THE UTILITY GUY

Ry Cooder is so all over the place, it's hard to figure out where to begin. He's played with everybody. His first band, the Rising Sons, included Taj Majal and Ed Cassidy. He was playing with Captain Beefheart by the time he was twenty. He went on to play with the Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Randy Newman, David Lindley, The Chieftains, the Buena Vista Social Club, Ali Farka Touré. I think Flaco Jimenez is in there someplace too. He does his own solo stuff too. 

My sister used to have one of his albums, Boomer's Story, but I don't remember her ever listing to it. The first time I really heard him, and knew it was him, was on the budget LP Jamming With Edward. Recorded during the Let It Bleed LP sessions but released after Sticky Fingers and before Exile. The band is Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Nicky Hopkins and Cooder. It's jams they had while waiting for Keith Richards to return to the studio. Cooder's slide is all over it. Shortly after that I heard Cooder again, with Jagger, on "Memo From Turner" from the soundtrack of the film Performance. Then he started popping up all over the damn place.

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Listen:
Jamming With Edward - Blow With Ry (streaming) at YouTube Cooder, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Nicky Hopkins
Mick Jagger with Ry Cooder - Memo From Turner mp3 at ATumblr (?) From Performance OST
Ry Cooder w/Jim Keltner, Ice T and Ice Cude - King of the Street mp3 at Drummer World WTF
Ry Cooder - Down In Hollywood mp3 at Pierre Cabel (?)
Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Touré - [Title unknown] mp3 at H Chicha (?)