Ry Cooder

Somewhere in the sheaves of paper that Reprise sent out on Ryland P. Cooder's first solo
album there occurs a phrase which goes something like "this album is not so much as
re-interpretation of the existing body of blues literature as it is a contribution to it." That
would at first glance, seem the Pompous Phrase of 1970, if it weren't for the fact that it is
true Naturally. Cooder is no Robert Johnson, but he isn't trying to be his music is... More >

According to his own complaints, which may well be warranted, the world's favorite studio bottleneck is also the man from whom Mick and Keith stole "Let It Bleed." Now if only he could sing as good as Mick and Keith maybe he'd put his own blues synthesis across. As it stands, Cooder's singing and projection are so flat they recall the folkie fantasy in which the real blues comes from toothless old men on porches--songs by Tommy Tucker and Fats Waller and even Randy Newman (who gets a lot more out of his own narrow pipes) sound as humble as those by Sleepy John Estes and Blind Willie Johnson. Cooder has two folkie virtues, though--he remembers the Depression and he finds wonderful songs. Alfred Reed's "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times as These" is proof of both. (Grade: B)