Ry Cooder is a slide guitarist from old times who have inspired a lot of young artists at the time. Ry first got his chance while playing with
Captain Beefheart and from there he spanned a solo career that gave him twenty albums under his belt. The overall feel of the album is based around Ry and his guitar. He uses many techniques in the song but his main focus is using this old school slide technique with an acoustic guitar. Behind Ry are simply major chords, as no way can one make an entire of sliding. Other aspects of the album are the simple folk-like drumbeats and the several bass lines giving it an extra ‘crunch’. Ry’s voice is low with a slight Mexican accent. Paradise and Lunch is probably Ry’s most well known album featuring just nine songs and just under forty minutes. At times when listening to the album, I can just picture a sweaty cowboy riding on horseback and other times I can just think of an old western bar. Mostly cause the piano is something, which gives you that imagery.
Ry is quite an interesting songwriter but I feel one major flaw. I am not a big country or blues fan but a lot of the songs don’t vary much for me. They all include the same western guitar and Ry’s vocal work doesn’t change key a lot. This makes me feel like I’m just listening to one big song. It’s all the same slide guitar, few major chords and Ry never changing the song around. This seems harsh but to the untrained ear it is true in many ways. It also can seem really cheesy that you can’t help but cringe. I could have put that into nicer words but that is basically my negatives opinions about the album. Negatives aside, this is an interesting album. Any one else cannot copy Ry’s distinct songs as he is simply
the man. This is his fourth album and the album is relaxed a lot. None of the songs are angry or are even sad. It is quite an up-beat, happy album in lots of ways. The songs always have a happy atmosphere and while some of the lyrics are negative, the majority of them aren’t. He mixes folk; blues, country and other themes on this album, which is unusual because I still find that the songs sound the same. Fans of this sort of thing make this an essential purchase but I don’t really see anyone else getting excited about this. This is a great buy for big fans of the genre.
To show how incredible his skills are, he was even named 8th in Rolling Stone’s top 100 guitarists. Ry is truly an influential guitarist even helping Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards a thing or two. Ry taught him how to use open-G tuning and Keith has used that ever since. The album starts off with the promising track Tamp ‘Em Up Solid where you right away get an old cowboy feel from Ry’s slide technique. This is music you could expect in a swing club; it’s as catchy as hell. He really hits on this track with the track concentrating on his guitar work. Ry has a great low voice showing that not only can he play guitar great but also sing great as well. The bottom line is that this could be pretty boring and tedious for the casual listener or big head metal fan. This is an album for the fans but I do admit this could get you into the genre if you’re looking for something like this. I’m giving this a high three but this is down to personal preference. I don’t really like the whole Mexican feel of the album but I do enjoy it when things get interesting. A thing that added to my rating was its influence and musical importance. When it comes to the bottom line, I’m being generous considering I’m not a fan at all of this type of music. It is thought out, well pulled off music and Ry himself is influential but being a fan of rock and metal, I found this quite hard to listen to. I hope you enjoyed the re-write as I’m being pretty honest about this.
