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)