Ry Cooder & Corridos Famosos
Album: Live In San Francisco
Label: Nonesuch
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.nonesuch.com

This new release from the redoubtable Mr. Cooder bridges three and a half decades, with an uncanny sense of continuity. For starters, it was recorded at the very same venue that hosted the man's previous live outing (1977's ebullient Showtime): San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. Secondly, as well as Cooder himself (obviously), the on-stage roll-call also included veteran accordionist Flaco Jimenez and vocalist Terry Evans (tho' admittedly, this time round Flaco only appears in the capacity of guest, albeit that he's brought onstage for a decent handful of numbers including the time-honoured feelgood Guthrie number Do Re Mi).

The disc contains well over an hour of music, and would doubtless have been required to straddle a whole double-album package in the Showtime (pre-CD) era, so there's an even better sense of continuity here, with the strong feel of a seamless set. The intense unity and utterly distinctive (pioneering) eclecticism of approach that Cooder has always brought to his chosen material is well in evidence here of course, as the set moves effortlessly down the ages spanning his career, from the early successes - nay, landmarks - of Vigilante Man and Boomer's Story (both as vitally rootsy as ever and further informed by close on four decades of experience and performing history) to more recent rants such as Lord Tell Me Why. That aside, however, the politicising is largely forgotten as the emphasis of the gig (recorded a couple of years back, by the way) is firmly on relaxing into havin' a real good time, with solid rock'roll, blues, R&B and gospel the ideal true backdrop for a night's musical adventures.

There's plenty of contrast too, with masterstrokes of programming like the superb recent Cooder original El Corrido De Jesse James being followed by a judiciously-paced romp through Sam The Sham's strut Wooly Bully and Juliette Commagere taking the vocal mic for Volver Volver, this finally giving way to a viciously moody Vigilante Man. Crazy 'Bout An Automobile and Leadbelly's Goodnight Irene provide the set's natural bookends. It goes without saying that whatever the mood, Corridos Famosos proves itself more than just a backing band, with some suitably spirited musicianship that can play fast and loose (especially when spicily augmented with the ten-piece Mexican brass band La Banda Juvenil on the above-mentioned El Corrido) or cut it sensuous and soulful (on The Dark End Of The Street, a powerful set highlight) as the mood dictates. The audience is riotous, very much present but admirably non-intrusive, only adding to the splendid hey-man-you-shoulda-been-there atmosphere of the occasion.

This disc is typical of live-album releases in that it may not quite be the Cooder album to recommend straightway to the outsider, but having said that it might still have the potential to convince a non-believer or alert a newbie to the Cooder Phenomenon.

David Kidman