Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, was released to great critical acclaim and a few choice tweets, not least yesterday's from Billy Bragg, who recommended the track "No Banker Left Behind" as a way to celebrate Labor Day. The album has received three more five-star reviews. "Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down is a stunning return to form for one of America's most original and talented musicians," exclaims the Daily Telegraph. Cooder "has been inspired anew by 21st-century social ills to produce one of the best albums of a distinguished career." The Observer says: "He's become a Woody Guthrie for our times." Scotland on Sunday names it the Release of the Week, saying: "Cooder has now made one of the best records of his considerable career."

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, receives perfect five-star reviews from the Guardian and the Independent. "Magnificent," exclaims the Guardian. "Cooder returns with a solo project that is as refreshing, brave and original as his early recordings in the 70s." The Independent says he offers "the modern-day equivalent of the kind of dust-bowl ballads with which Woody Guthrie once hymned the poor and skewered the wealthy." The Boston Herald finds it's "just what America needs in these uncertain times." The Morton Report says "it's obvious there isn't anything he can't do ... and the way Cooder builds his own musical world continues to thrill." The San Francisco Chronicle, reviewing Cooder's two sold-out shows there this week, says "Cooder is a true master of the guitar."

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, was released yesterday, prompting David Dye, host of NPR's World Cafe, to tweet that the album "just shot to my best of list. Ry got pissed off enough to make another masterpiece." Cooder performs two sold-out shows at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, tonight and tomorrow, and is today's guest on NPR's Here & Now. The BBC calls the album "a powerful state of the nation address" that "is about as good and sustained a riposte to the grubby, grabbing times we live in as any artist has mustered, which makes it essential listening."

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, is out now on CD and digitally, with the vinyl LP to follow on September 13. Cooder was the guest on Marketplace from American Public Media, where the album is now streaming in full. "From rock n’ roll to country to Dixieland jazz," says the show, "Cooder has mastered multiple genres on many albums. He does it again with his latest production ... His songs’ lyrics are a statement on our current economic times, but the music offers a tour of the country’s musical heritage." The New Yorker's Alec Wilkinson offers an extensive appreciation of Cooder. "I can’t write briefly about Ry Cooder," writes Wilkinson. "Admiration for his accomplishments, his singularity, and the longevity and diversity of his career intervene."

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, is out tomorrow. The album, which Uncut calls "one of his best albums ever," is available to stream in full till then at Slate. Cooder will celebrate the record's release with two sold-out shows at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall later this week. He spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle about the new album and the back-to-back concerts, at which he'll be joined by a 17-piece band.

There's just under a week to go before the release of Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, on August 30. Until then, you can listen to the album in its entirety exclusively on Slate. MOJO and Q give the album four stars; Uncut gives it a perfect five, calling it "one of his best albums ever." Cooder is the subject of a feature article in the magazine, which calls the new album "an impassioned portrait of 21st century America and its injustices" in which Cooder is "remade as a modern-day Woody Guthrie, fearless and funny, for like Guthrie he nails his targets with droll humour while empathising with society's underdogs."

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, is due out in just over three weeks, on August 30. The album track "El Corrido de Jesse James," which uses the Mexican corrido tradition to comment on the Wall Street bailout, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday in a look at some favorite new sounds. NPR contributor Betto Arcos says of Cooder: "He's able to discern and bring together musical styles like no one else can."

Inspired by a news headline about the Wall Street bailout, Ry Cooder began work on his forthcoming album Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down with the track “No Banker Left Behind,” an ode to the corrupt few spared from the financial crisis while most were left to fend for themselves. The songs on the album express sentiments or critiques often voiced only in private, among family or ideological allies. Here, Cooder discusses the inspiration behind these songs.

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, will be released by Nonesuch/Perro Verde Records on August 30, 2011. Pre-order the album in the Nonesuch Store on CD and vinyl to receive an instant download of the album's opening track, "No Banker Left Behind." You can listen to the song here. Cooder will perform with special guests Los Cenzontles at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on August 31 and September 1, 2011.

Ry Cooder is featured on this week's edition of Truthdig Radio, in which he unveils "No Banker Left Behind," the first track off his forthcoming album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, due out on Nonesuch in late summer, as well as an excerpt from another album track, "John Lee Hooker for President." On the show, Cooder reveals the story behind the new album, in which he takes on Wall Street greed, among other pressing world events. Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer says: "It's right up there with John Lennon's Working Class Hero, which I think trumps just about anything else as far as taking serious, political observations and putting them to music ... It's just a great album."

"Quicksand," the new single written and performed by Ry Cooder in response to Arizona law SB 1070 and the current immigration battle in the US, is now available, exclusively at iTunes. Cooder has chosen MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, to receive all proceeds from sales of the single.

In response to the immigration battle currently raging in the US, Ry Cooder wrote the song "Quicksand," which tells the story of six would-be immigrants making their way from Mexico to the Arizona border. The track will be released exclusively on iTunes on June 29, with proceeds going to MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; it has now premiered exclusively on NPR's All Songs Considered blog.