My Name Is Buddy - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
Though this release carries the deceptive subtitle Another Record by Ry Cooder, the virtuosic guitarist and ethnomusicological adventurer has never released another album quite like this. And neither has anyone else. After brilliant side trips into the music of pre-Castro Cuba and pre-baseball Chavez Ravine, Cooder returns to the Depression-era and Dust Bowl ballads that marked his earliest solo releases of the 1970s. Yet most of this material is original, offering a populist parable of three fellow travelers: Buddy Red Cat, Lefty Mouse, and the Reverend Tom Toad. The tradition of putting pointed social commentary in the mouths of animals extends from Animal Farm to Pogo, and Buddy seems like a feline cross between Woody Guthrie and Joe Hill--a troubadour of union solidarity, interspecies brotherhood, and radical populism. Though Cooder's cartoon vocals occasionally sound a little mannered, the music throughout ranks with his best, as he reunites with conjunto accordion master Flaco Jimenez and soul singers Terry Evans and Bobby King, enlists banjo brothers Pete and Mike Seeger, and receives inspired support from the Chieftains' Paddy Moloney, pianist Van Dyke Parks, and drummers Jim Keltner and (his son) Joachim Cooder. Whether he's channeling his inner Chet Baker on "Green Dog" or closing with the utopian vision of "There's a Bright Side Somewhere," Cooder shows more sides of his multifaceted music than he has on any previous release. --Don McLeese

Album Description
On My Name Is Buddy, Ry Cooder revisits, in a new set of original material, the sound and feeling of the "dust bowl songs" he first explored more than three decades ago on such groundbreaking albums as his self-titled 1970 debut and 1971's In The Purple Valley. In fact, he's joined by old friends like pianist Van Dyke Parks and drummer Jim Keltner who were with him at the start of his extraordinary, ultimately globe-spanning musical odyssey, which has yielded him six Grammy Awards to date, several more nominations, and perennial acclaim. My Name Is Buddy is also a journey, a phantasmagorical rendering in music, words and pictures of the travels of three unlikely cohorts - Buddy Red Cat, Lefty Mouse and Reverend Tom Toad - as they meander through the west "in the days of labor, big bosses, farm failures, strikes, company cops, sundown towns, hobos and trains...the America of yesteryear." For this allegorical tale, Cooder marshals all his remarkable skills as a producer, arranger, songwriter, soundtrack composer and musicologist. (The Christian Science Monitor recently dubbed him "a modern-day Alan Lomax.") My Name Is Buddy recalls Woody Guthrie's Bound for Glory - that is, if it had been enacted by the articulate animal characters of Walt Kelly's classic comic Pogo. Cooder conjures up the dark shadows of an earlier time to wryly comment on the political and social issues of the present. As back-story to his songs, Cooder has written short stories for each one and they're accompanied by evocative illustrations from noted San Antonio-based painter and muralist Vincent Valdez, all of which are included in a specially designed package.

Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Warms the heart. March 22, 2007
40 out of 42 found this review helpful

I am not American. Nor do I usually buy this kind of music. I heard a few tracks by accident in a music store. But... we live in dark times, someone singing about friendship and brotherhood makes me feel that there are some good people out there. Its simple messages warm the heart. If the heart is true, the music is beautiful no matter whether the music is rock, rap... or in this case American Folk Music.

5 out of 5 stars

Did I Hear You Say Ry Cooder Album Is About a Cat; as In Kitty Cat? March 11, 2007
39 out of 42 found this review helpful

Ry Cooder's latest album is an folk music opera to a rambling cat named Buddy who sleeps in a little suitcase and hobos around America with his best friend, a pro-labor union mouse named Lefty.

Huh?...come again? No, Ry Cooder has not lost his mind. Let me assure all doubters that "My Name Is Buddy" is not only his most audacious recording to date but arguably his best.

Knowing what you do about Ry Cooder's impeccable musical reputation do you think he'd risk it all to write a bizarre roots music epic about about a working class hobo cat? Don't think too long about the question because the entire idea seems so laughably absurd. It is not our place to question artistic genius.

In reality Cooder's musical statement tells us more about human relations than animal behavior. I can only tell you that you're missing something very special if you can't suspend disbelief and listen to this album on Ry Cooder's own artistic terms.

5 out of 5 stars

One Cat one vote March 4, 2007
22 out of 31 found this review helpful

Gee... thanks for your 2 cents Nicholas in Indianapolis. Sincerely.

65 miles to the Northeast of India-no-place, we still remember the voices of those who built this modest country. Sorry you didn't get to the back of your history books in school. Something you could check into.

Interesting that Amazon.com allows people to "review" an album yet to be released. I gather Nicholas of Naptown got a pre-release version of the cd.

Glad that Nick enjoyed the music, I gather music is what CDs are still about. Sorry that politics ruined your day there "Buddy."

Muncie "Magic City" Indiana here.

5 out of 5 stars

Gee, Nick - Are you a Republican? March 5, 2007
20 out of 28 found this review helpful

As long as we're pushing stars (or a lack thereof) before the CD is even out of the gate, I'll join in too. I remember Ry's work in the 70's ("Chicken Skin", "Purple Valley", and "Paradise and Lunch") and I expect this to be every bit as good. He's just telling us some forgotten history, Nick, and when you actually hear it, I think you'll find that he does so with a sense of humor. And there is quite a lineup of musicians. Let's face it - Ry Cooder is an icon in our culture, whether certain people agree with his politics or not. He is deserving of the highest respect, and some success along the way. Sniping at his work in public forums to hurt his distribution is cheap and dirty.

5 out of 5 stars

Ry's best work March 7, 2007
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

This is an amazing disc. Much like his early work (Into the Purple Valley, Boomer's Story, etc.), this song cycle recreates the dust bowl era in modern sonic terms and musical language. It combines folk, jazz, blues, and protest songs into a charming, intelligent and entertaining mixture. If you are a fan of classic American music and clever storytelling, then this is the CD for you. It's the aural equivalent of some of Steinbeck's novels (`The Grapes of Wrath' and `Travels With Charlie' come to mind), crossed with `The Wind in the Willows'. That may sound like an odd mixture, but the results are wonderful.

As in the best American folk music of the era Cooder is recreating, these songs are political motivated, socially aware and purposefully accessible to a wide group of people. His take on this form would do Woody Guthrie proud. This is the best musical purchase I've made in quite a while.

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