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The proverbial scene of the crime is visited not only by the murderer, but also by Ry Cooder.
In this case, the scene of the crime is the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, where Ry held two concerts on December 14 and 15, 1976, which composed «Show Time», his only live album released until 2013.
In 2013, «Live» was released, also recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and also over two days, on August 31 and September 1, 2011.
On this occasion, Ry is accompanied by the Corridos Famosos, two of whom, accordionist Flaco Jimenez and vocalist Terry Evans, were also present in 1976; the other members are Ry's son, Joachim, on drums, and his wife Juliette Commagere, on vocals; Arnold MacCuller, also on vocals; and Robert Francis, on bass.
As if that wasn't enough, there's also the Banda Juvenil, a ten-piece brass band in the New Orleans style, except they are Mexican. Nonetheless, they are essential to merging two of Ry's great passions, the sounds of New Orleans and Tex-Mex.
That thirty-five years have passed between the two events is evident from the images. Ry sports a pair of large glasses with thick lenses, his hair decidedly thinning and all white; even more striking is Flaco, in such bad shape that it prompted some to pen an advance obituary; both spend the evenings seated on chairs, and the rest of the group follows suit. It feels like being at a senior citizens' club, waiting for a classic game of briscola.
But it's never the case, because Ry hasn't lost a gram of his talented passion, and the same goes for Flaco; on the contrary, after these evenings, Flaco returns to recording new music, and many will have to put away their obituaries, thank God.
That these are special evenings is immediately apparent from the first moment Ry's fingers graze the strings of the guitar, and "Crazy 'Bout An Automobile" begins, now one of "his" classics, originally included in «Borderline». In the original version, it is a standard electric blues, which Ry divinely transforms into a blazing Tex-Mex, with an all-slide and bottleneck solo to be passed down to posterity; and then the Banda Juvenil immediately makes itself heard.
And if, in "Crazy 'Bout An Automobile", the Banda makes itself heard, in the subsequent "Why Don't You Try Me", it explodes definitively and powerfully supports a Ry who is already in top gear; this too is a track recorded for «Borderline», a splendid album Ry released in 1980 and which, perhaps, once and for all defines the Tex-Mex sound.
It's a great party, you can tell. But the party doesn't involve only the musicians on stage because the audience takes just a nanosecond to let themselves be swept away, becoming an essential protagonist of two unforgettable evenings.
An impressive one-two punch, the kind that knocks you out, if we were in a boxing ring. But this is a concert hall, and Ry still has an ocean of energy to impart.
The third blow is the definitive one because Ry starts "Boomer's Story", for me his most beautiful interpretation in his entire career, and I always hope to be proven wrong and that sooner or later Ry will return to the celestial heights reached in the Seventies and Eighties.
At this point, I am already exhausted, and every time I listen to this live, I find myself asking how it is possible to reach the conclusion.
It is possible, it is possible, because at the end of "Lord Tell Me Why", Ry takes the microphone and spends heartfelt minutes and words to talk about the beautiful past times and how important it is, on those evenings, to have his lifelong friend by his side.
«Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage, as best as you can, Flaco Jimenez». And the excitement is so great that the concert hall almost comes down.
Here, I may be as out of commission as I like, but that crazy accordion that leads us into furious dances with the splendid «Do-Re-Mi» and then «School Is Out» prevents me from standing still and spins me into a whirlwind that is a hurricane of emotions.
Here the first part of the concert closes magnificently with festive notes.
The second, in some ways, is even more beautiful. Because it is the slowest, most meditated, and heartfelt.
There are no words – or at least I can't find them – to describe the wonder that follows «School Is Out» and until the end.
Ry, the Corridos Famosos and the Banda Juvenil play «The Dark End Of The Street» and «Volver Volver», the only songs recorded at the concert in 1976, but here even more beautiful and heartfelt, and Juliette Commagere's voice in «Volver Volver» tears out my heart and takes it with her as a token of unconditional love, and I let it happen gladly; «Vigilante Man», again Woody Guthrie, and Ry takes a moment for himself and pays tribute to Woody with an intensity unheard of; ending with «Goodnight Irene», a piece I have adored since I first heard it listening to «Chicken Skin Music».
