27 December : Ry Cooder

Ry Cooder’s eponymous debut album set the template for what followed: great early-20th century tunes, well arranged, well played with slide guitar to the fore. At this stage of his career, though, his voice was, shall we say, undeveloped.

The musicians are pals he’d made during his early time as a session player and with Captain Beefheart, though, in true session player fashion, they are uncredited.

I’ve owned this album on vinyl for quite some time but haven’t played it much. There’s nothing wrong with it as such, I just prefer his later stuff, and certainly the classic Bop Til You Drop (1979). I don’t mind my music being rough-hewn, in fact I often prefer it that way, but there’s something about this that isn’t quite right, like he was searching for his sound but hasn’t quite found it. The solo version of Blind Blake’s Police Dog Blues is really good, though, as is his rendition of Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Is The Night (which he came back to later in his career).

Although I have the LP, I listened on Spotify. The Album exists as an official playlist on YouTube, but the embed feature looks to have been disabled. You’ll find it here.