journal.nonesuch.com

Hartford Courant: Ry Cooder Has "Outdone Himself" with "I, Flathead"

Ry Cooder's latest Nonesuch release, I, Flathead, receives four stars from The Independent (UK). The third in a trilogy of California-focused albums that includes Cooder's previous album, My Name Is Buddy, and what reviewer Andy Gill calls "the superb Chavez Ravine," the new album tells the tale of a in mid-century car culture in the Golden State. He describes it this way:

Accompanied by a 95-page novella, the result is a diversely detailed portrait of outlaw spirits in a land of shrinking opportunities, where lives are built on dreamy foundations, and broken by disillusion. The trilogy offers an alternative history of a state which prizes myths and fanciful lies over stark reality.

To read the full review, visit independent.co.uk.

---

The Philadelphia Daily News gives the album an A. Reviewer Jonathan Takiff says that with I, Flathead, Ry "is really in his element." Takiff finds much to like in the project's "deliciously twisted tales ... Better yet," he continues, "this killer guitarist is rocking his box like we haven't heard him do in eons." He also praises the album's "glorious tributes to country greats, including the most-amazing '5000 Country Music Songs' ..." For the complete review, visit philly.com.

---

The Hartford Courant's rock critic Eric R. Danton says Ry's "outdone himself" with the new CD and accompanying novella. Danton sees the project as "an elegy for that unique American do-it-yourself weirdness increasingly crowded out by interconnectivity and cultural homogenization." All is not lost though, he concludes: "Fortunately, a hint of that old America lingers on, and Ry Cooder is one of those rare individualists who helps keep it going." To read the review, visit courant.com.

---

Pasadena Weekly counts Ry among "a threatened species: a bona fide Los Angeleno," something reflected in his California trilogy. The paper sums up I, Flathead as "a juicy celebration of hot rods, desert rats, sci-fi, and So Cal culture," and goes on to say:

The real value of Flathead is in how its often playfully amusing content thrives on truthful context; Cooder’s an avid historian of California’s constantly rewritten past, and few peers exhibit surer grasp of the myriad musical forms ... that have recorded its cultural evolution. As he did so masterfully in the more Latin-sounding Chavez Ravine, in the sounds and scenarios of Flathead he gets it right: Bakersfield-style twang, dirty blues guitar, lighthearted Western swing, mariachi’s romantic harmonies (courtesy of Mariachi Los Camperos), the lovable kitschiness of midcentury rock ’n’ roll style ...

Having explored North American music ... over four-plus decades, and with numerous awards and accolades under his belt for boundary-crossing collaborations with global legends like the late Ali Farka Toure and Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club, Cooder’s ideally situated to comment on how those musical traditions have been distilled within our dynamic culture. The world he recreates in his trilogy is California.

For more, visit pasadenaweekly.com.

AP: Ry Cooder's New Album an "Unqualified Success"

Ry Cooder's new album, I, Flathead, releases today and follows Chavez Ravine (2005) and My Name Is Buddy (2007) as the third and final album in Cooder's California trilogy. Two versions of the new record are available: the standard CD as well as a deluxe package with both the CD and the accompanying 95-page novella that Ry wrote in conjunction with the album songs, told from the perspective of the fictitious musician Kash Buk and featuring an oddball cast of characters and car obsessives from California's drag-racing salt flats in the 1960s. Ry will be on today's edition of Soundcheck on WNYC, New York public radio, to discuss his latest release with the show's host, John Schaefer. Listen live today at 2 PM ET on wnyc.org.

Associated Press writer Scott Bauer finds I, Flathead to be a fitting finish to Cooder's "intriguing" trilogy, calling it "another record that stands out for its lyricism and sounds a lot like a book set to music. Which, in this case, it is." Bauer concludes: "I, Flathead gives listeners (and readers) plenty to consider. And in that regard, it's an unqualified success." You can read the AP review in the San Francisco Chronicle at sfgate.com.

---

The Independent (UK)'s Nick Coleman calls the new album "immaculately played and produced high-resolution Americana ... This is Cooder doing what he does best, which is to summon a lost America from his fibres and set it to the music he hears in other people's heads."

---

BBC's Chris Jones says the new album sees Ry "combine the best of all his areas of expertise. It's for sure that whether you're a fan of his Americana, his guitar playing or just his fine writing that you'll be satisfied with I, Flathead."

