Ry Cooder is a talented multi-instrumentalist with an insatiable appetite for music - from American roots music of many stripes to indigenous music from Hawaii, Mexico, Cuba, and Africa. Cooder has great taste in musicians, too, over the years working with Gabby Pahinui, Taj Mahal, Flaco Jimenez, David Lindley, and other too numerous to list. It was during his late 60's days as a studio musician - known primarily as a slide guitarist - that he made his name, largely through his association with the Rolling Stones. Cooder provided accompaniment on the Stones' Sticky Fingers and Let It Bleed, and he appeared on the oft-maligned Jamming With Edward LP (1972), the product of an impromptu 1969 studio session. Cooder also appeared on the soundtrack of Performance (1970), which starred Mick Jagger. By the time of Cooder's solo debut, expectations for him were high, indeed.

Ry Cooder's career can be loosely divided into three kind-of chronological sections - his solo albums, his soundtrack work, and his collaborations with other top-billed artists. Throughout the 1970's, Cooder focused on his own records (which often have a highly collaborative component), and many of those records approached greatness, held back only by their slavering traditionalism and relentless eclecticism. The first five of them - Ry Cooder (1970), Into The Purple Valley (1971), Boomer's Story (1972), Paradise & Lunch (1974), and Chicken Skin Music (1976) - are Ry Cooder's essential solo catalog. Together, these five records present an esoteric mix of songwriters old (Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly) and new (Randy Newman, Dan Penn) across a dizzying array of styles (folk, blues, soul, Hawaiian, Tex-Mex, and more) - and feature enough guest artists to populate a third world country. Much as Cooder's later work helped launch a world music craze in the 90's, these albums laid the groundwork for the roots rock movement of the 80's. A German CD, River Rescue: The Very Best Of Ry Cooder (1995), samples Cooder's solo output through 1987 (plus one new song) and is an excellent introduction to his well-considered, heartfelt music.

Beginning in the 1980's, Ry Cooder began lending his interpretive skills to the big screen, composing evocative soundtrack for a wide variety of films. Cooder usually employed the same rootsy, eclectic sound for movies that he had developed on his own albums - just without vocals. His stellar work for stellar films like Walter Hill's The Long Riders (1980) and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) provided for an exceedingly harmonious cinematic experience - Cooder's music communicating the filmmakers' intentions while enhancing them with his own. Music By Ry Cooder (1995) is a 2-CD set that surveys these many soundtrack albums, and it is an essential addition to any Ry Cooder collection. These atmospheric songs function (out-of-context, at least) as a sort-of roots rock muzak, an effect I actually enjoy very much.

In the 1990's, Ry Cooder evolved further, creating music almost exclusively in collaboration with other artists. As a partner, facilitator, and producer, he has reached the height of his career - at least in terms of record sales and public acclaim. One of his first such projects, Little Village (1992), was a one-off lark with buddies John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner that was decidedly less than the sum of its parts. Little Village was met with a resounding thud, but subsequent projects - most of them within the realm of world music - have been much more successful. These albums include Grammy-winners A Meeting By The River (1993), with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; Talking Timbuktu (1994), with Ali Farke Toure; Buena Vista Social Club (1997), with an extraordinary group of aged Cuban musicians; and Mambo Sinuendo (2003) with Manuel Galbán.