne - they performed an acoustic duo set opening for Bonnie Raitt.  A few months later, I saw them with a full band on the Running on Empty tour.  I still can't decide which I liked better.

80s with El Rayo X - in town for a couple days, David Lindley offered a challenge to all the guitar players in the audience to return the next afternoon.  For $5, you could cut heads with him to see who could play a song (Maple Leaf Rag?) faster.  If you won, you got $500.  He said he'd never lost, though (and we believed him)

90s - another duo show, this one with Ry Cooder on a summer afternoon, along the Eel River.  Forced to pick one of these shows to re-live for the rest of my life, I'd end up here.

00s - playing with John Hammond & Charlie Musselwhite as the Spirit of the Century Band with The Blind Boys of Alabama.  As great as it sounds

RIP Prince of Polyester