Down There on a Visit

Ry Cooder - Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down (2011) {Nonesuch 7559-79768-3}
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© 2011 Nonesuch / Perro Verde / Warner | 7559-79768-3
Blues / Blues Rock / Progressive Folk / Guitar

Songwriter and guitarist Ry Cooder digs deep into the American psyche with Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down. Inspired by a headline he'd read about the Wall Street bailout, and those who profited most from it, Cooder composed the album's opening track, "No Banker Left Behind," in a style not heard since his earliest recordings. It would have been right at home on his self titled debut or Paradise and Lunch. While not a concept recording, it is an album that reacts to the times topically. Its songs are declarative, sometimes angry, yet display his requisite humor and irony.

20 Original Chart Hits continues British label A Time To Remember's look at the hits of the decade. The tracks featured are a strange mix of novelty, pop, and hard rock tracks that give a very good, if narrow, feel for the times. Narrow because like many of the volumes in the series, there are multiple entries by artists and there is a great deal of overlap from year to year (i.e. the same bands (the Hollies, Deep Purple.) and singers (Shirley Bassey, Olivia Newton-John) showing up on each year's collection).

As part of The Stranglers' celebration of their Ruby Anniversary, the definitive collection of the B-side recordings they made whilst signed to Epic is released for the first time, via their own label. Appropriately, as befits a band marking forty years together, Here & There: The Epic B-sides Collection 1983-1991 gathers 40 tracks across 2 CDs and is also released as a 40 track digital package. The Stranglers released no less than 13 singles in the UK during this period, which saw them produce five albums: four studio and one live. The Stranglers signed to Epic Records in 1982 having been with United Artists / Liberty since 1977. The change of label coincided with changes in marketing policy across the UK industry - often dubbed "the Frankie Goes to Hollywood effect". Previously, The Stranglers' had released only one 12" single - an extended version of Bear Cage in 1980 - but from 2nd Epic single, Midnight Summer Dream until 1990, each release had a 12" version which required extra studio or, increasingly, live tracks to "add value" to the package.

What happens when you take a master of progressive rock and an accomplished Nashville producer engineer, and put them together with a host of top-flight Nashville session players to reinterpret one of the most revered 70s prog double-albums? In the case of Spock s Beard drummer Nick D'Virgilio and producer engineer Mark Hornsby, you get Rewiring Genesis A Tribute To The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and it's fantastic. While the original featured layers of classic synthesizers (ARP, Mellotron, etc.), there's none of that fake string or choir stuff going on here. Besides rock guitar, bass, and Nick's great drumming (and tasteful lead vocal work), The Lamb is filled with real strings, huge vocal arrangements, horn sections, and even some accordion! Clearly, it's not attempting to simply re-record the classic, it's a fresh and beautiful sounding reinterpretation.