Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Bill Stewart and Larry Grenadier. Photo: John Scofield Facebook page

Late-September sees the release of guitarist John Scofield's latest album a quartet affair called Past Present to be released on Impulse! Decked out with new material the quartet have been gigging recently including an appearance at the Montreal Jazz Festival at the end of June. Sco and tenor sax titan Lo were students at Berklee and began to play on records together in the 1990s and were also part of the amusingly titled but very splendid ScoLoHoFo supergroup that released Oh! in 2003.

Where to begin with Ry Cooder? Well, the obvious place is not the past even if we find ourselves there but instead somehow the scary present. The song is the thing on an unpreachy gospelly blues belter of an album.

It contains many many surprises and some very old songs plus originals. The first surprise: There is almost preposterously a Glen Campbell feel to the Buena Vista Social Club mastermind’s voice somehow on ‘Straight Street’ an anecdotal song about coming to terms with the past and redemption.

The second: “Peace within” two words from ‘Straight Street’ may that be the overriding theme of the album? Perhaps.

‘Shrinking Man’ is more boisterously Mose Allison, a bit of a boogie that Dr John would be proud of, a staring death in the face and not worrying about becoming frail, just laughing at the mirror. Oh, and cut all that exploitation right out while you are passing through. 

‘Gentrification’ is far darker, the ghostly whistling giving way to a jauntiness but like so many of these songs provided with hidden teeth.

Cooder is superb at telling stories that somehow steal the ground from under you. Johnny Depp may be buying up a house in the neighbourhood but just look how decrepit the place really is and does anyone really care about the real people who actually live there? No he knows but yes they should and forget the celebrity bullshit.

The humour is the dynamite at the heart of the album. ‘Everyone Ought To Treat a Stranger Right’ has a weary feel to it and like so much on The Prodigal Son sounds crafted and unglossy. Guitars are a barbed wire tangle.

The title track goes full electric and has an Ali Farka Touré feel to it that transforms itself into a driving blues rock belter again with a dark gospel feel. 

Ry Cooder’s first album since 2012 this is a must, one of the year’s very best albums so far.

‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’ has a spooky almost pan pipe-like intro but don’t hold that against it and then even deeper a journey into the blues, real Lead Belly territory set against wide open prairie backing sounds.

‘You Must Unload’ by Blind Alfred Reed from the 1920s has a beautiful introduction all arpeggiated and inescapably nudging towards memories of the Cooder touch on Paris Texas. This is the best song, a wake up call to the bible belt most of all, a beautiful lead vocal and backing vocals that show the singer spokesperson that Cooder has become, an unofficial John the Baptist, is not alone but is speaking for us all. Ultimate holy roller ‘I’ll Be Rested When the Roll Is Called’ is a beaut Cooder letting it all hang out. Carter Stanley’s ‘Harbor of Love’ has a pristine quality, guitar texture and melody buffed and buffed. ‘Jesus and Woody’, Woody, Sherlock no kidding, as in Guthrie, has a stillness you gravitate to Cooder for and a very deep gravelly vocal that is easily Cooder’s best. Ry Cooder and his son Joachim are quite a team cooks and bottle washers throughout. ‘In His Care’ at the end is like getting drunk in a revivalist tent, Cooder tending the unlikely bar and forgiving all the sinners who may not thank him at all for doing so.

Stephen Graham  

Released on 11 May. Cooder plays Dublin, Glasgow, and London in October. Cooder website