David Lindley was out on the Olympic Peninsula tonight in Port Townsend, a charming town full of Victorian achitecture, teens who can't spell, anarchist publishers, and retrograde symbolic politix.

Lindley is a stringed instrument ace who accompanied the famous 70s rock singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, but that notation alone hardly does him justice.

Lindley plays acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, steel and slide guitars, Turkish saz, bouzouki, Middle Eastern oud and a number of other stringed devices, all quite tunefully.

And he's been at it for more than 40 years. Most folks aren't aware of the great 60s L.A. rock group Kaleidescope, in which Lindley played a key part. While everyone back then and there was buzzing about the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield (both of whom I still love), Kaleidescope was also tearing up Sunset Strip. I was lucky enough to discover Kaleidescope in the early 80s in Waltham, Massachusetts, at Brandeis University's radio station, WBRS-FM, where I was a DJ and Music Director.

At the time, all the 60s albums there were labelled "Electric Blues." Made it easy to find the choice, quirky, old stuff. Like Kaleidescope. This amazon.com reviewer has more, on the group:

Psychedelic music at its most potent, and enjoyable! Extremely talented multi-instrumentalists who preceded the World Music movement by many years....Thoroughly recommended.

Lindley also recorded a fine CD with indigenous musicians of Madagascar. He joined with avant-rock-folk guitarist Henry Kaiser on that project in the early 90s; they went native.

David: come to Seattle soon! Maybe to the Tractor Tavern? Why, we'd even get a babysitter if you did.

There aren't a lot of 60-something guys with hair down to their shoulders that I'm ready to take seriously. But David Lindley is one of them. Long may you rock, sir.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 3, 2005 11:11 PM

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