Ry Cooder

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.