With Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down Ry Cooder adds 49 other states to his list of concerns and brings us up to the present. His more recent California trilogy featured more self- penned songs while directing attention to social injustices that are part of the golden state’s history. Later, a focus on world music proved commercially rewarding due to the surprise success of Buena Vista Social Club. On this record and all his early efforts it was easy to imagine someone with a huge and somewhat eccentric 78 collection who somehow distilled the essence of different musical styles that were currently out of vogue while adding his own touch. The sheer joy of music-making jumped right out of those grooves. Well, Ry Cooder ain’t no musicologist as I discovered the first time I dropped a needle on Paradise and Lunch. Musicologists should write about music, but they should never play it. In the wrong hands, though, “historical authenticity” translates into dry or academic. If initially I was wary of artists plunging into roots music from bygone days, it wasn’t that I disliked the source. In the 1970s, when musicians mining America’s rich musical history were a much rarer breed, Ry Cooder was a pivotal figure.
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