And if there is a place I would have liked to be, it is the Great Music Hall in San Francisco, the nights of August 31 and September 1, 2011, in front of those seventeen artists who tune the sweetest serenade to Irene and to all those who have the sentiments to understand.
Immense album.
Tracklist and Lyrics
05 Why Don't You Try Me (00:00)
(E. Young)
If your man has got you on the run why don't you try me ?
If you wanna have a little fun, oh baby, why don't you try me ?
If you tote more that you can bear, if your troubles been more than your share
And if things are not going just right why don't you try a man like me tonight ?
Why don't you try me tonight ?
Why don't you try me ?
Why don't you try me tonight ?
Why don't you try me ?
Last night while I was trying to sleep
I heard a racket from the room next door, hum
And that was you and your man havin' a fight
Like you've done so many nights before
"Woman, I'll turn you every which way but loose"
Is what I heard him shout, uh-oh, look out!
So I jumped out of the bed and I opened the door
Just as you came runnin' out
And I hollered: why don't you try me tonight ?
Why don't you try me ?
Why don't you try me tonight ?
Why don't you try me ?
I ain't saying I'm all that you need
And I won't tell you, honey, you will be free
But all night, well, I will keep trying
And when I say I want ya, girl, you know I'm not lyin'
You see a good woman out on the streets these days, friends
Ah, a bad old man can't be hard to find, no, no
Kind of man who'd steal your heart
And call true love a crime
That's why I keep asking ya, baby
Why don't you try me tonight ?
Do yourself a favor
Why don't you try me ?
Regular man ain't treatin' you right
Why don't you try a man like me tonight ?
Why don't you try me ?
Why don't you try a man like me tonight ?
Why don't you try me ?
06 Boomer's Story (00:00)
(Traditional, adapted by Ry Cooder)
Come and gather all around me
Listen to my tale of woe
Got some good advice to give you
Lots of things you oughta know
Take a tip from one who's travelled
And never stopped a-ramblin' 'round
'Cause once you get the roamin' fever
You never want to settle down, boy
You never want to settle down
I met a little gal in Frisco
And I asked her to be my wife
Told her I was tired of roamin'
Goin' to settle down for life
Then I heard the whistle blowin'
And I knew it was the Red Ball Train
And I left that gal beside the railroad
And I never saw the gal again, boy
I never saw the gal again
Saw the gal again
I never saw the gal again
Left that gal beside the railroad
And I never saw the gal again
Travelled all over the country
I've travelled everywhere
I been on every Branch Line railroad
And I never paid a nickel fare
I been from Maine to Califor'ny
And from Canada to Mexico
I never tried to save no money
And now I got no place to bo, boy
Now I got no place to go
Listen to a Boomer's story
Pay attention to what I say
Well, I hear another train a-comin'
Guess I'll be on my way
If you wanna do me a favor
When I lay me down and die
Just dig my grave beside the railroad
So I can hear the trains go by, boys
So I can hear the trains go by
Hear the trains go
Hear the trains go by
Just dig my grave beside the railroad
So I can hear the trains go by
08 Do Re Mi (00:00)
(Woody Guthrie)
(G) - (C) - (G7) - (D) - (D7) - (Bm) - (Em)
(G) Lots of folks back east they say
(C) Leaving home most every day
(D7) Beating the hot old dusty way
To the (G) California line
'Cross the desert sands they roll
(C) Getting out of that Old Dust Bowl
(D) Think they're coming to a sugar bowl
But (G) here's (D7) what they (G) find
(D) Police at the port of entry say
You're number fourteen thousand for to (D7) day
Hey, if you (G) ain't got the Do Re Mi, boy
If you ain't got the Do Re (D) Mi
Well, you (D7) better go back to beautiful Texas
Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennes- (G) see
California is the garden of Eden
It's a paradise to (G7) live in or (C) see
But be(G)lieve it or (D) not
You won't (Bm) find it so (C) hot
If you (Em) ain't got the Do Re (G) Mi
You want to buy a home or a farm
That can't do nobody harm
Take your vacation by the mountains or sea
Don't swap your old cow for a car
You better stay right where you are
Better take this little tip from me
Well, I look through the want ads every day
The headlines in the papers always say
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