Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down

Best known for his production credits with the Buena Vista Social Club and the other groups surrounding the late-'90s Cuban music renaissance, as well as landmark recordings with Ali Farka Toure and The Chieftains, six-time Grammy winner Ry Cooder's own albums feature a mix of unconventional solo releases and stirring soundtrack work.

His three previous solo albums ("the California Trilogy") covered such topics as the destruction of a neighborhood to build Dodger Stadium in 2005's 'Chavez Ravine', the adventures of a hobo cat (as in feline) on 2007's 'Call Me Buddy', and the fictional musician and Salt Flats racer Kash Buk in 2008's 'I, Flathead' (which also included a 100-page hardcover novella).

On 'Pull Up Some Dust', Cooder looks to the Wall Street bailout as inspiration:
"There's you, the citizen, running in circles like a headless chicken. And there they are, there they all are, herding you faster and faster through the circle maze of lies and distraction. Who can you believe, who will throw out the life line?", says Ry before continuing with "You need simple tools, and that's what these songs are all about. Learn how John Lee Hooker will fix the Supreme Court if elected. Learn a stirring new war-without-end Christmas sing along. Study the report on the new-time Jim Crow heaven bill #1070. What does the outlaw Jesse James have in mind for Goldman Sachs? Why does God hate television? And there's more..."