SLIDE
This month Harrison Marsh looks at world music advocate, and undisputed master of slide guitar styles, the brilliant Ry Cooder.
Harrison Marsh looks at the style of an early electric slide hero, the wonderful Ry Cooder.
Atrue innovator, Ry Cooder has influenced virtually every slide guitarist that has come after him. Born In Los Angeles in 1947, Cooder’s first success was with Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, joining on 1967’s Safe As Milk album. He also spent a brief time with Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention. But what followed was an impressive career as a solo artist and sideman, always with slide guitar to the fore. In the late ’60s Cooder contributed to the Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers albums as well as playing with Lowell George’s Little Feat. The ’70s would see Ry release a string of solo albums that showcased his wide variety of musical influences and his inventive skills as a slide and rhythm player. Albums such as Into The Purple Valley and Chicken Skin Music show Cooder’s love for instrumentation and arrangement, drawing on influences from around the world with Calypso and Hawaiian phrases commonly mixed with more traditional American and gospel sounds.
Aside from this melting pot of guitar skills and styles, Cooder will possibly be best known for his soundtrack work including 1986’s Crossroads alongside Steve Vai. His other classic instrumentals from Paris Texas and Southern Comfort demonstrate how effective and emotive his slide playing can be with little or no accompaniment.
As a sideman he has shared stages and studios with artists from The Beach Boys to Eric Clapton and brought Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club to the attention of the world, and demonstrating the previously untold musical wealth of the country. Cooder brought other world music into his catalogue in the ‘90s, collaborating with Ali Farka Toure, Mohan Veena Virtuoso VM Bhatt.
Ry Cooder is still releasing new material and is almost constantly on tour. His back catalogue shows a talented musician that is constantly evolving and moving in new musical directions. He is also an essential study for anyone interested in slide guitar, though enthusiasts have been trying to capture his phrasing, technique and signature vibrato for decades with few coming close.
NEXT MONTH Harrison finishes his slide series with ZZ Top’s Texan titan, Billy F Gibbons
slide enthusiasts have been trying to capture cooder’s phrasing, technique and signature vibrato for decades