Energy to spare: Eric Lindell kicks it up a notch

“Bam, Bam, Bam.”

Those are the words Eric Lindell used to describe his latest CD, which he recorded with an eight-piece band that included two saxophone players. The music is as close as Lindell and company could come to giving listeners a CD that fully captures the high-charging emotions in the shows.

“We all got together and knocked it out at the same time,” Lindell said. “The thing with this record was that I was trying to capture..the highlights of my live set.”

As fans know, that would include plenty of high-energy, chill-inducing moments of extraordinarily beautiful renditions of Lindell’s work and covers of some classic but semi forgotten tunes including Cryin’ Time, written by Buck Owen but made famous by Ray Charles. Perhaps its Lindell’s reverence for the classic musical greats and surely his knowledge of their work that makes his music a bounty for those that seek hearty, full-bodied songs with plenty of energy and passion.

Although the “Gulf Coast Highway” album — named after the well-known thoroughfare that runs between New Orleans and Florida — has Lindell’s distinctive sound, he finds it more upbeat, peppy, and joyful than some of his other work. Credit part of the free wheeling fun to the musicians gathering in one place to record the songs, rather than relying on recording individual snippets and then melding them together, as some musicians do.

“These were just songs I really liked and you just kind of mix it up,” Lindell said. “It’s got a lot of energy …It might just be my best album.”

Get ready to hear plenty of new music, too, from what will be an album that Lindell hopes to release in the next few months.

“That’s what fuels you as an artist,” he said. “It certainly does me as a writer.”

The musicians Lindell used on the new record include Ivan Neville of the Neville Brothers on keyboards and Robert Mercurio of Galactic on bass.

Lindell culled the songs from many that he’d written through the years. He also wrote new material and revisited covers he had wanted to record including one by Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions.

“It has more of a raw, live feel to it,” he said of the album. “It’s spontaneous, just like a live show.”