CD Review: Ry Cooder

By Aaron Davis (for JHWeekly.com)Pull Up Some Dust & Sit Down RY COODER Strongly opinionated, often times funny, and certainly brave, listening to Ry Cooder is frequently eye opening. Pull Up Some Dust & Sit Down takes the cake and smears the icing.From the opening track: “Our children will be coming home in plastic bags I fear/Take this war and shove it up your Crawford, Texas ass/And then you’ll know it’s Christmas time this year.”Yeah, bold. But the wow factor is not the reason this collection of songs may be one of the most important social musings of the year. The gospel hip-hop stomp of “Lord Tell Me Why” has a strong post-Katrina message: “Lord they took back everything we been working for/When the riots tore our city I stood watch outside our home/My kids crying daddy why can’t they leave us alone.”The sub-surface messages, progressive production and witty ramblings of this release only deepen what was already a diverse discography by this virtuoso guitarist/composer. For a helpful understanding of Cooder’s respectable career, there’s an outstanding (and searchable) piece that recently ran in The New Yorker.