| David Lindley | |
|---|---|
David Lindley at Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City, Missouri March 19, 2011 |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | De Paris Letante, Mr. Dave |
| Born | March 21, 1944 San Marino, California United States |
| Genres | Rock, country, world music |
| Occupations | Musician, Songwriter, Producer, Music scorer |
| Instruments | Acoustic and electric guitar, Upright and electric bass guitar, banjo, oud, mandolin, lap steel guitar, hardingfele, bouzouki, cittern, bağlama, gumbus, charango, cümbüş, ud, violin, weissenborn, zither |
| Years active | 1966–present |
| Labels | Asylum, Atlantic, Epic, RCA Victor, Shanachie |
| Associated acts | Kaleidoscope, El Rayo-X, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt |
| Website | Official Website |
| Notable instruments | |
| Weissenborn lap slide Danelectro guitar models |
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David Perry Lindley (born March 21, 1944 in San Marino, California) is an American musician who is notable for his work with Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, and other rock musicians. He has worked extensively in other genres as well, performing with artists as varied as Curtis Mayfield and Dolly Parton. He has mastered such a wide variety of instruments that Acoustic Guitar magazine referred to Lindley, not as a multi-instrumentalist, but instead as a "maxi-instrumentalist" in a cover story about his career to date in 2005.[1] The majority of the instruments that Lindley plays are string instruments. They include (but are not limited to) the acoustic and electric guitar, upright and electric bass guitar, banjo, lap steel guitar, mandolin, hardingfele, bouzouki, cittern, bağlama, gumbus, charango, cümbüş, oud, weissenborn, and zither.
Lindley has performed as a member of the band Kaleidoscope, served as bandleader of his own band El Rayo-X, and has been hired to serve in that capacity for other artists on tour.[1]. In addition, he scores music to film and has worked extensively in that capacity as well.
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During 1966 to 1970 Lindley was part of the eclectic psychedelic band Kaleidoscope. Between his work in the studio as a session musician or on tour as a sideman or bandleader, Lindley has worked on learning new instruments. He was the leader of his own band, El Rayo X, from 1981 to 1983, which produced three albums.
Lindley is known for his work as a session musician. He has contributed to recordings and live performances by Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Curtis Mayfield, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Terry Reid, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart. He has also collaborated with fellow guitarists Ry Cooder and Henry Kaiser. Artist Ben Harper has credited Lindley's distinctive slide guitar style as a major influence on his own playing and in 2006 Lindley sat in on Harper's album Both Sides of the Gun. He is known in the guitar community for his use of "cheap" instruments sold at Sears department stores and intended for amateurs. He uses these for the unique sound they produce, especially with a slide. In the early 1990s, he toured and recorded with Hani Naser adding percussive instruments to his solo performances, and his instrumental repertoire which he uses in his session work. In recent years, Lindley has also toured extensively and recorded with reggae percussionist Wally Ingram. It is his touring around the world that has exposed him to part of his array of instruments that appear exotic to many Western audiences.
While Lindley is not known as a vocalist, his voice has been widely heard in the version of Stay performed by Jackson Browne. Browne's version is a continuation of The Load Out, and its refrain is sung in progressively higher vocal ranges. The refrain of "Oh won't you stay, just a little bit longer" is sung first by Browne, then by Rosemary Butler, then by Lindley in falsetto.[2]
Lindley joined Jackson Browne for a tour of Spain in 2006. "Love is Strange," a 2-CD set of recordings from that tour, was released May 11, 2010, with Browne and Lindley touring together starting in June.[3]
Lindley has an extremely large collection of rare, and to the majority of Westerners, unusual looking and sounding instruments. There is a large and detailed display of quite a few rare guitars, as well as instruments that originate from the Middle East and other parts of the world. Lindley has listed and categorized many of them on his website[4] but admits that he has "absolutely no idea" how many instruments he owns and plays, having gathered them since the 1960s.[1]