Personnel: David Lindley (vocals, guitar, slide guitar, bouzouki, kora, mandolin, background vocals); Ray Woodbury (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, background vocals); Jorge Calder?n (vocals, maracas, background vocals); Rosanne Lindley, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt (vocals); William D. "Smitty" Smith (keyboards); Walfredo Reyes (drums, bongos, maracas, timbales, triangle, percussion); Wally Kings (drums); Lisa Millman, Suki Sirl, Linde Luu Thurman, Ty "The Guy" Braswell, Anny D. Semonco, Jeff Cook, Louis Heidelmeier, Ray "Stretch" Gmeiner, Karen Higgins, Karen Murphy, Rob Sides, Robin Sloane, Boy Mountain, Don "King" Frederick, Joan Lindley, Dominica Bilotti, Marco Pighini (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Ed Cherney ; James Geddes.
Recording information: Complex, Los Angeles, CA; SaMo Soun, Santa Monica, CA.
Photographer: Robert Blakeman.
Unknown Contributor Role: Jorge Calder?n.
After a six-year hiatus, David Lindley and his band return with a fine follow-up to WIN THIS RECORD. A new drummer and second guitarist have come aboard, but it is still Lindley's show. Except for one co-writing credit, VERY GREASY consists entirely of covers and outside material. But Lindley is so adept at choosing the right material for his voice and for his varied guitars and other stringed instruments--and his band is so sympathetically matched to such--that he makes the music his own.
"I Just Can't Work No Longer," graced with William Smith's pumping Hammond organ, is the sort of exceedingly simple song that is deceptively difficult to pull off. VERY GREASY also takes on Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance" and "Werewolves Of London," (by Lindley's pal, Warren Zevon) so well that you forget that other versions ever existed. The album sports another perfect closer in "Tiki Torches At Twilight," written by Bob Fuller--who has contributed many fine songs to Lindley's albums over the years. Unfortunately, VERY GREASY made no real commercial inroads, and Lindley folded the band a few years later.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone - 3 Stars - Good
Q (3/95, p.118) - 3 Stars - Good - "...El Rayo-X romp through 10 tunes using Tex-Mex two-steps and punchy Caribbean polyrhythms to power humorous lyrics and eccentric, dynamic guitar solos which are the very definition of the word virtuosity....Lindley's efforts shine."
