OCT 24, 2011 – Ry Cooder is a musical activist that is not afraid to speak out on issues, and his latest album, "Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down" hits on the bailout, immigration, war and more. From his website:
"His latest album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down grew out of this information void—and the pervasive political and corporate double-speak that began swirling in its absence. Snaking through it are familiar themes—the struggle toward real democracy, the trials of the working man, the elusive goal of equality—set against the mayhem of contemporary front page news. [It] has been Cooder’s way to consider some complex questions, to pull back the curtain on the “official stories” by applying a healthy dose of reporter-style skepticism. The album gives “voice” to those affected by corporate greed, self-serving legislation, a culture of fear and hate—and the corrosive nature of apathy.
Consequently, these 14 songs—voices from the wreckage—work as a meditation on not just the state of the union or of the world, but really the state of our hearts and minds—our priorities and values. What happened to the concept of community? Who are we behind our fences and multi-billion dollar homes? What have we—or are poised to—become? Cooder sets these questions in motion, some as “eyewitness” soliloquies, others as allegories—in “El Corrido de Jesse James,” the erstwhile-bank robber asks God if he can have the .44 he checked at Heaven’s gates so he can clean up Wall Street. In “John Lee Hooker for President,” Cooder, fully inhabiting Hooker’s pace and flow, the musician re-appears to make a run for the presidency after being turned away from the White House door."
