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Claremont COURIER/Friday, June 14, 2013 25-Festival Focus-

No one can coax a sliding sym-

phony of sounds from stringslike David Lindley. So it will be

a treat for music lovers when Mr. Lind-

ley, a longtime resident of Claremont,hits the stage at this weekends Clare-mont Folk Festival.

Itll be a treat for Mr. Lindley, too. Hes developeda penchant for Canadian folk festivals over theyears, because they have a kind of understood rulethat they have to get people from all over the world.Youll have master musicians from Senegal andHawaii and Madagascar and the Middle East andIreland, all on the same bill.

He hasnt participated in the local festival sincethe event, now in its 30th year, was in its infancy.

Nonetheless, he has long admired how the Clare-mont Folk Festival follows that Canadian model.With the festival moving to the Rancho Santa AnaBotanic Gardens this time around, it will havesomething else in common with the gigs organized

by our northerly neighbors.Itll be a Canadian festival, with beer, eh, he

said, doing his best imitation of comic SCTVcanucks Bob and Doug McKenzie.

Mr. Lindley shares another reason hes interestedin this years festival, aside from multicultural di-versity and libations. I cant wait to see HenryRollins!

Nabbing Mr. Lindley is a coup for festival organ-izers. Hes one of those people who are famous, butnot so youd know it.

He has joined an array of legendary musicians insession and on tour, including Jackson Browne, RyCooder, Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield, Dolly Parton,Linda Ronstadt and Rod Stewart. And theres some-thing about Mr. Lindley that inspires superlatives.David Crosby has pronounced him to have the besttone in the world. Ben Harper has written that thetouch and feel Lindley has on the many instrumentshe plays is straight-up sorcery. And Graham Nashwaxed poetic while describing Mr. Lindleys con-tribution to the Crosby, Stills & Nash songMutiny, calling his part like a sea serpent fromthe great depths. It comes screaming out of this darkocean and bursts through.

But he can walk down the street and duck into fa-vorite local haunts like Wolfes Market without at-tracting much notice.

Im in my house in Claremont at an undisclosedlocation, he said. And even though I can only lookmyself, which is a cross between Hannibal Lecterand John Quincy Adams, I can go places and peopledont know. I kept it like that on purpose. Its a goodway to do things.

Mr. Lindley evinced an attraction to anythingwith strings before he started school. He eventually

picked up his fathers ukulele, then switched tobanjo and then added guitar to his repertoire. It wasall about bluegrass for many years, with Mr. Lindleywinning the Topanga Canyon Banjo Fiddle contest5 years in a row before he finally plugged in and

became a rock and roller.Mr. Lindley first rose to international promi-

nence when, from 1967 and 1971, he lead the psy-chedelic group Kaleidoscope, which manyconsider the first world music rock band. From1981 through 1983, Mr. Lindley served as found-

ing bandleader for El Rayo-X, a group that inte-grated American roots music and world beat witha heavy reggae influence.

While the El Rayo period yielded memorable

songs, including Mr. Lindleys 1981 hit MercuryBlues, he is arguably best known for his partner-ship with Jackson Browne. Mr. Lindley joinedforces with Browne in 1970 and became his mostsignificant musical collaborator through 1981, withnotable moments including his soaring steel guitaron Brownes Running on Empty.

After years of working together, Mr. Lindley andMr. Browne meld together like warm honey and hottea, a symbiosis evident in more recent endeavors,as when Mr. Lindley joined Mr. Browne and per-cussionist Tino di Geraldo in a tour of Spain. Thattour led the Grammy-nominated 2010 double-livealbum Love is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino.

Mr. Lindleys career is so longstanding, hesstarting to think in decades. Hes not just goingthrough the motions, though.

He has traveled the globe, learning from the bestplayers on an array of instruments and has accord-ingly shifted his instrumental preferences. Wheretraditional 6-string guitar once held primacy, Mr.Lindley now gravitates to Hawaiian lap steel guitarsof various tunings, the Turkishsazand chumbus,

the Middle Eastern oudand the Irish bouzouki.Thats a thing I discovered a long time ago, he

said. As long as you stay in student mode, and Ivealways been a student, thats the key to learningmore and actually getting better.