"Cooder blends his love of country, blues, rock 'n' roll, and even mariachi," Jones continues, "weaving it in with the usual blend of sociopolitical history and a BIG dollop of humour." The reviewer points to two tracks on the album as welcome nods to earlier highlights from Cooder's career, writing: "Cooder's willingness to bring guitars back into centre stage means 'Steel Guitar Heaven' is a total, jazzy blast while 'Spayed Cooley' combines country swing with canine-related jokes."

Jones finds further references to the past on this "most typically 'Cooderish' album in a long while" in the track "Ridin' with the Blues," which, "with its references to his glory days on the road with the Stones may be the loudest, raunchiest thing he's done in a long while."

I, Flathead, Jones concludes, "is a fine end piece" to Cooder's California trilogy. To read the review, visit bbc.co.uk.

---

Click here to add Ry Cooder's I, Flathead deluxe CD + book directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $22 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge.

Ry Cooder Tops Billy Bragg's NY Times Playlist

Ry Cooder has topped the Sunday New York Times Playlist created by English singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, whose late-'90s collaboration with Wilco produced the memorable Mermaid Avenue albums, featuring the lyrics of Woody Guthrie.

Bragg says in the Times:

Ry Cooder is probably my guitar hero, as much for what he doesn't play as what he plays. The economy of his playing is something to be admired at a time when guitar players tend to think the more notes you play the better you are. My Name Is Buddy is up my street because it's capital-P Political. It's the story of the Depression told by a cat named Buddy. This does sound a bit odd ... but it works and hangs together beautifully.

There's a lot of love in the songs; they fit well in the tradition. Woody Guthrie's spirit runs through this record very strongly. Cooder plays stuff that we now refer to as Americana, but nobody called it that then. His excursions have been great, but for him to come back to where he began is pretty cool.

Listen to "One Cat, One Vote, One Beer" off of My Name Is Buddy:

To see what else Bragg recommends, you can read his complete Playlist at nytimes.com.

Happy Birthday to Ry Cooder

Nonesuch Records wishes Ry Cooder a very happy birthday tomorrow, March 15. Look for Ry's next Nonesuch release, titled I, Flathead, in stores this summer.

In the mean time, the Nonesuch Journal doesn't know exactly how Ry will be celebrating his birthday, but you can mark the occasion by listening to the very timely tune "One Cat, One Vote, One Beer," from Ry's most recent Nonesuch release, My Name Is Buddy, here:

Eight Grammy Nominations for Nonesuch Albums

 

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has just announced the nominees for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Nonesuch Records congratulates Wilco, Ry Cooder, Joshua Redman, and the cast of Company for their nods. Wilco is nominated for Best Rock Album for Sky Blue Sky, Ry Cooder for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album for My Name Is Buddy, and Joshua Redman for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance for Back East; the Broadway cast recording for Stephen Sondheim's Company is a nominee for Best Musical Show Album.

Heartfelt congratulations go to the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, whose recording of her husband Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs is nominated in an astounding three categories: Best Classical Album, Best Classical Vocal Performance, and Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Also recognized by the Academy is Judith Sherman, the longtime producer for Steve Reich and for Kronos Quartet; she was nominated for Classical Producer of the Year. Among the year's releases for which she received the nod is the Kronos recording of Górecki's String Quartet No. 3.

The Awards ceremony will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 10, 2008, and will be broadcast live on CBS. For the complete list of nominees, visit grammy.com.

Ry Cooder Wins Lifetime Achievement Award from Americana Music Association

Congratulations to Ry Cooder, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist by the Americana Music Association (AMA), in a ceremony held earlier this month at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.

The AMA is a professional trade organization working to promote public awareness of Americana music and advocate on its behalf. For more information, visit americanamusic.org.

Guardian Names 1,000 Must-Hear Albums (Part 1: A-M)

With iPods now holding up to 160 gigabytes of your favorite music, it might not be such a bad idea to start thinking of the 1,000 or so albums you just can't live without. Or, as the Guardian (UK) has put it, the 1,000 albums you must hear before you die. All this week, the Guardian is revealing, day by day, the records its music team thinks are must-hears "before you shuffle off your mortal coil."

Out so far on the list, released alphabetically by artist, are groups A through M. Here's some of what the Guardian's music mavens had to say about the Nonesuch albums they included:

• Amadou & Mariam: Dimanche à Bamako (2005) "This husband-and-wife rhythm and blues pairing from Mali were already huge in France before they added even more sparkle by hiring Manu Chao as producer. A sublimely paced record of pedal-to-the-metal acceleration and relaxed, freewheeling charm."

• Laurie Anderson: Big Science (1982, r. 2007) "Her dry humour, abrasive instrumentation and technological obsessions sound as current as ever: 'So hold me Mom, in your long arms. In your petrochemical arms. Your military arms. In your electronic arms.'"

