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.
RIP David Lindley
Lindley was brilliant with multiple instruments, best known for his work with Jackson Browne and his own band El-Rayo X. I was lucky to see him a few times, including a great show in the 80s, when he was having a big moment. In person he was funny, eccentric, and endlessly musically inventive. And of course that Nasby & Crosh t-shirt!