Amazon.co.uk Review
Though this release carries the deceptive subtitle
Another Record by Ry Cooder, the virtuosic guitarist and ethnomusicological adventurer has never released another album quite like this. And neither has anyone else. After brilliant side trips into the music of pre-Castro Cuba and pre-baseball Chavez Ravine, Cooder returns to the Depression-era and Dust Bowl ballads that marked his earliest solo releases of the 1970s. Yet most of this material is original, offering a populist parable of three fellow travelers: Buddy Red Cat, Lefty Mouse, and the Reverend Tom Toad. The tradition of putting pointed social commentary in the mouths of animals extends from
Animal Farm to
Pogo, and Buddy seems like a feline cross between Woody Guthrie and Joe Hill--a troubadour of union solidarity, interspecies brotherhood, and radical populism. Though Cooder's cartoon vocals occasionally sound a little mannered, the music throughout ranks with his best, as he reunites with conjunto accordion master Flaco Jimenez and soul singers Terry Evans and Bobby King, enlists banjo brothers Pete and Mike Seeger, and receives inspired support from the Chieftains' Paddy Moloney, pianist Van Dyke Parks, and drummers Jim Keltner and (his son) Joachim Cooder. Whether he's channeling his inner Chet Baker on "Green Dog" or closing with the utopian vision of "There's a Bright Side Somewhere," Cooder shows more sides of his multifaceted music than he has on any previous release.
--Don McLeese
Description
With a concept that could have failed on so many levels in lesser hands, Ry Cooder stuns once again in MY NAME IS BUDDYand demonstrates why he is one of America's most adventurous musicians. His chosen material is a loose collection of animal character sketches--the titular Buddy is a cat--based on labor struggles and the lower class in Depression-era America. Think of it as Woody Guthrie meets Beatrix Potter.
While an odd construct on page for a man that jammed with Beefheart, the Stones, and the Buena Vista Social Club, MY NAMEIS BUDDY flies with every track. The stellar cast of musicians includes the brothers Seeger, Van Dyke Parks, Jim Keltner, Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains, and Flaco Jimenez, and grounds the fairy tale atmosphere with musical blood and guts. The ensembles tear through early-19th-century forms (country blues, bluegrass, and old-time arrangements) with a rollicking flair.