Ry Cooder – Boomer's Story (1972)

On a recent visit to Lutterworth - I know, this jet setting life that you all envy - I happened upon a charity shop which seemed to have recently adopted a new policy of sorting out the interesting stuff from the dross, and charging a little more for it. Included was some kind donor's Ry Cooder collection, so I snapped this and two others up.

It's an early Cooder album of American traditional / older blues songs, which, while nothing amazing happens, provides forty minutes of interesting listening. It opens with the trad 'travelling bum' song, Boomer's Story, through a variety of country rockin' instrumentals and songs including the fun Crow Black Chicken, a couple of standards from bluesman Sleepy John Estes, a gentle Tex-Mex guitar piece (Maria Elena).

In the second half, there's a couple of traditional Americans, including George Root's Rally 'Round The Flag, which was the basis for Billy Bragg's There Is Power In A Union, and which Cooder seems to drag reluctantly from his lips.

None of this is really my thing, but when it's all so well done, it's very easy to enjoy.

Link to album tracks

3* - some interesting bits from the folk/blues end of Americana