Ry Cooder's Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down: lefty rootsy blues, rock and country for our times

Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down, the latest album from blues/roots legend Ry Cooder, impressario of the Buena Vista Social Club, is an unabashedly left-wing album in the tradition of the great titles of Woody Guthrie and Haywire Harry McClintlock. Built around the single "Quicksand," released in 2010 in response to Arizona's anti-immigrant bill SB 1070, the songs here are a combination of Mexican-style corridos, stomping blues, shitkicking C&W tracks, and other forms of great American music, tackling such themes as financial corruption, immigration, the plight of migrant workers, the double sorrow of dying for a war based on a lie, and other outrages of the modern age.

As you'd expect from Cooder, the songs are musically tight and eminently singable and danceable -- and the lyrics are clever and funny when they're not enraging and invigorating.

Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down [amazon.com]

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Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid
Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy
Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom
Context (essays)
With a Little Help (short stories)
For the Win (YA novel)
Makers (adult novel)

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