Ry Cooder is a manic virtuoso of sorts. I've suspected that he has that genius aptitude for music that drives some musicians over to the dark side but Ry's worked tirelessly exploring a gazillion genre's of almost forgotten music and performed his unique brand of CPR on them, a Midas touch to say the very least. He got me listening to The Pahinui Brothers and Ali Farka Toure and The musicians of the Buena Vista Social club would have faded off into nothing had Ry not stepped in and made them a force to be reckoned with, not to mention he restored the dignity to the mostly aging members that they surely deserve. Anyhoo, before all that, Ry put out some pretty righteous records and my fave of them all is GET RHYTHM. This is a sexy, fun, drive to nowhere kind of CD that I reserve for those days when I'm feeling particularly kick-ass. Right out of the Gate, Johnny Cash's Get Rhythm is HOT and one can't help but admire Ry's unique guitar stylings. Elvis's All Shook Up is a different song in Ry's hands. Chuck Berry's 13 Question Method is funky sexy. My Five star pick on this record in Across The Borderline, performed with Harry Dean Stanton- who was eighty at the time (and he's still eighty, go figure, I suspect a pact with the devil) This one will pull at your heart strings and make you long for a witness relocation program that takes you to the undiscovered West, if there were still an undiscovered West, that is. Check it out, it's a helluva record.
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