Events

[ROCK] Most folks only familiar with David Lindley’s name in passing associate him with Jackson Browne—the lap steel sideman, the guy with the big hair who solos on “Running on Empty.” Lindley has also toured extensively with Browne, most recently as a duo, resulting in the 2010 co-billed live release Love Is Strange. Lindley has also played in touring bands for the late Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Curtis Mayfield, and Dolly Parton, among well over a dozen others. The key to his success is an unsurpassed instrumental prowess that’s seldom found in the rock canon: Lindley can play just about anything with strings on it. In a 2005 career-spanning cover story that ran in Acoustic Guitar, he was dubbed a “maxi-instrumentalist,” since “multi-” doesn’t quite cut it. In more musicianly circles, he’s known for taking cheaper, so-called “department store instruments” and incorporating them into his arsenal for the very specific tones they may produce (and/or altering them to elicit particular mutations). Now 72, he’s made it his business to expand his palette to include musical idioms that span the globe and has branched out into some percussion. Those more familiar might also know of his pioneering, genre-bending work in late 1960s with Kaleidoscope (signed with Epic for four albums) and his own band El Rayo-X, whose 1981 debut was produced by Browne. Lindley will dazzle at Sportsmen’s Tavern on Wednesday, March 15—a rare, intimate chance to see one of classic rock’s most celebrated session men in action.