Here's another impressive set from the Los Angeles session veteran and stringed-instrument master. David Lindley is a self-proclaimed rock & roll eccentric, and on his previous albums with his loose aggregation El Rayo-X (named after a particularly ferocious Mexican boxer, he claims), he covered a host of rock classics and semiclassics in a reckless ska style. Lindley showed that like his occasional collaborator Ry Cooder, he is more comfortable the farther he gets from the middle of the road.

Very Greasy is more of the same, nothing new but welcome nonetheless. With his barbed falsetto and army of guitars, Lindley continues to dismember and rev up old rock tunes like "Do Ya Wanna Dance" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," but the finest revision here is Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London," which is crazier and greasier than the writer ever imagined. The album goes out on "Tiki Torches at Twilight," a Casio-charged bopper that is as funny and lasting as a prime Fire-sign Theater record. Linda Ronstadt gets the production credit, and perhaps the best thing about this appropriately named album is that you'd never have guessed. (RS 540)

JIMMY GUTERMAN