"I started thinking about old-time music, because I was bringing my kids to see my parents, and my dad was playing the banjo in his chair, playing these old songs," Joachim Cooder says in a new video about the making of his upcoming album, Over That Road I'm Bound. "I started playing along with him, and slowed it down a little ... and thought, 'This would make a really great record.'" You can see what else he has to say about the album, including working with his band Ry Cooder, Rayna Gellert, Juliette Commagere, Sam Gendel, and others, here.
"I started thinking about old-time music, because I was bringing my kids to see my parents, and my dad was playing the banjo in his chair, playing these old songs," songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joachim Cooder says in a new video about the making of his Nonesuch Records debut album, Over That Road I'm Bound, due October 2. "I started playing along with him, and slowed it down a little ... and thought, 'This would make a really great record.'"
On the album, Cooder uses the plain-spoken songs of country-music progenitor and banjo player Uncle Dave Macon as a jumping off point, playing with the lyrics and reworking melodies for his chosen instrument: an electric mbira. Cooder culled songs from Macon’s vast catalog and recorded them with his band and special guests: Ry Cooder, Rayna Gellert, Juliette Commagere, Sam Gendel, Glenn Patscha, Amir Yaghmai, Dan Gellert, and Vieux Farka Touré. You can hear what he has to say about it in the new video here:
"My whole life I've been a drummer, an accompanist, and a producer, sort of behind-the-scenes type of person, and it wasn't till I had children, playing music for them," Cooder says. "I'm always sort of coming up with stuff, because everything around our house has a story for my daughter, every little object ... And music is wrapped up in that now. I'm in a new phase, where my imagination is just more turned on. It's definitely a family endeavor, where this all comes from."
You can pre-order Over That Road I'm Bound and download the track "Come Along Buddy," here.
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