David Lindley, guitarist with Jackson Browne, dies at 78

David Lindley, a multitalented guitarist who was a fixture in Los Angeles recording studios throughout the Seventies and ’80s, died on Friday. He was 78.

A supply near Lindley confirmed his demise to The Times. No explanation for demise was given, however a fundraiser to cowl medical bills from an undisclosed sickness had been arrange earlier this yr.

After founding the psychedelic folk-rock group Kaleidoscope in 1966, Lindley supported most of the greatest stars of the period, establishing himself as a sought-after session musician by means of his work with Jackson Browne. After taking part in a outstanding half on Browne’s “For Everyman” (1973) and “Late for the Sky” (1974), Lindley got here to the forefront on 1977’s multiplatinum “Running on Empty,” taking part in an indelible lap metal solo on the album’s title observe and sharing lead vocals on the hit cowl model of Maurice Williams’ ”Stay.” Lindley additionally performed on Linda Ronstadt’s “Heart Like a Wheel” and Warren Zevon’s eponymous 1976 album, whereas additionally showing on information by Crosby & Nash, Rod Stewart and Ry Cooder.

Americana singer-songwriter and guitarist Jason Isbell tweeted, “The loss of David Lindley is a huge one. Without his influence my music would sound completely different. I was genuinely obsessed with his playing from the first time I heard it. The man was a giant.”

On albums recorded together with his band El Rayo-X within the early Nineteen Eighties, Lindley displayed the complete vary of his musical pursuits, significantly in non-Western sounds. Lindley’s omnivorous tastes prolonged to the devices he performed. He accrued all method of stringed devices from across the globe — he said that he had “no idea” what number of devices he may truly play — usually specializing find distinctive sounds within the sorts of low-cost devices different skilled gamers would keep away from.

Born in San Marino, Calif., on March 21, 1944, Lindley grew up in a musical family, surrounded by his father’s eclectic assortment of 78 rpm information. When he was a baby, Lindley began taking part in banjo and fiddle, quickly buying sufficient ability that he grew to become a five-time winner of the annual Topanga Canyon Banjo Contest. While attending La Salle High School in Pasadena, he shaped the folks group the Mad Mountain Ramblers, who began taking part in in Los Angeles folks golf equipment. There, he met Chris Darrow forming the short-lived Dry City Scat Band earlier than Lindley began dabbling in electrical music. The pair reunited in Kaleidoscope, a psychedelic band that launched its first album, “Side Trips,” in 1967. That yr, Lindley landed his first notable session work when he performed quite a lot of devices on Leonard Cohen’s debut album, “Songs of Leonard Cohen.”

Often drawing upon Middle Eastern musical ideas, Kaleidoscope lasted by means of 4 albums earlier than splitting in 1970. Lindley headed to England, the place he performed with blues-rocker Terry Reid for a few years, showing on Reid’s 1972 album, “River.” After finishing his stint with Reid, Lindley joined Browne’s band. Soon he grew to become a trusted collaborator, showing on each album Browne launched between 1973’s “For Everyman” and 1980’s “Hold Out.”

While he was a fixture in Browne’s band, Lindley performed periods with most of the greatest stars of the mid-Seventies. Ronstadt employed him for a trio of albums — “Heart Like a Wheel,” “Prisoner in Disguise” and “Simple Dreams” — and Rod Stewart introduced him in to play on “Atlantic Crossing” and “A Night on the Town.” While producing Warren Zevon’s first album for Asylum, Browne had Lindley play fiddle and slide guitar; Zevon would rent Lindley once more within the Nineteen Eighties. Ry Cooder enlisted him for “Jazz” and “Bop Till You Drop” within the late Seventies, sparking a collaboration that continued for many years; the pair would often tour as a duo, with considered one of these ventures captured on the 2019 launch “Cooder/Lindley Family Live at the Vienna Opera House.”

Lindley put session work on the again burner within the early Nineteen Eighties when he shaped El Rayo-X, a bunch he characterised as “more or less a party band.” On the self-titled 1981 album and its 1982 sequel, “Win This Record!,” Lindley performed a full of life, vaguely new wave-inspired model of roots-rock that discovered area for reggae rhythms together with an impish humorousness; he rewrote the Huey Piano Smith hit “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Blues” as “Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Blues” and penned an ode to condoms with “Ram a Lamb a Man.”

After “Very Greasy,” a Ronstadt-produced album from 1988, Lindley misplaced curiosity in mainstream rock alongside together with his major-label contract. While he would nonetheless seem on outstanding albums like Bob Dylan’s “Under the Red Sky,” Iggy Pop’s “Brick by Brick” and John Prine’s “The Missing Years,” he pursued extra esoteric pursuits on his personal.

Starting with 1991’s “A World Out of Time,” he and avant-garde guitarist Henry Kaiser launched a sequence of albums primarily based on area recording expeditions held in Madagascar and Norway. Around this time, Lindley struck up a partnership with Hani Naser, recording a sequence of albums with the Jordanian oud participant. He additionally developed an everlasting relationship with reggae percussionist Wally Ingram.

Over the following few a long time, Lindley fortunately resided on the fringes of mainstream music however would often re-enter the highlight. He reunited with Browne for a tour of Spain in 2006; the live shows offered the supply materials for the stay album “Love Is Strange.” That similar yr, Ben Harper had him play guitar on “Both Sides of the Gun.” Lindley launched his final solo album, “Big Twang,” in 2007, a yr by which he additionally scored the Werner Herzog documentary “Encounters at the End of the World” with Kaiser.

Lindley was a longtime resident of Claremont, Calif. He is is survived by his spouse, Joan Darrow — sister of his Kaleidoscope bandmate Chris Darrow — and their daughter, Rosanne Lindley.