Music: Checking in with Ry Cooder

Ry Cooder's career has spanned five decades, with the only stylistic constant being exploration and change.
He came to prominence as a session guitarist in the '60s working with the Rolling Stones, Captain Beefheart, Taj Mahal and many others.
Since then, he's been best known as a visionary world music pioneer and an advocate for American roots music as an indigenous form. His new album is "Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down."
An interview:
Q: The title of the album is "Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down." What does it mean?
A: It's an invitation to have a conversation. Hang up the cellphone and let's talk for a minute, so I can tell you what I'm thinking. I like the line. It's a funny line.
Q: "Pull Up Some Dust" paints a grim picture of the state of affairs in this country. Is it a call to action, or more a therapeutic release for you on a personal level?
A: At this point in life, I'm 64, I guess I look back and say that all the music I've done was therapeutic in one way or another, or at least cathartic. It's what I do and all I ever wanted to do, but now we're confronted with these terrible tendencies in this country and I began to think that I want to do what Woody Guthrie or Charlie Poole did or what some old blues singer might have done, which is to talk about their life through song. It's one of the great things that American music is, or was.
You could say it's a call to action, which Pete Seeger used to say it was. He would sing a song to an audience, and this instantaneous transformation would occur into a mood and emotional tone of solidarity and unity and kinship. It's a tremendous thing.
Q: You're critical of the current state of the music industry. What are you listening to right now?
A: What I do to soothe my shattered nerves is listen to classical most of the time because it's very spacious, it isn't demanding, and it contains all the good stuff that I like -- mostly the French impressionists like Ravel and Debussy and cats like that. It's visual and depicts nature in a healthy way that I find comforting. I also listen to Mexican music a lot of the time -- boleros and the romantic stuff because I really love the melodies. It's very charming, and it suits my fondness for the period sound.
Q: Have you reached a point as a guitarist where you feel satisfied with your own playing?
A: Right now I am, as of making this particular record. It's not because of the record, but more the timing -- where I am along my path. I'm playing what I like. Instead of saying there's a certain amount of frustration or that something's missing, I'm playing good stuff and I can hear it, and I'm not struggling with anything anymore.
Q: Every time I advance musically, I feel progress but I also become aware of a larger universe of possibilities.
A: Luckily it doesn't have to stop. You can just keep going, and it sounds better all the time. As people get older they get better, or more interesting anyway. The emphasis becomes more about expression and awareness than speed and technique. I'm a big fan of (Hawaiian guitarist) Gabby Pahinui. The older he got, the more meaningful everything was -- the more that was being said with each note.
Q: Do you still practice? What are you working on right now?
A: Every day. As much as I can stand to sit around and play. I got this great mandolin from a guy up in Canada who makes these incredible f-hole mandolins, and it's so magnificent that I've been playing it all the time.
Q: What's next?
A: I don't know what comes next. ... I also have a paperback book of my L.A. stories that is coming out in a couple of weeks. That's not so much a career move as something I like to do, so what the heck? Projectwise, I couldn't say. You never know. I don't need to be all scoped out. I don't plan well, so I just wait and see.

Britney Spears And Bon Jovi Plans To Record A Duet

What do you get when you put two artists in pop history the best record in a room? It seems we're about to find out. Reports claim that Britney Spears and Lady Gaga is in the midst of planning a musical collaboration. The two queens of pop has been developed to hit after hit after hit individually, so you can imagine what kind of music that could create, if they put their artistic minds together? Not to mention a music video that can be developed ... but before I get.

Maybe we should have seen the next cooperation. GaGa was closed in Atlantic City Britney Femme Fatale Show earlier this month, and apparently met Spears backstage to throw ideas around possible duet. Sources told The Sun: "They sat for about an hour to gossip and talk of cooperation with the runway. GaGa already have two pieces in mind." Both artists have never been afraid boundaries of pop culture, whether it's the paparazzi or bitching at their unique sense of fashion (and hair) styles (shaved head and wear meat has never been). But, above all, are artists, and always knows how to give their fans a gift. Just recently, Spears approached the Jersey Shore DJ Pauly D on your right lap dance on stage during the presentation of lace and leather, and we all know Eyed Peas can be just as brave, if not more. I seriously hope this ends up happening because my iPod needs some new club music.

Punk-rock pioneer and painter, Langford is the medium

Mekons member to grace the Garibaldi with the Silos' Walter Salas-Humara

By Jon M. Gilbertson, Special to the Journal Sentinel

July 21, 2011 |(0) Comments

Jon Langford

Jon Langford is a talented painter and a talented musician, so when he decided to revisit his first solo album, 1998's "Skull Orchard," he thought it would be an opportunity to combine the two skills.

"It's more fun playing music than sitting on your own and painting," Langford said during a recent phone interview in advance of his show Friday night at Club Garibaldi with his longtime pal, Walter Salas-Humara of the Silos. "So I always try to nail the two things together. They come from the same part of my brain and address the concerns I have."

With "Skull Orchard Revisited," the main concern is South Wales, where Langford grew up. He added a book filled with paintings, photographs and reminiscences of his homeland, and also added a handful of songs.

In the book, he has the assistance of his brother and father. On the album, his revamping and expanding of the music features the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus, a large Canadian ensemble that carries on Welsh musical traditions.

"Having the choir on it suddenly gave me all this vocal power, and it was awe-inspiring," Langford said. "I realized that with 40 guys singing the songs, it reminded me of all the singing in Wales, from going to rugby and to church, and it was an element that really benefited the songs."

It also adds depth to an album that was essentially Langford's first attempt to take full control of a musical project. Until "Skull Orchard," his music came out through groups, including the pioneering art-damaged punk rockers of the Mekons and the barroom-country outfit Waco Brothers.

"I didn't really know what I was doing when I was solely in charge," Langford said. "It was a stripped-down rock album. The main crux of expanding it was to sculpt the stuff in a slightly different way."

Between that first try and the second one, Langford has added to his solo catalog with sharply observed and gently conceptual albums like 2006's "Gold Brick" and 2010's "Old Devils."

He's also continued to collaborate with other musicians on projects such as the three-volume compilation "The Executioner's Last Songs" and "Ancient & Modern," a new Mekons album due out in late September. The disc plants another signpost along the road of a band that has been recording and touring since 1979.

"It's been a factor constantly in my life since I was 19," he said of Mekons. "We wouldn't do it if we didn't think it was worth something - I don't mean financially. Sometimes it's really hard to get everything going, but when we're not doing it, we're thinking about when we're going to do it next."

His very next thing is his annual tour with Salas-Humara. "Every year we take a little trek around the country," Langford said. It's yet another entry on Langford's busy artistic schedule.

"I don't think it's restlessness," he said. "I just think I work a lot of different ways. Music is a very collaborative art form, and I'm a common link between a lot of these projects. I'm really privileged with a healthy situation. Just trying to get through modern life to have some time to work is my problem."