Where Do You Put Ry Cooder?

[lalenin]

@Contrapuntal

There probably would not have been a Buena Vista Social Club without Ry Cooder.

I agree that no one outside of Cuba would have heard them, but that’s no excuse for throwing a slide guitar in Cuban music album. It grates my nerves, and admittedly that’s a personal preference thing, but Ry Cooder could have highlighted the music without inserting himself in the middle of it and it would have made a much better album.

[lalenin]

@Bridget Burke

What “slide thing” do you mean?

I’m pretty sure it’s a slide guitar, but whatever it is it does not belong in Cuban music.

[jacquilynne]

Ry Cooder goes in the category ‘regular stuff’, which is sorted by year of original release within artist by last name/band name. The other categories are Compilations, Mix Discs, Soundtracks, Showtunes and Classical.

Thus, I avoid the entire problem.

[flickster]

The following albums are, and always will be, classified under Favorites

“Into the Purple Valley”
“Paradise and Lunch”
“Jazz”

[Annie]

Funny you should mention this; I was unpacking my cd’s yesterday and was trying to figure out where to put the score to The End of Violence. It ended up in the ‘weird shit to play when drinking alone’ section.

[cainxinth]

I use All Music Guide for all my categorization questions. They are on point 99% of the time. From the entry on Cooder:

Whether serving as a session musician, solo artist, or soundtrack composer, Ry Cooder’s chameleon-like fretted instrument virtuosity, songwriting, and choices of material encompass an incredibly eclectic range of North American musical styles, including rock & roll, blues, reggae, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Dixieland jazz, country, folk, R&B, gospel, and vaudeville.

[Oslo_Ostragoth]

@Contrapuntal

Most of what Cooder does I would classify as Americana, but, as you point out, he really is all over the map. He may be unclassifiable.

I used to have an excellent link to Americana playlists, but I lost it. Anyone?

Years ago I had a station I absolutely loved, and found out it was based on Americana playlists. Fave DJ was Jyl Hirschmann (sp?). Where is she now?

For the uninitiated, Americana is a genre that encompasses pretty much all that describes Ry Cooder - multiple influences, other stuff that I don’t remember.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

My exposure to Cooder is pretty limited and restricted to his delta blues slide stuff, like on Crossroads.
I found his blues playing to be phenomenal. Anyone have any songtrack or CD recco’s that are heavy on the slide blues from him that I can give a listen to?

[K364]

I use a category called “Roots” for this type of artist - it’s American and Canadian country, bluegrass, dixieland, ragtime, folk, blues… all without any modern commercial affectations: i.e. what I perceive to be “authentic” (whatever that is!)

[flickster]

@FoieGrasIsEvil

My exposure to Cooder is pretty limited and restricted to his delta blues slide stuff, like on Crossroads.
I found his blues playing to be phenomenal. Anyone have any songtrack or CD recco’s that are heavy on the slide blues from him that I can give a listen to?

I think the best starting point for his slide style acoustic blues would be the *Into the Purple Valley * CD. It was one of his first releases but is still one of my all time favorites. Tracks Vigilante Man & On A Monday still blow me away.