Description
‘The Prodigal Son’, Cooder’s first album since 2012, finds him seeking perspective on income inequality and using earnest melodies from long ago to speak to the mushrooming crises, internal and external, of the present moment. To do this, Cooder turns to both classic artists (Blind Willie Johnson) and woefully under-known artists (Appalachian songwriter named Blind Alfred Reed). Listeners can expect loose junkyard grooves with slide guitar that sounds like it’s on the verge of spontaneous combustion, but ‘The Prodigal Son’ is often stark musically – most of the instruments are played by Cooder and his son, Joachim. As in church, there’s not much superfluous finery getting in the way of the message.