• Buena Vista Social Club: Buena Vista Social Club (World Circuit/Nonesuch; 1997) "A bunch of elderly Cubans were unlikely candidates to displace Portishead as the dinner party soundtrack du jour but, with Ry Cooder's patronage ... the power and charm of its protagonists ensured theirs was a long-told tale ..."

• Brian Eno & David Byrne: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981, r. 2006) "Underloved at the time but hugely cherished since, this album sees Byrne and Eno travel into the heart of darkness, their art-rock fuelled and flavoured by African percussion, Egyptian pop singers and samples of crabby radio DJs and a real-life exorcism. An experiment, but utterly absorbing nonetheless."

• Ali Farka Touré: Savane (World Circuit/Nonesuch; 2006) "Ali Farka Touré, who died in March 2006, was the finest and best-loved African guitarist of his generation. Often described as the godfather of the desert blues, he proved through his hypnotic instrumental work and singing that the blues must have originated from his home country of Mali ... He recorded a series of classic albums, ... but this album, released after his death, is arguably his finest. That's certainly the way he saw it ...  [On this album,] he produced some of the most compelling guitar work of his career ..."

• Ibrahim Ferrer: Buenos Hermanos (World Circuit/Nonesuch; 2003) "Backed by Ry Cooder's dream team—the jazz bassist Cachaito, the surf-rock guitarist Manuel Galbán and the Blind Boys of Alabama on backing vocals—Ferrer's effortlessly soulful voice has never sounded better: crooning the boleros, rolling his Rs on the salsas and making staggering vocal improvisations sound as casual as clearing his throat."

• Bill Frisell: Have a Little Faith (1993) "Jazz, folk, classical, pop—like a small-town electrical store, Frisell's landmark album has it all. Made with an unusual jazz quintet that includes Guy Klucevsek's accordion, it's a kind of love letter to American music, with John Hiatt's rolling title track and tunes by Copland, Ives, Foster, Rollins, Dylan and even Madonna."

• Kronos Quartet / Pat Metheny / Steve Reich: Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint (1990) "Different Trains, with its locomotive rhythms and melodies generated by the cadences of speech, is a meditation on Reich's wartime childhood and the fate of Jews in the Holocaust; it's the composer's most moving work."

• Orlando Cachaito López: Cachaito (World Circuit/Nonesuch; 2001) "Even though the Buena Vista Social Club franchise had thoroughly shaken up world music, nobody was quite ready for this sprawling, eclectic and slightly bonkers album from bassist Cachaito and producer Nick Gold, which mashes reggae, jazz, and French hip-hop with Cuba's finest."

Also on the list were Ry Cooder (Chicken Skin Music), k.d. lang (Ingénue), The Magnetic Fields (69 Love Songs), Brad Mehldau Trio (The Art of the Trio, Vol 4: Back at the Vanguard), and Pat Metheny (80/81).

For all the artists A through M, visit music.guardian.co.uk. Stay tuned for N through Z!

Nellie McKay, "Ry Cooder of the Ukulele"?

Singer/songwriter Nellie McKay has made a name for herself setting witty, politically savvy lyrics, tongue firmly in cheek, to catchy music reminiscent of Brill Building tunesmiths. (Evidence of this can be found on Audra McDonald's 2006 album Build a Bridge, on which she sings McKay's "I Wanna Get Married." Sample lyric: "I need to cook meals / I wanna pack you cute little lunches / For my Brady bunches / Then read Danielle Steele.")

Nellie seems to be sticking to her guns on her new record, Obligatory Villagers. She tells HARP magazine in the latest issue that she modeled the new album after "proletarian anthems and the fact that I was hoping to become the Ry Cooder of the ukulele."

To read the full interview, visit harpmagazine.com.

Ry Cooder's "El Chavez Ravine" in Museum Exhibit

On October 27, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles opens La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels, a special exhibit celebrating the cultural history of lowrider cars in a city synonymous with car culture. A standout in the exhibit is El Chavez Ravine—a custom-built ice cream truck commissioned by Ry Cooder. Built off the foundation of a '53 Chevy, the truck was painted in painstaking detail by artist Vincent Valdez to tell the story, as Cooder does in his 2005 album Chavez Ravine, of the largely Mexican-American Los Angeles neighborhood destroyed to make way for Dodgers Stadium in the 1950s.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Lynell George tells the complete story behind the truck in a recent article. An accompanying slideshow, narrated by Valdez, shows the evolution of the vehicle, from metal parts to finished work of art.