Closer to home, Mr. Lindley has a soft spot in hisheart for the Folk Music Center. Hes purchased in-struments there, talked shop with store founders, thelate Charles and Dorothy Chase, and watched hisdaughter Roseanne grow up with the Chases grand-children, Ben, Joel and Peter Harper.

Ben, who has become an internationally noted mu-sician himself, counts Mr. Lindleywho mentoredhim almost by osmosisas one of his greatest influ-ences. In a 2006 interview that he penned forThe

Fretboard Journal, Mr. Harper gave Mr. Lindley the

following commendation: To my grandparents, youwere the flesh incarnation of the folk music center.

Mr. Lindleys virtuoso ways have also trickleddown to his daughter, who may or may not join him

on the Claremont Folk Festival stage, but who hasperformed with him all over the world. Shes amulti-instrumentalist too, currently specializing inthe bouzouki and the divan saz, which is the largestTurkishsaz. It is her pipes, though, that most im-

press her dad.Shes this incredible singer, a terrifying singer,he marveled. Its nature. She just had this giganticvoice come out of her when she was 15 years old.

Life isnt all music making for Mr. Lindley. Hesgotten a touch more involved with business as, tak-ing a cue from alternative folk rocker Ani Difrancoand her Righteous Babe Records, he has started hisown record label.

The old way of doing thingsits like being asharecropper, Mr. Lindley said of working with the

big record labels. Its a strange system, but its per-petuated because [musicians] are always told its theonly way to do things, you cant do it all yourself.

There is a great article called Courtney Does theNumbers, in which Courtney Love comes up with ascenario of a band that gets a million dollar advanceand explains what happens to it and how it all dis-appears, he continued. And they all end up work-ing day jobs at 7-11. She nailed it better than anyone.Younger musicians need to read that sort of thing.

Hes also an avid follower of politics, and enjoysa good rant. He will talk to anyone who will listenabout his current cause, the potential dangers of ge-netically modified crops.

Food is being genetically modified in order toobtain a patent on it, not for feeding the poor ortending the crop, he said. Its to collect the roy-alty on intellectual propertythats the reality ofit. I take the opportunity to talk about it on stage,and I make people uncomfortable, thats part ofwhat I do.

And while his bow has been gathering dust of late,Mr. Lindley enjoys unwinding with archery. Hellhead for an indoor range and benefit from an activ-ity that is really an active form of meditation, andwhose philosophy also applies perfectly to musi-cianship.

My friend Janet Dykmanshe was on anOlympic teamone of her coaches told me Go outthere, unscrew the top of your head, pull out your

brain and put it on a shelf. Then screw the top ofyour head back on with no brain in there and go outand shoot, he recalled. It was the most productivething anyone ever said to me.

Mr. Lindleys music career continues, more pro-ductive than ever, and he doesnt see himself stop-

ping anytime soon.I worked with the Blind Boys of Alabama and

these guys are in their 70s, a couple are in their 80s,and theyre still touring as if they were 30 yearsold, he said. Youve got people like Clifton Che-nier who had diabetes and lost his legs. And theyd

just strap him into the chair, hand him his accordion,adjust the microphone and there you go.

Its that bop-till-you-drop type of thing, Mr.Lindley continued. And when I leave this particu-lar dimension, I will most probably be on stage ordriving to a concert.

Along with David Lindley, the Claremont FolkFestival will feature an array of performers, includ-ing Leon Mobley & Da Lion, Henry Rollins, JanetKlein and Her Parlor Boys, Peter Harper, RoundMountain and Moira Smiley & Voco. It will be heldon Saturday, June 15 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more information, visit www.folkmusiccenter.com/folk-festival.

Sarah Torribio

storribio@claremont-courier.com

Lindley will string audiences along at Claremont Folk Festival

Photo courtesy of Philip BarlowDavid Lindley will perform this Saturday at ClaremontFolk Festival at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.