POP MUSIC REVIEW : Friends Take Care of a Friend at Palace Show

“What you’re seeing here tonight is a family gathering around one of its members,” said David Crosby from the Palace stage Sunday night, making his first concert appearance since his recent liver transplant.

Crosby’s presence on a show also featuring Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder, Graham Nash, David Lindley and Warren Zevon was appropriate. This evening was put together to raise money for Yvonne Calderon, wife of musician Jorge Calderon, who needs a kidney transplant.

The family theme put a fresh spin on the proceedings--literally, when Cooder and Lindley were joined by their talented children, percussionist Joachim Cooder and big-blues-voiced Roseanne Lindley in an opening acoustic set.

This launched a round-robin of performers in various combinations, marked both by rich music and affection for each other. Nash and Crosby blended voices flawlessly, while Browne’s seven-song set covered his full thematic range, from the political “Lives in the Balance” to the tender “For a Dancer,” the latter in a lovely version with just the singer at the piano and Lindley on fiddle.

It was a bit laid-back, though--until Lindley reconvened his band, El Rayo X, for its first concert in five years. The group’s playful world-rock mix of ska, blues, Tex-Mex, Turkish and who-knows-what other styles was as vibrant as Lindley’s polyester thrift-store wardrobe.