Customer Rating: 
Summary: Part Of A Perfect American Trilogy
Comment: 1972 was a banner year for what is now called Americana music, and its best and brightest purveyors were attached to Warner Brothers Records and their subsidiary Reprise. Between the two labels, they had a very cool stable of artists. Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor became mainstream successes fairly quickly. Others took longer to find fame and acclaim, but were no less noteworthy. Among these were 3 forward-thinking, backward-glancing master musicians who anticipated the best-selling "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack by 28 years.
Consider: In 1972 Warner/Reprise released Ry Cooder's "Into The Purple Valley", John Fahey's "Of Rivers And Religion", and Van Dyke Parks' "Discover America". Fellow label-mate Randy Newman issued his "Sail Away" album that year, but he wouldn't fully explore American themes until 1974's "Good Old Boys". The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band gained the most notice of all of these records with the 1972 release of their landmark double album "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" on the Liberty label.
It's not like no one had recorded this stuff before - there was of course the originals (Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, to name just two) - and such vaunted keepers-of-the-flame as Johnny Cash. Dylan was certainly an early practitioner at times, as were the Byrds with much of 1968's "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". Many folk artists recorded chestnuts like "Statesboro Blues" on albums otherwise filled with their own material. Singing and playing old songs on acoustic guitar is one thing. Total immersion and dedication to the proper historical instrumentation - and presentation of these songs as a conceptual whole - is something entirely different. It could be said that 1972 was when this music finally reached "critical mass", and a greater number of counter-culture artists tapped into the zeitgeist and expanded its boundaries (or narrowed them, if you prefer). Their attention to detail and authenticity raised the bar to a new level, and they made dusty old Smithsonian archival recordings sound fresh and revelatory for a whole new generation.
For this review, I'm choosing to concentrate on the Warner/Reprise releases that best illustrate this discussion. All 3 were flawless masterpieces that investigated different facets of American music. Ry Cooder explored Tennessee Dust Bowl balladry, Western themes of gunfighters and farmers, and the kind of "union" songs favored by Pete Seeger. John Fahey released an all-instrumental record (no vocals) of sleepy Mississippi blues, spirituals, and New Orleans dixieland jazz. Van Dyke Parks went further south yet, with steelband calypso music of the Caribbean - but sang entirely about American themes and people such as Franklin Roosevelt, Bing Crosby, the Mills Brothers, and J. Edgar Hoover.
For me, these albums comprise a perfect American trilogy. That they were released the same year is altogether remarkable. Thankfully, they are all available on CD. I can't recommend them highly enough.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Cooder winner
Comment: Goes perfectly with Paradise and Lunch; the two fit nicely on one cd for the car.
Tremendous git playing from Ry as usual, with the added bonus of lots of his tasty mandolin. All the tunes are old gems, treated with reverence and joy. The Joseph Spence tune about FDR coming to Trinidad is a hoot and a half.
Very musical music, and lots of fun.
Customer Rating:
Summary: ...A TRUE WORK OF ART! BEAUTIFUL JAPANESE VERSION!
Comment: This Japanese mini-lp replica version of Ry Cooder album is simply a work of art! Very beautifully designed with all the lyrics included and with a sound quality remastered to perfection.
This 2007 Warner reissue is by far the best version of this album that is out there; great sound quality, great packaging, great songs! A must have in any CD collector's library. A real collectors item of these guitarist, top 10 of all times.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Awful Singing, Great Guitar
Comment: Whoa. I bought this album on the strength of these reviews and the 5 stars...but be careful, all is not 5 stars in the kingdom of Cooder. The reason you've never heard of this album is that while the guitar playing is impeccable, inspired and a mark of true talent, the singing is AWFUL. Cooder is almost tuneless and clearly has never learned how to sing. On tracks like Teardrops Will Fall, his back-up singers come in and really highlight how terrible his tune is. Consider yourself warned.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ry Cooder: Into The Purple Valley
Comment: Into The Purple Valley is basically a concept album about 1930s America, and Ry Cooder's second solo record. The only other Ry Cooder album I own is his self-titled debut, which is great, but this one blows it away. Certain songs on Cooder's debut are among my all-time favorites, especially "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?", which has heartbreaking lyrics almost enough to make the staunchest Republican turn socialist (contrary to a previous review, "How Can A Poor Man" IS from Cooder's debut album, not from Into The Purple Valley). But overall I was disappointed by the self-titled album, mainly because my expectations were so high. The sound was not full enough, since Cooder used a backing band on only a few of the tracks, and too many slow songs slowed everything down.
This album, however, lives up to all expectations. The foot-tappers "Money Honey" and "Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All" are the two perfect songs, but almost equally great are "How Can You Keep Moving," "On A Monday," and "Denomination Blues," all of which have awesome, lighthearted lyrics that would have come off as merely cute if they had not been done exactly right. And then there are the beautiful/sad songs: "Teardrops Will Fall" (which sounds much more modern than the rest of the songs, both musically and lyrically - it could almost be a Smokey Robinson tune), and "Great Dream From Heaven," a short but sweet instrumental. I realize that I've named nearly every song on the album, something that usually annoys me when I'm reading other people's album reviews, but that just goes to show you how much I love this whole CD. If you are a fan of roots-conscious rock music like The Band and Rory Gallagher, then you can't go wrong with Ry Cooder; and if you are just getting into Ry Cooder, I don't think there is a better starting place than Into The Purple Valley.
(Bonus tip: if you have not heard of Rory Gallagher, definitely check him out too, especially his two live albums.)
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