Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, was released earlier this week on Nonesuch / Perro Verde Records to rave reviews from both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, where Pull Up Some Dust already scored a perfect five-star review from Uncut magazine, the album receives two more five-star reviews in the Guardian and the Independent.

"Magnificent," exclaims the Guardian's Robin Denselow. "Ry Cooder returns with a solo project that is as refreshing, brave and original as his early recordings in the 70s. This time round there are no elaborate narratives, but there is a common theme: these are songs of a broken, divided society and the gap between rich and poor, but with the anger matched against humour. He's a master at setting bleak or thoughtful lyrics against jaunty melodies." Read the complete five-star review at guardian.co.uk.

The Independent's Andy Gill, in the paper's lead review, says "Cooder here takes the theme of the New Depression quite literally, offering what are in effect the modern-day equivalent of the kind of dust-bowl ballads with which Woody Guthrie once hymned the poor and skewered the wealthy." Read that five-star review at independent.co.uk.

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Back in the States, the Boston Herald gives the album an A-. The Herald's Bill Brotherton says the albums songs are "just what America needs in these uncertain times. And Cooder’s the man to get the job done, using biting satire and masterful musicianship that will elicit guffaws as well as toe-tapping." Read the review at bostonherald.com.

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With more than 40 years of recordings to his name, "Ry Cooder has shown us enough sides where it's obvious there isn't anything he can't do," says The Morton Report's Bill Bentley. "There isn't anyone like him and probably won't be again. Each new album is a turn onto a street we haven't quite seen before, and the way Cooder builds his own musical world continues to thrill."
 
The new album "gathers a trunk full of different styles, and is put together so each one sounds brand new," says Bentley. "You can almost see Ry Cooder chuckling away to himself when he's finished recording each one, knowing he's topped even himself."
 
Bentley recommends Cooder's work to "those looking for unique guitaristics, a voice soaked in experience and dripping with wisdom propelled by a philosophical outlook that revels in reality but never loses hope," knowing the famed musician "always aims for the bullseye and never really misses."
 
Read the review at themortonreport.com.

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To mark the album's release, Ry Cooder and his 17-piece band, featuring the likes of accordionist Flaco Jimenez and familiar faces from Cooder's early touring bands, performed two sold-out shows at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, last night and the night before.

"Time has been kind to Cooder's voice," reports San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Joshua Zucker in a review of Wednesday's show. "His vocals have matured over the course of his career and he has learned how to use his singing to convey the spirit of his more recent work which is more lyrics-driven."

And with all that was going on on stage given the cavalcade of stellar musicians, "the most transcendent moments were when slide hit steel," Zucker explains. "Cooder is a true master of the guitar and every time he took the lead the music was elevated to a higher level. Though firmly rooted in slide blues, his playing defies genre classification and can only be compared to a handful of other living masters who share his dedication to the eclectic. Guitarists Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny and Mark Ribot jump to mind."

Read the complete concert review at sfgate.com.

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To pick up a copy of Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders and vinyl pre-orders (the LP is due out on September 13) include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout; you can also purchase the MP3s and FLAC lossless files there.