- Talking Timbuktu (with Ry Cooder) · 1984
- Cocktail (Original Soundtrack) · 1987
- Boomer's Story · 1972
- Bop Till You Drop · 1979
- Mambo Sinuendo · 2003
- Paradise and Lunch · 1974
- Talking Timbuktu (with Ry Cooder) · 1984
- Talking Timbuktu (with Ry Cooder) · 1984
- Paradise and Lunch · 1974
- The Prodigal Son · 2018
- Talking Timbuktu (with Ry Cooder) · 1984
- Paris, Texas (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) · 1985
- Paradise and Lunch · 1974
Essential Albums
- Meeting for the first time, maverick guitarist Cooder and Hindustani virtuoso Bhatt improvised these four subtle, beautiful instrumentals. Both play slide guitar, with Cooder on bluesy bottleneck and Bhatt playing his own invention, the Mohan veena, which provides keening, almost vocal sounds on the slowly unfolding title track. The music literally goes all over the map, with Cooder laying Mississippi Delta licks over an Indian-styled raga. The elegant finale, "Isa Lei," shows their intuitive connection—two instrumental voices merging into one.
- In 1974, while songs like “Kung-Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas and Abba’s “Waterloo” were topping the charts, what was Ry Cooder up to? Well, he was playing duets with jazz legend Earl “Fatha” Hines on ragtime classics like Blind Blake’s “Diddy Wah Diddy,” of course. Iconoclasts don’t come more personable than Cooder, and Paradise and Lunch is as celebratory and fun as eccentricity can be. As usual, Cooder rematches and reconfigures song styles from across the spectrum, turning Bobby Womack’s “It’s All Over Now” to a Jamaican shuffle and Washington’s Phillips haunting 1929 church warning “You Can’t Stop a Tattler” into the warmly orchestrated ode to true love that is “Tattler.” Cooder’s take on Blind Willie McTell’s “Married Man’s A Fool” is one of his most rocking moments, but the highlight of the album is “Walls Don’t Talk.” With its layers of interlocked guitar and shuffling, chunky groove, Little Milton’s song about the trustworthy nature of inanimate objects rollicks with grinning jubilation.
- Among the loosest and warmest collections Ry Cooder ever recorded, Chicken Skin Music is notable for its introduction of Tex-Mex and Hawaiian styles into the repertoire of blues, country, and gospel Cooder had been mining since his debut. With a cast that features Tejano accordionist Flaco Jimenez and Hawaiian slack-key guitar legends Gabby Pahinui and Atta Isaacs (not to mention jazz titans Red Callender, Benny Powell, and Oscar Brashear) there is a familial atmosphere to Chicken Skin Music, as Cooder brings together roots musicians from all different genres in an expression of cohesion among the regional musical styles of the United States. Never one to play a straight cover, Cooder conducts a Tejano version of Leadbelly’s “Goodnight Irene” and turns Ben E. King’s pop-soul standard “Stand By Me” into accordion-inflected gospel. “Chicken skin” is Hawaiian slang for “goose bumps,” and there is indeed something warmly mysterious and slightly supernatural about the album’s once-in-a-lifetime gathering of talent.
- 2022
- 2008
Artist Playlists
- The cult hero who rules the roots-guitar roost.
Singles & EPs
Compilations
Appears On
- The Chieftains
- Ali Farka Touré
About Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder is regarded as one of America’s greatest guitar stylists, a distinction he’s earned through classic solo albums as well as groundbreaking collaborations. Born in Los Angeles in 1947, Cooder first turned heads with the rootsy rockers Rising Sons, whose members also included bluesman Taj Mahal and future Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy. With a lean, wiry style and a special gift for slide guitar, he became a ubiquitous L.A. session player in the late ’60s, working with Captain Beefheart, The Rolling Stones, and many others. In 1970, his self-titled debut album kicked off a long string of cult classics combining old-school country, folk, and blues material with contemporary influences. By the ’80s, he had become an in-demand soundtrack composer, creating scores for The Border, Paris, Texas, and more. In the ’90s, his pancultural collaborations with Indian guitarist V. M. Bhatt and Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré on A Meeting By the River and Talking Timbuktu, respectively, helped popularize West African and South Asian sounds in the U.S. But the monolith in that regard is the 1997 Buena Vista Social Club album he oversaw in Havana, featuring an older generation of master Cuban musicians performing classic Cuban material. The Grammy-winning record became an international phenomenon, with intercontinental touring and a Wim Wenders documentary. The mercurial Cooder continued his rootsy explorations on later albums like 2005’s Chávez Ravine and 2018’s The Prodigal Son.
- HOMETOWN
- Los Angeles, CA, United States
- BORN
- March 15, 1947
- GENRE
- Rock