Ry Cooder – Back on Board

Ry Cooder reunites with Taj Mahal for an album that returns to both men’s roots: Get On Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

- By Jimmy Leslie

RY COODER AND Taj Mahal started out together with the short-lived Rising Sons before parting ways and going on to become two of the most important individual figures in American music. Now they’ve come full circle to pay tribute to two of their original heroes with the album Get On Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Nonsuch).

To be honest, we had a sense that a project between these heavyweights was in the offing. Last year, as Mahal turned 80, he graced our pages with a historic two-part interview [August and September 2021]. While he told us at the time that he was in contact with Cooder, it seemed futile to speculate on what that might meanwhile the pandemic was in full swing.

This time, we spoke with Cooder on the date of his 75th trip around the sun — March 15 — and he enlightened us about the project and the fascinating instruments he brought to the almost entirely acoustic affair. Once again, it will take two parts to deliver all the goods that he gave to us.

For the uninitiated, suffice it to say that GP long ago enshrined Cooder in the Gallery of Greats for his astounding array of solo albums, soundtrack work (including 1986’s Crossroads), sideman credits with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Little Feat, and of course, his expedition to Cuba that yielded the musical and cultural renaissance that was the Buena Vista Social Club. If they ever create a Mount Rushmore of influential guitarists on Americana Mountain, it would surely be graced with Cooder’s face.