Ry Cooder - The Prodigal Son

Cooder also shared the details of The Prodigal Son Tour, his first full solo outing since 2009. The fabled musician will be joined by chief collaborator, drummer, percussionist, and keyboardist, Joachim Cooder; accomplished singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Robert Francis; a unique saxophonist who has recorded with some of the most recognizable names in jazz and popular music, Sam Gendel, and the Grammy-award winning vocal trio from North Carolina, The Hamiltones.  The tour will visit venues throughout North America this spring and summer (see dates below).  

The Prodigal Son, is essential Cooder. A masterwork of roots, blues and R&B, the album conjures our own history of the spirit, sounding completely fresh and contemporary, framed by Cooder’s expressive vocals and graceful, elegant guitar work. The album’s 11 tracks include three Cooder originals along with a carefully selected collection of vintage blues, gospel and bluegrass by the likes of The Pilgrim Travelers, The Stanley Brothers and Blind Willie Johnson. Taken together, it forms an unflinching look at the state of play in modern America.
The LA Times described “Shrinking Man,” (a Cooder original and first track released off the album) as “an up-tempo blues shuffle featuring scratchy bottleneck guitar work for a treatise on living more responsibly and respectfully.”

“I do connect the political/economic dimensions with the inner life of people, since people are at risk and oppressed on all sides in our world today,” Cooder states in the album’s liner notes. “There’s some kind of reverence mood that takes hold when you play and sing these songs. ‘Reverence’ is a word I heard my granddaughter’s nursery school teacher use, a Kashmiri woman. She said, ‘We don’t want to teach religion, but instill reverence.’ I thought that was a good word for the feeling of this music.”

For nearly 50 years, the immense scope and influence of Ry Cooder’s music has been felt as much, or more than heard.  As master musician, producer, songwriter and sage, the Santa Monica, California native has explored music and culture from across the city, the state, the country and around the world.  Sounding completely fresh and contemporary, The Prodigal Son is music for these times, a deft commentary on our ailing moral state and a fearless dive into the country’s soul and the man himself, Ry Cooder.

please visit: RyCooder.com

1. straight street (James W. Alexander / Jesse Whitaker)
2. shrinking man (Ry Cooder)
3. gentrification (Ry Cooder / Joachim Cooder)
4. everybody ought to treat a stranger right (Traditional; Blind Willie Johnson, Arr. by Ry Cooder)
5. the prodigal son (Traditional: Arranged by Ry Cooder /Joachim Cooder)
6. nobody’s fault but mine (Blind Willie Johnson / Arranged Ry Cooder / Joachim Cooder)
7. you must unload (Alfred Reed)
8. i’ll be rested when the roll is called (Blind Roosevelt Graves)
9. harbor of love (Carter Stanley)
10. Jesus and woody (Ry Cooder)
11. in his care (William L. Dawson)

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Federico Garcia Lorca - De Granada A La Luna (1998) [España]

CD 1:
1. Tierra y luna (Federico García Lorca - Martirio / Raul A. Rodriguez) (Martirio).
2. La luna asoma (Federico García Lorca - Santiago Auserón) (Santiago Auserón).
3. Daybreak (Federico García Lorca - John Cale) (John Cale)
4. Balad, balad, balad caretas (Federico García Lorca - Los Enemigos) (Los Enemigos).
5. El regreso (Federico García Lorca - Enrique Morente) (Enrique Morente).
6. La Canción de la mariposa (Federico García Lorca - Amancio Prada) (Amancio Prada).
7. Casida del herido por el agua (Federico García Lorca - Arias/Pareja) (Lagartija Nick).
8. Cancioncilla del primer deseo (Federico García Lorca - Santiago Auserón) (Santiago Auserón).
9. La guitarra (Federico García Lorca - Enrique Morente) ( Enrique Morente).
10. Son de negros en Cuba (Federico García Lorca - Francisco Repilado) (Compay Segundo).
11. Cacnión de la muerte pequeña (Federico García Lorca - Merchán) ( Chucho Merchán).
CD 2:
1. Landscape of a pissing multitude (Federico García Lorca - Neneh Cherry / John Tonks) (Neneh Cherry)
2. Oda a Salvador Dalí (Federico García Lorca - Sabatés) (Maria del Mar Bonet y Jordi Sabatés).
3. De Granada a la luna (Michael Nyman) (Michael Nyman)
4. Nana de Sevilla (Federico García Lorca) (Imperio Argentina)
5. Preludio (Federico García Lorca - Enrique Morente) (Imperio Argentina).
6. Pequeño poema infinito (Federico García Lorca - Sabtés (Jordi Sabates y Josep Palau i Fabra)
7, Canción de Julieta (Federico García Lorca - Robert Wyatt) (Robert Wyatt)
8. Las gacelas (Federico García Lorca - Arias) (Lagartija Nick)
9. El diálogo del amargo (Federico García Lorca - Sotelo) (Mauricio Sotelo).

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Black Man's Pride 2 - Righteous Are The Sons and Daughters Of Jah

his is the second installment of deep roots Rastafarian reggae at Studio One and features classic music from some of the most important figures in reggae music – Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Gladiators – alongside a host of rarities and little-known recordings, such as a truly rare Mystic Revelation of Rastafari seven-inch single, Willie William’s first ever recording ‘Calling’ and Horace Andy’s righteous (and equally rare) masterpiece ‘Illiteracy.’

Black Man’s Pride 2 extends the legacy of Studio One’s ground-breaking path in roots reggae which began at the end of the 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s. The album tells the story of how the rise of Studio One Records and the Rastafari movement were interconnected, through the adoption of the Rastafari faith by key reggae artists – everyone from the Skatalites and Wailers in the 1960s, major singers such as Alton Ellis and Horace Andy at the end of the decade, through to major roots artists such as The Gladiators in the 1970s – and how Clement Dodd consistently recorded this heavyweight roots music throughout Studio One’s history.

The extensive sleeve-notes to this album also discuss the links between Rastafari and Studio One in time and place, noting how both the religion and Clement Dodd’s musical empire had their roots in the intense period of pre-independence Jamaica in Kingston, expanded in the 1960s following the visit of Haile Selassie in 1966, and how roots music then came to dominate reggae music in the early 1970s. Also discussed is how the outsider stance of both reggae music and the Rastafari movement relate back many hundreds of years to the original rebel stance of the Maroons, escaped slaves who set up self-sufficient enclaves in the hills of the Jamaican countryside.





1. Horace Andy – Illiteracy
2. The Heptones – Be A Man
3. The Manchesters – Natty Gone
4. The Gladiators – Down Town Rebel
5. Willie Williams – Calling
6. Roland Alphonso & Brentford All Stars – Sir D Special
7. Keith Wilson – God I God I Say
8. Alton Ellis – Almost Anything
9. Bobby Kalphat & The New Establishment – Adis A Wa Wa
10. Peter Broggs – Sing A New Song
11. Mystic Revelations Of Rastafari – Let Freedom Reign
12. Larry & Alvin – Free I Lord
13. Ernest Wilson & The Sound Dimension – Freedom Fighter
14. Jackie Mittoo – Happy People
15. Prince Lincoln – Daughters Of Zion
16. High Charles – Zion
17. Winston Jarrett – Love Jah Jah

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