Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down

On his fourth solo effort, the globe-trotting composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist leaves behind the fantastical yarn-spinning, the magical realism, and allegorical tunes of his last three records. The 14 songs on Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down are, by turns, angry, outraged, bitterly funny, and deeply poignant. With brilliant, Woody Guthrie-like directness and a healthy dollop of satire, Cooder's lyrics address the often-sorry state of our domestic affairs: the bank bailout, the anti-immigration movement, the ever-growing gap between rich and poor, and the never-ending war in the Middle East and its devastating physical and emotional toll on young soldiers. While his words are excoriating, the music is as exhilarating as anything Cooder has ever recorded, incorporating folk, blues, gospel, Tin Pan Alley, and Mexican-American norteno.

Cooder, who also produced the album, works alone in stripped-down voice-and-guitar settings. On Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, Cooder looks past the flow of facilenews that distinguishes our disinformation age and humanizes the headlines. The Depression Era imagery he frequently employs is startlingly apt in these outspoken songs about up-to-the-minute issues. With its blunt protest numbers, its sly send-ups, and its plainspoken laments, Pull up Some Dust and Sit Down showcases the indefatigable Cooder at his most passionate and inspired.