Ry Cooder, whose latest album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, was released earlier this year on Perro Verde / Nonesuch Records, was featured on AirTalk from Southern California public radio station KPCC out of Pasadena this morning. He spoke with host Larry Mantle about his music and his new book, Los Angeles Stories, Cooder's first-ever stand-alone written work, recently released by City Lights Publishers.

"His first book, Los Angeles Stories, offers Chandler-esque tales that take us to the darkened downtown streets, windswept neighborhoods and stuccoed apartment houses of postwar Los Angeles," says the show. "With a musician’s ear for language, Cooder’s stories and the characters who people them—drifters, trolley drivers, disc jockeys, salesmen, jazz musicians and of course, cops and robbers—take us on a journey into a Los Angeles that has long gone the way of Chavéz Ravine and the red cars. In doing so, he brings a sense of place he remembers from his childhood."

Hear what Cooder has to say about it and his music in today's AirTalk interview at scpr.org. Ry Cooder will discuss his new book with Los Angeles Times book critic David Ulin live at Skylight Books in Los Angeles this Sunday, November 6.

To pick up a copy of Los Angeles Stories and Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout.