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Ry Cooder: The Prodigal Son

Terry Staunton, Record Collector, April 2018

FOR AN ALBUM on which he takes stock of a 21st century US riddled with crises and uncertainty, Cooder astutely plunders the grammar of the nation's folk music history with remarkable results. Three of its 11 songs come from his own pen, but elsewhere his archival skills come to the fore, referencing such bygone chroniclers as the Stanley Brothers and Blind Willie Johnson.

Total word count of piece: 532

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