I received a pleasant surprise when I got home today. "Close your eyes and hold out your hands," my wife and daughter said. A new CD. For me :) And I'd never heard of it. I really like Ry Cooder, but I haven't been paying attention lately to what he's been doing, so My Name Is Buddy was a complete revelation. It's great...there's a song about a pig named J. Edgar Hoover (uh huh, it's just about the pig, yeah, right). There's a socially relevant story line about a cat, a mouse, and a toad...but I'm just going to enjoy the music for the first 3 or 4 or 7 listens. And it's got two (count'em!), Two Seegers playing on the album. And in a great confluence of synergistic coincidence, there was a great show on PBS tonight about Pete Seeger ("The Power of Music"). If anyone can stop a war with a banjo, he can :-)
I keep hoping he'll return to the "old timey" jams of his earlier days, or maybe seek out another intriguing collab with someone (Bela Fleck ? Ricky Skaggs ? Sergio Mendez ?), but I guess he's got a creative backlog to work off after the whole Buena Vista explosion.
If you want some recent Cooder, I'd recommend Mambo Sinuendo as an interesting collab that'll grow on you.
Re:Cooder+++, Buddy--
runrig on 2008-02-28T17:40:35
I'm actually only a little more than halfway through the album right now, and so far I like it...I'm up to "Three Chords and the Truth", which is interesting after just seeing the PBS show on Pete Seeger. I didn't even know who Paul Robeson was until that show. So I'm enjoying the album on more than just a musical level. I did read some of the 3 star "It's OK" kiss of death reviews, but perhaps there's a different perspective when you go buying the latest Cooder (or whoever) album expecting something and it not living up to expectations, versus getting the album out of the blue without an expectation of "getting my money's worth" out of it...so go buy it as a gift for someone else today!
Side note: I kind of feel that way about Michael Palin's Diaries also...I received it as a gift, but I don't think I would have ever bought it...so go buy that as a gift for someone else also!
:-)
