In part of my interview with Pete Anderson that you didn't read in the January issue, the producer/guitarist moaned, "Most steel players, you just want to slap them because they never leave any holes!"

We've all heard the type of steeler Anderson is talking about, whose staggering technique comes at the expense of having precious little soul or taste. Thankfully, Cindy Cashdollar is the cure for what ails Pete and the rest of us: a steel and Dobro player who makes every note and nuance count. Cashdollar has worked with the likes of Bob Dylan, Leon Redbone, Gram Parker, and BeauSoleil, and was steel guitarist with Asleep At The Wheel for eight years. Surprisingly, though, Slide Show; (Silver Shot Records; distributed by Texas Music Round-Up) is her debut solo album.

Almost as illustration of her experience as a sideman, she generously shares the spotlight on the CD's dozen tracks with some fantastic musicians, many of them slide and steel players. But this mostly instrumental outing is far from a note fest. "Sliding Home," which finds her trading and blending lines with Sonny Landreth, is as good a definition of sympathetic interplay as you're likely to find. On "Speeding West," she and Lucky Oceans race each other around some mighty tight turns at hyper speed in a spirited tribute to the late Speedy West, with Redd Volkaert in the role of Speedy's Tele partner, Jimmy Bryant.

Cindy's instruments and tones range from a distorted 1930s Rickenbacher lap steel (on "Something I Can't Do") to the smooth-as-glass sound of her triple-neck Remington Steelmaster (on "Midnight In Old Amarillo")-with the man himself, the legendary Herb Remington. And she's perfectly in step with Steve James' National steel-bodied resophonic, on a pair of intricate duets featuring Cashdollar on a 1929 National Tricone. Other tracks range from swing (with Mike Auldridge) to blues (with Johnny Nicholas), with Jorma Kaukonen even dropping in for a moody original.

In a lesser player's hands, the stylistic grab bag might be jarring, but Cashdollar wraps the proceedings into a cohesive whole thanks to the quality that landed her the aforementioned gigs in the first place: taste.

From Vintage Guitar Magazine. ©2004 Dan Forte; all rights reserved. Reproduction or transmission of all or any part of this column, in any media, without the author's written permission, is strictly prohibited.