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."
Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, is due out on Nonesuch/Perro Verde Records on CD in just over three weeks, on August 30, with the vinyl to follow on September 13. The album track "El Corrido de Jesse James" was featured on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday, included among contributor Betto Arcos's favorite new sounds, this week focused on musicians from Los Angeles, where Arcos hosts the KPFK program Global Village. Explaining his choice, Arcos says: "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 Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down with its opening track, “No Banker Left Behind,” an ode to the corrupt few spared from the financial crisis while most were left to fend for themselves. "El Corrido de Jesse James" follows suit.
"A corrido is a traditional Mexican storytelling song," NPR explains. "Corridos were used to tell stories back in the Mexican Revolution, but are still very popular today. Here, Ry Cooder uses the form as a vehicle to address the situation with the U.S. banking industry and the government bailout. The song is a story about how Jesse James would go after bank executives if he were alive today, and it uses this really exciting brass band sound that's very popular in L.A.—you'll hear it if you roll down your window while driving."
Listen to Ry Cooder's "El Corrido de Jesse James" along with all of Arcos's choices in the All Things Considered piece at npr.org.
To pre-order Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down on CD and vinyl, head to the Nonesuch Store now to receive a free instant download of the album's opening track, "No Banker Left Behind," at checkout. Orders also include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album starting release day.
Ry Cooder will perform with special guests Los Cenzontles at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on August 31 and September 1, 2011. For more information, go to nonesuch.com/on-tour.
In Canada's National Post, Dave Bidini reminisces about the time he saw Cooder in concert in Dublin back in 1988, writing: "Ry Cooder exemplifies how music was actually good and strong and memorable because it was old, not despite being old." Read the piece at nationalpost.com.
- Log in to post comments
