Cindy Cashdollar Reviewed

Cindy Cashdollar

Slide Show (Silver Shot) After her decadelong stint in Asleep at the Wheel, Slide Show puts Austin steel mistress Cindy Cashdollar center stage. Since hers is by nature a collaborative instrument, she's drafted a whole side of A-listers to trade licks: Cajun virtuoso Sonny Landreth, Texas Playboys immortal Herb Remington, Hot Tuna's Jorma Kaukonen, and local aces Steve James and Redd Volkaert, to name a few. Oddly enough, the one man you'd most expect to be on here – Ray Benson – isn't. Dividing her time between steel and its earthier cousin the Dobro, Cashdollar and accomplices pick, swing, and slide their way through a dozen tracks, from a dusty duet with James on "Spanish Fandango" to hazy swampland reverie ("Sliding Home," with Landreth) and swooning Western swing ("Twin Guitar Special," with Remington). Guitarphiles will revel in the palette of sounds on display here – Strats, Steelmasters, Rickenbackers, Nationals, and so forth – while more casual listeners will likely gravitate to the two tracks with vocals. The New Orleans R&B of "Something I Can't Do" bounces with Marcia Ball and ex-Wheelman Johnny Nicholas, while old favorite "Milk Cow Blues" finds Nicholas plugging in some hot-to-trot alternate lyrics. Appropriately, Cashdollar closes Slide Show all by herself for "Locust Grove," a Daniel Lanois-like evocation of her family's homestead near Woodstock, N.Y. Steel and slide may not be most people's choice of lead instruments, but in the right hands, their unique sounds make Slide Show an enjoyable, well-executed, worthy effort.