Sonny Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar Concert Review

Setlist:

Blues Attack

Key to the Highway

Don't Ask Me

A World Away

Blacktop Run

Jukebox Mama

Makes No Difference

Walking Blues

Wrong Things

Foggy Mountain Rock

Back to Bayou Teche

Prodigal Son

Sey Seychelles

Congo Square

Sonny Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar played The Falcon in Marlboro NY on September 3rd, in a night of great, pure, slide guitar.  Cindy mentioned she knew there were some players in the house, and pointed out that they were starting out tuned in an open, minor key. Sonny played two Strats – one Black and a sort of Sunburst.  Cindy switched continuously between three different lap guitars: a grey National resonator, a black Beard dobro and a blonde Crown lap (L to R below left).  I had not heard of Beard or Crown before, but if you want to take a look at some absolutely gorgeous custom guitars, check out beardguitars.com (MD) and crownguitar.com (TX). On the Beard, Cindy played with the head down at about a 10 degree angle (below).  Now I am not a guy who ever really notices footwear, but watching her from point blank range, her boots did grab my attention.  Are those LEDs on the heel? It looks like they’re glowing.

I’ve seen Sonny Landreth several times now, and I have decided that one could spend quite a while watching him and still not grasp everything he is doing, with both hands. Playing with the flat of his right hand, barring the fret with his ring finger above the slide on his pinky, then bringing his right hand up above his fretting hand (L to R below) to name only a few. BTW, Sonny has recorded with Joe Satriani (and Eric Johnson), it just occurred to me to mention - on Elemental Journey. I can sure recommend it if you haven’t heard it.  

Cindy played with a plastic thumb pick and metal picks on her index and third fingers (below).  On the Crown guitar, she seemed to favor a nearly horizontal orientation. She switched between two different tonebars – one “bullett” style, the other a more complicated shape with an apparent finger groove running along the top (lower right).

The show began with seriously crowd-pleasing Blues Attack and Big Bill Broonzy’s Key to the Highway.  I did notice that Cindy had to de-tune and re-tune fairly often as her instruments and the songs changed.  It looked like sometimes just the E string, other times multiple strings.  Then they performed a rockin’ Don’t Ask Me, a song written by keyboardist Steve Conn.  At several points, Sonny Landreth seemed to be anchoring his first two fingers on the fretguard and then plucked/swept with his ring finger and pinky.  Then he’d lose the anchor and tap with all fingers of his right hand.  From what I could see, his nails were cut pretty short. 

They slowed it down with a beautiful A World Away, and then pretty much torched Blacktop Run, a tune with a wonderful on the road vibe. Sonny introduced Jukebox Mama by telling the origin story for it: A 24 hour Louisiana restaurant with a fantastic jukebox that only had Muddy Waters, Clifton Chenier, and Buckwheat Zydeco on it, a place where you could get yourself a pork chop at 4 AM, where they ended up often, and danced.  Some of the right-hand technique from Sonny just sort of happened too fast for me to capture a picture, but he would sweep the strings with the back of his pinky, and at other times he seemed to do a glissando on multiple strings but the amazing part was that he did it with the fingertips of his right hand. On your fretting hand I can understand, but how the heck did he do that without just quenching those strings? Perhaps the answer to that is: many long years of practice and just phenomenal skill.

One of the real peaks for the show was their interpretation of Walking Blues.  Cindy Cashdollar played what for me is the absolute hottest electric Blues solo on a lap guitar that I have ever heard.  Wow.  They then did Wrong Things and Foggy Mountain Rock, the latter a tune many folks at The Falcon had been consistently yelling for. These two musicians were clearly enjoying themselves.

Next they played Back to Bayou Teche.  It captured that unmistakable, instantly recognizable Sonny Landreth sound.  Super buoyant music that simply makes you feel good when you hear it. The duo then performed Prodigal Son. Sonny introduced this song by saying he learned it by listening to the Keith Richards cover of this Rev. Robert Wilkins song. It was a showcase of elegant, haunting slide by Cindy. The penultimate selection was Sey Seychelles. This is apparently an ancient song, for which there is no writer credit. Cindy played absolutely beautifully. On this tune, I somehow heard Jerry Douglas.  Thinking about that, did Cindy Cashdollar sound a bit like Jerry Douglas there, or could the reverse be true – that Jerry Douglas likes Cindy Cashdollar’s slide guitar? I don’t know, but I feel very lucky that we got to watch this show.

Many in the crowd were screaming for Congo Square, and I really could not disagree.  Personally, I like Congo Square A LOT.  It is utterly fantastic Blues.  Particularly if you have spent any time at all in The Quarter. Sonny introduced their closing song by saying “we’re going to wing it here.” They played it with a bit of a jam quality, which was a real nice surprise.  I have had some times in Nawlins.  And good times that.  “They play their drums at night in Congo Square.”  Yeah.  The artists on Jackson Square, the music on damn near every corner, Hurricanes, K-Paul’s, the people in the streets (and on the balconies), Tipitina’s, The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Marie Laveau, the list just goes on. 

If I were to try and summarize, I would simply say what a pleasure it was to see these two slide masters, Sonny “Cajun Santana” Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar. What I am thinking: it doesn’t get any better than this.

- Dr. Carl, Sep. '25