Ryland Cooder is back with another self composed masterpiece. Many if not all these tunes are classics in the protest idiom and establish Cooder as a classic folk writer as much as musician. The prevailing theme, shared by many of his generation is What happened to the USA?
If you like Ry, or Woody Guthrie then you will be right at home with this unabashedly humanitarian folk album.
It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »
