Eric Lindell @ Sullivan Hall, February 11
If you were around Manhattan in the late ’80s and early ’90s seeing music night in and night out, you lived through a special time. Bars and clubs all over town were pumping out soulful sounds, bluesy stomps and rockin’ romps. Delta 88 over behind FIT, Manny’s Car Wash on the Upper East, Dan Lynch’s on the corner of 14th & 2nd, the Mondos in the West Village and of course Tramps on 21st or the Lonestar on 5th Avenue. On any given night, at any of these venues, one could walk through the door to hear Dr. John or Joey Miserable & the Worms, The Meters or Joan Osborne, Stevie Ray Vaughan or Blues Traveler, Chris Whitley or the Spin Doctors. And in almost every band there was a guitar slinger burning up the stage.

[All photos by Marc Millman]
If you missed those seedier days in the City, but you’ve been down to N’awlins, then you can appreciate this type of atmosphere. And Eric Lindell from NOLA by way of San Mateo, CA is the right man at the right time to help invoke that atmosphere. Lindell has been making albums since 1996. But he really hit his stride after signing to Alligator Records in 2006, where he recorded three albums. The first album, Change In The Weather (2006) was a compilation of his early albums and EPs. He followed that with Low On Cash, Rich In Love (2008) and Gulf Coast Highway (2009). He played a sampling from those albums as well as last year’s Between Motion and Rest and Cazadero (set to be released on March 22nd).
Lindell’s band has a great mix of a young rhythm section and some older “veterans.” Watching Will McMains (drums) & Myles Weeks (stand-up bass) play off of each other is a lot of fun. McMains looks like he could just be graduating from high school. And yet he plays with a subtle swinging touch that most of today’s rock drummers seem to lack as they pound on their kits. And Weeks really works that upright bass, forcing even Lindell to watch him and just smile as they jam. These two were augmented by another band regular, Derek Huston (ex-Iguanas) on saxophone along with Chris Fitzgerald (saxophone) and Arne Wendt (keys).
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