Pull Up Some Dust & Sit Down

"These times," says Ry Cooder, "call for a very different kind of protest song. 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone?' We're way down the road from that."
On his fourth solo effort for Nonesuch Records, the globe-trotting composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist leaves behind the fantastical yarn-spinning, the magical realism, and allegorical tunes of his acclaimed, Grammy Award-nominated California trilogy - Chávez Ravine (2005), My Name Is Buddy, (2007), and I Flathead (2008), all Grammy-nominated discs - for the most forthright album of his career. The 14 songs on 'Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down' are, by turns, angry, outraged, bitterly funny, and deeply poignant. With brilliant, Woody Guthrie-like directness and a healthy dollop of satire, Cooder's lyrics address the often-sorry state of our domestic affairs: the bank bailout, the anti-immigration movement, the ever-growing gap between rich and poor, and the never-ending war in the Middle East and its devastating physical and emotional toll on young soldiers.
While his words are excoriating, the music is as exhilarating as anything Cooder has ever recorded, incorporating folk, blues, gospel, Tin Pan Alley, and Mexican-American norteño. As a critic for the Guardian put it while reviewing My Name Is Buddy, 'Cooder demonstrates how he has brought home the lessons he learned producing the Buena Vista Social Club in Cuba, reminding himself that the most authentic music is always just around the corner.' Contemporary affairs blend with rich musical history: the deceptively cheerful arrangement of 'No Banker Left Behind' is informed by the legacy of country music pioneer and early 20th century vaudeville star Uncle Dave Macon; 'John Lee Hooker for President' channels the electric guitar sound and growling vocal inflections of the blues legend. On tracks like 'John Lee Hooker...' and the quietly mournful 'Baby Joined the Army', Cooder, who also produced the album, works alone in stripped-down voice-and-guitar settings. He's accompanied elsewhere by frequent collaborators such as drummer Joachim Cooder, accordionist Flaco Jimenez, and backing vocalist Juliette Commagere. Old friend Jim Keltner also makes a guest appearance on drums.
Cooder has long taken the road less travelled. In an era of interactive digital content, he released a hard-bound 95-page novella with the 2008 conclusion of his California trilogy, the hotrod-fuelled I Flathead, completing, as the Independent's Andy Gill put it, 'A diversely detailed portrait of outlaw spirits in a land of shrinking opportunities, where lives are built on dreamy foundations and broken by disillusion.' On 'Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down', Cooder looks past the flow of facile news that distinguishes our disinformation age and humanizes the headlines. The Depression Era imagery he frequently employs is startlingly apt in these outspoken songs about up-to-the-minute issues. With its blunt protest numbers, its sly send-ups, and its plainspoken laments, 'Pull up Some Dust And Sit Down' showcases the indefatigable Cooder at his most passionate and inspired.