Pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley has dozens of sideman credits. In the studio, he’s worked with New Orleans’ Mem Shannon, Lynn Drury, former local Shannon McNally and notable non-locals Joni Mitchell, Peter Rowan and Ruthie Foster. Easley’s on-stage credits include Dr. John, Cyril Neville, Col. Bruce Hampton and Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann.
A solo artist, too, Easley’s latest album is Easley Rider. It features 13 original songs recorded with local music veterans Alfred “Uganda” Roberts, percussion, René Coman, bass, and Doug Garrison, drums. Singer Kass Krebs also contributes lead and backing vocals.
The sound and spirit of the late 1960s run through Easley Rider. Opening song “I’m Crying” begins like classic Allman Brothers before segueing to a dreamy ’60s, San Francisco atmosphere including tribal percussion. Counterculture spirit also animates “Momma Was a Jailbird” and its Byrds-like vocals over a Bo Diddley beat. Easley’s Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead influences, heard in his light, simple singing and trebly guitar, are especially apparent in “Momma Was a Jailbird,”
“I Followed Her” unfolds like a blissful memory from paradise. Easley’s singing for the song is so familiar that he could be some obscure member of the Dead, Byrds or Jefferson Airplane, a member who somehow never made it onto those groups’ classic albums.
Easley’s unconventional voice is high, soft and thin. Unusual at first—possibly like an introductory hearing of Neil Young or Jimmie Dale Gilmore—it takes some getting used to. But his Easley Rider album, with thirteen songs, allows plenty of opportunity to grow accustomed to his voice. Easley also shares vocals with Krebs. She sings a solo verse of “Mockingbird,” a sweet, quiet song featuring Easley’s pedal steel guitar at its dreamiest. Krebs’ vocals also complement Easley in “The Date and the Hour,” producing a Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel kind of harmony that fits the song’s folk-rock context well. As for Easley’s principal voice, pedal steel guitar, that’s always fluid and inventive.
