Ok you guys. With all this talk about my favorite guitarist, I have to put a word in for one of his solo efforts. This one may not be his most polished release but man, has it got heart! On the electric charged ensemble songs, the first cut "How Can You Keep On Moving" really get the ball rolling while "Money Honey" and "FDR in Trinidad" displays the humor that I love about this guy. "Billy the Kid" and Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man" gives you a taste of how he sounded the couple of times I saw him without a band. J. Cash's "Hey Porter" never sounded as good as here. And words were never truer than those in "The Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All". Maybe it was the times when I first heard this album but Cooder's takes on some of this traditional stuff just won't get out of my head. Ever!
Into the Purple Valley/Ry Cooder
Reprise/Warner Bros
MS 2052