Monthly Archives: February 2011

Sometimes He just likes to have some fun.

I don’t know how many of you have ever heard of Ry Cooder, but he’s been one of my favorite musicians for years. Not a piano pounder but a great song writer. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him the 8th greatest guitar player of all time.

Though Cooder has been in the music business since the ’60s and played with greats like Randy Newman, Mavis Staples, Taj Mahal, Mick Jagger and has written many film scores I’d never heard of him until one evening aboard Jolie Aire in Antibes, France I tuned in to a show called Les Enfents du Rock and saw him singing this song…

Now, I haven’t stepped into a church since my dad’s memorial service a half dozen years ago and I hold “organized” religion in the highest, or lowest, contempt no matter if it’s fundamentalist Christian, fundamentalist Muslim, or ultra-orthodox Jewish. Take your pick, they’re all horrible in my book. But that doesn’t preclude me from enjoying Gospel music. In fact I LOVE Gospel music. It’s the basis for rock and roll, rhythm and blues and just plain blues. It’s putting into action the injunction to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord” and it touches me in a very spiritual way. The last time I attended the New Orleans Jazz Festival I spent five days in the Gospel Tent only going outside one time to see Roy Orbison which, in and of itself, was a spiritual event.

Riding up the mountain from David this afternoon I was listening to The Zion Harmonizers singing the following song but couldn’t find them doing it on You Tube but Ry has this version.

I returned to Potrerillos Arriba yesterday afternoon for an indefinite stay. Steve, the owner of the house, has been having serious back pain since he came back here in mid-November. Actually even before then. He and his wife, Jane, have spent a great deal of their time this trip consulting with various doctors and an MRI was done at Hospital Chiriqui. The opinion was that Steve needs surgery. The two have returned to the States for further consultation and for insurance purposes.

Naturally they called me the other day and asked me if I’d come look after the house and the neurotic canine-on-residence. How could I say no? I LOVE this place though I’m a bit ambivalent about the dog. Besides, I’m retired. I don’t have a job, what else do I have to do?

It’s a bit hazy looking down the mountain this morning and the low mountains are indistinct, gray bumps in the distance and the Pacific Ocean is invisible. But it’s a lot quieter here this morning than in Boqueron. Every once in a while I hear a cock crow and not the 30 fighting cocks that were my neighbors.