Ry Cooder

Americana, singer-songwriter

Ry Cooder has collaborated with, it seems, nearly every hugely respected artist who falls under the loosely defined Americana umbrella. Fans of John Hiatt, Randy Newman, Little Feat, Ali Farka Toure, Van Morrison, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones, and more, have likely been exposed to Cooder's remarkable skills. Fans of Ry might be interested in his collaborative band Little Village, in which he played with John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner.

A Meeting by the River (Water Lily Acoustics, 1993) compare prices

Rising Sons with Taj Mahal (Columbia, 1992) compare prices

Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (Nonesuch, 2011) compare prices

"No Banker Left Behind" (from Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down)
"I Think It's Going to Work Out Fine" (from Bop Til You Drop)
"Feelin' Bad Blues" (from the Crossroads motion picture soundtrack)

Captain Beefheart, Neil Young, Randy Newman, Ron Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Scott McKenzie, Judy Collins, Eric Clapton, John Hiatt, the Rolling Stones, Bobby King & Terry Evans, The Zydeco Party Band, Bill Frisell, Warren Zevon, Mavis Staples, Taj Mahal, Ali Farka Toure, Manuel Galban, the Chieftains, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, John Hassell & Ronu Majumdar

Ry Cooder was born in Los Angeles in 1947 and grew up playing the guitar. After high school, in the 1960s, he attended Reed College in Portland, Ore., for a brief time before dropping out and earning a reputation among musicians for his slide guitar work with Taj Mahal and Ed Cassidy (the Rising Sons). But, it was his affiliation with Captain Beefheart's Magic Band which earned him the support and respect of fans around the world. He left college to play with that band and, by the time the decade was up, had also lent his talents to Randy Newman and the Rolling Stones.

In fact, Cooder became a standard session player for the Stones in '68-69 during production of their rather successful efforts Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers. As the decade turned over to the 1970s, Cooder was seen collaborating with everyone from Mick Jagger to Little Feat - his remarkable slide guitar work earning him attention across the board.

So much so, in fact, that Cooder inked a deal with Warner Brothers Records, who released a number of his "solo" albums throughout the 1970s. During this time, he started cementing his style as a roots-affiliated player, toying with everything from calypso to country and the blues. Though he briefly visited the jazz realm, much of Cooder's work has since been considered rootsy with a strong blues influence. Later, in the '80s, he would develop a habit of contributing to film soundtracks - lending his slide guitar tunes and compositions to films like Performance, Last Man Standing, and even some work with Tibetan throat singers for the film Geronimo.

In addition to his film work, Cooder has produced albums for Mavis Staples, collaborated with Nick Lowe and Ali Farka Toure, and performed on albums by artists as variant as Arlo Guthrie, John Hiatt, Judy Collins, Bill Frisell, and Eric Clapton. He's received four Grammy Awards (plus a nomination for his 2011 release Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down) and two honorary doctorate degrees - from Queens University in Canada and the California Institute for the Arts, respectively.

In 2011, Cooder also released a collection of short stories titled Los Angeles Stories (published by City Lights Publishers). The book includes eight stories and was part of the City Lights Noir collection.

Cooder's discography is rather impressive, including 15 solo studio albums, nine collaborative albums (including his monster hit Buena Vista Social Club, which he also produced), and 15 film soundtracks.