The Buena Vista Social Club was by far Cooder's biggest commercial success. At the time, he probably thought it was business as usual – working with a bunch of interesting and skilled musicians from a different musical culture, as he'd done so many times before. But this time he hit the jackpot. The importance of the album and the subsequent documentary cannot be overstated. It is the most popular recording of Cuban music in history, and it opened up the island's culture to the West as never before.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music by Jimmy Fontanez, Quincas Moreira

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Last Man Standing, Cooder's last collaboration with Walter Hill, was a remake of a Japanese classic, 1961's Yojimbo. Hill and Cooder let loose once again, creating a dark, nihilistic action film starring Bruce Willis as the man with no name. Though very unconventional and focused almost exclusively on atmosphere, Cooder's score is surprisingly diverse and varied. - In this episode we also talk about the 1995 Family Tour with David Lindley and Cooder's session work in the mid-90s.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

Voices produced with text-to-speech AI

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For Cooder, the mid-nineties were a period of astonishingly numerous world music collaborations. Between 1993 and 1995 alone, he worked with Indian string legend V.M. Bhatt (A Meeting By The River), Ali Farka Touré of Mali (Talking Timbuktu), Nenes and Shoukichi Kina of Okinawa (The Great Music Experience), The Chieftains of Ireland (The Long Black Veil), and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan of Pakistan (Dead Man Walking). So in this episode we take a trip around the world (kind of) and tell the story of all these very exciting collaborations.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

Voices produced with text-to-speech AI

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Geronimo – An American Legend, released in 1993, was Cooder's eighth score for director Walter Hill. The movie is about the last resistance of the Native Americans against the superiority of white civilization. It's very serious and pretty dark. After the jazzy Trespass, this was something completely new for Cooder. For the first time, he composed something like a classical film score, a real tapestry of sound. And while the movie opts for the narrative perspective of the white soldiers, Cooder chooses a strict musical duality between a Native American and a white Western part.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

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Walter Hill's gritty 1992 action film Trespass flew under the radar at the time, but Cooder again broke new ground with his score. The music is unlike anything he had done before, and it heralds a phase closely associated with a new collaborator: jazz trumpeter Jon Hassell. In this episode we also look at Cooder's session work from the late eighties and early nineties. Having long since outgrown his role as a mere contract worker, Cooder now became more of a mentor and producer.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

Voices produced with text-to-speech AI

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In this episode we tell the story of Little Village, a band that existed for a short time in 1991-92. It consisted of Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Jim Keltner and Nick Lowe, who had played together on Hiatt's album Bring The Family a few years earlier. Together they made another great album, but one that sounded different for a number of reasons. It wasn't a real hit, but it wasn't a disappointment either, just another ingenious effort from four very special musicians. We also take a quick look at Cooder and David Lindley's 1990 tour.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

Voices produced with text-to-speech AI

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We're back for our third season! Episode 25 focuses on 1989's Johnny Handsome, another underrated but truly spectacular Walter Hill film. Cooder's score is one of his best, if not THE best. It's surprising, moving, and has a great interplay between slide guitar, keyboards, and horn section. We also take a look at several other productions, including Pecos Bill, Tales From The Crypt, The Ghost Of Faffner Hall, several session albums, and the great Bobby King and Terry Evans debut, Live And Let Live!, which is as close to a Cooder album as you can get without actually being a Cooder album.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

Voices produced with text-to-speech AI

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There is good news. Season 3 is in the works, and now we have a start date. In exactly one month, on September 26, episode 25 will be on the schedule. It will mainly be dedicated to Johnny Handsome, a really great Walter Hill movie. Later episodes will deal with world music highlights such as Talking Timbuktu, Meeting By The River, and of course Buena Vista Social Club. We will also take a close look at the Walter Hill films Trespass, Geronimo, and Last Man Standing that followed. Every episode will be also be devoted to side projects, of which there continued to be many. Think John Lee Hooker, the Chieftains, Jon Hassel and many more. Then we get to the grand finale: the late work with the great solo albums.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

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We end our second season with what can be called Cooder's last classic album: Get Rhythm. As the title suggests, it's all about energy, speed and fun. It presents us with Cooder's very own world music and should have been a real chart breaker. Instead, it was just another solo effort with disappointing commercial results. Its release in 1987 was framed by two tours. We listen in on the famous Santa Cruz show, which spawned several bootlegs and a concert film. And we also uncover some very raw recordings from the '88 European tour.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

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The Ry Cooder Story Website

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cooder was not involved in the original development of John Hiatt's Bring The Family, nor did he act as producer, as he did a year later with Bobby King and Terry Evans. Nevertheless, this album is more significant than most of his previous session work and became something of a blueprint for the next phase of his career after Get Rhythm from the same year. It would be a period in which solo albums would no longer play a role, and film scores would gradually become less influential. Instead, a phase of more personal collaborations began, marked by work with long-time friends and ever new excursions into the realm of world music. Bring The Family was also the starting signal for the band Little Village, which was to be formed five years later.

This podcast frequently uses small snippets of musical recordings in podcast episodes for educational, review, and commentary purposes. In all cases, without exception, we believe this is protected by fair use in the U.S., fair dealing in the U.K. and EEA, and similar exceptions in the copyright laws of other nations. No more of the original than necessary is used, and excerpts are edited into long-form narratives, making the use transformative in nature.

Written, produced and edited by Frank Schnelle

Theme and background music by Chris Haugen

Additional background music The Mini Vandals

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube

The Ry Cooder Story Website

Support us on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.