desperately seeking Ry Cooder

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: Severn
Date: 30 Oct 16 - 07:07 PM

Actually, the blues singer that Ry Cooder WAS friendly with was Sleepy John Estes. Cooder used to play a lot of his tunes in concert when playing solo, playing blues mandolin in the style of Estes' long time friend and sideman Yank Rachell. On the album "Boomer's Story", Cooder not only plays Sleepy John's "Ax Sweet Mama" but lets Estes himself sing his "President Kennedy" while Ry plays mandolin along with the singer's guitar. Ry did "Going To Brownsville" on his first album and a recording called "Acoustic recording at Radio Ranch 12/12/72" put out in 2014 on the Echoes label of a radio concert in Cleveland OH, he sings "Brownsville" as well as two other Estes songs on solo mandolin, "Clean Up At Home" and "Floating Bridge".

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 06:30 PM

So, sixtieschick...are you still on Mudcat? Did you ever manage to contact him? What (if anything) happened?

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 12:33 PM

Howard Jack

Ry Cooder in recent years has been recording with Nonesuch Records (latest album, released a couple of months ago, is "Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down").

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: sixtieschick
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 06:24 PM

Thanks for all the great leads. I'll get cracking on them, and will report back when success is mine.

Miriam

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: belfast
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 08:39 AM

My apologies for having inadvertently caused the thread creep. Must be a lot of William Johnsons in the world. But, before I go, to answer an earlier question, the guy who played Skip James (yes, brilliantly)in the film was Keith B. Brown. There's a website Keith B. Brown
End of threadcreep, I hope. Good luck with the search.

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 10:03 PM

BTW, Ry Cooder has a new album due out this spring called "Chavez Ravine".

In addition, the PBS program Independent Lens is doing a documentary on the neighborhood that was Chavez Ravine (with Ry's soundtrack) with Cheech doing the narration. The neighborhood was bulldozed to make way for Dodger Stadium.

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 09:42 PM

You might want to contact these folks at Concerted Efforts, who are agents for the above mentioned Chris Thomas King, and many others--including many blues and gospel artists who have worked with Ry Cooder.

I've worked with them only once, but they were very helpful, down to earth kinds of folks. Might at least be worth a phone call, explain what you are doing, and see if they can give you any leads.

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: GUEST,fullerton
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 08:18 PM

If you get in touch with him, tell him hello from me.

good luck in your quest.

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: Amos
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 02:03 PM

Also, if you can reach Carlos Nunez, whose booking agent in Spain is listed on this page (http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=298) he can lead you to Ry as they have collaborated.

A

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: Amos
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:58 PM

You could try the Rosebud Agency:

http://www.rosebudus.com/rosebud/news/03-01.html

who did a record including his music and have John Hammond amongst their artists. They might know.


A

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: Amos
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:53 PM

Here's a possible link:

ontacting Buena Vista Social Club Presents' North American Agent
(for Europe, see below)


International Music Network
These folks represent Chucho Valdes world-wide and Buena Vista Social Club Presents, Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González, and the AfroCuban Allstars in North America. They have up to date concert listings.

2 Main Street., 4th Floor.
Gloucester, MA 01930

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]
Website: http://www.imnworld.com


Contacting Buena Vista Social Club Presents' UK/Europe Agent


SASA MUSIC
David Flower
309, Aberdeen House
22-24 Highbury Grove
London N5 2EA
UK

David Flower [e-mail]
fax:[phone]

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: Amos
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:43 PM

You call WB yet? Their record division? I dunno, wish I did.


A

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: sixtieschick
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:54 PM

Ummmm..... I have been pursuing information about Willie "Bill" Johnson, who died in 1980. He was a gospel singer, a founding member of the Golden Gate Quartet who later joined the Jubalaires, which became the Jubilee Four. According to music historian and gospel expert Doug Seroff, with whom I communicated by mail and telephone, Ry Cooder was a friend of this particular Willie Johnson. Perhaps Seroff got it wrong, but he was acquainted with Johnson himself and I am confident he knows whereof he speaks.

Therefore, I'm still desperately seeking Ry Cooder. Y'all know where to find him?   

Miriam

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: PoppaGator
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:38 PM

The guy who played Blind Willy Johnson in that Wim Wenders film was Chris Thomas King, son of legendary Baton Rouge bluesman Tabby Thomas and a notable blues player in his own right. He also had a featured role in Oh Brother Where Art Thou as the black guitar player who befriends the three escaped cons. Chris does his own guitar playing and singing in both films, of course.

The "fake" footage in the Wender piece was filmed using an antique hand-cranked movie camera which gives the footage a strange and startling quasi-authenticity. This technique is used for stories portraying Blind Wille Johnson and Skip James. The guy who plays Skip James does a great job, at least equal to Chris' performance ~ can anyone name him?

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: belfast
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 11:52 AM

Ry Cooder was born in 1947 which was, as noted above, the year that Blind Willie Johnson died. Their lives overlapped by a couple of months which probably rules out any possibility of reincarnation.

In 1977 when NASA was launching Voyager to the outer planets of the solar system and beyond it included music recordings. Among those recordings was Johnson's "Dark Was The Night", recorded in'27, fifty years previously. This is the starting point of Wim Wender's film "The Soul of a Man". (Wender also made "The Buena Vista Social Club" mentioned earlier.) This film contains some startling fake archive footage of Blind Willie Johnson singing and playing. I use the word "fake", although it sounds derogatory and pejorative, because I can't think of a better one. The film is a great piece of work.

Is this what this thread is about?

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: GUEST,Ballyholme
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 10:41 AM

"Blind" Willie Johnson died in 1947.

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: belfast
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 08:08 AM

I wouldn't bet on it but I would guess that Blind Willy Johnson was long gone before Ry Cooder began his career. Ry Cooder's music for the film "Paris, Texas" was almost certainly based on or influenced by Johnson's "Dark was the night".

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: Amos
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 02:29 AM

By strange coincidence I was deeply immersed In The Buena Vista Social Club Sunday night; grand piece o work! Ry Cooder carries himself in it with a sort of mellow hipness that is completely benevolent. And plays beautifully. My kinda guy! :D. I am sorry I have no connection to him but Warner Brothers should be able to tell you how to get a letter to him.

A

Subject: RE: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: open mike
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:22 AM

http://www.ryland-cooder.com/
the last 8 albums listed on that site
were on the Warner label...
http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com/faq.php
perhaps you can locate
an agent or someone there
who manages him?
or here..
http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com/
UNITED STATES
Warner Music International
75 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10019
U.S.A.
or here:
http://www.repriserecords.com/

http://www.pbs.org/buenavista/music/ry_cooder_bio.html
http://www.pbs.org/buenavista/music/ry_cooder_disc.html
or on Warner Electra Atlantic's site:
http://www.wea.com/
[e-mail]
or warner music group
http://www.wmg.com/

good luck

Subject: desperately seeking Ry Cooder
From: sixtieschick
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 12:45 AM

During my never-ending search for information about the gospel singer Willie Johnson, a music historian suggested I contact Ry Cooder, who was friends with Johnson and featured him in a television program. However, the rub is that the man is proving very hard to find. If you have contact information for Ry Cooder, or would be willing to pass along a message from me, or know someone whose second cousin is his barber and would pass along a message, you will have my undying gratitude until the end of time.

PM me: sixtieschick

Miriam