Ry Cooder
Quicksand (iTunes Exclusive)

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Track Listing

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Quicksand

4:54

News & Reviews

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Ry Cooder Talks to NY Times About Chávez Ravine As Dodger Stadium Marks 50th Anniversary

As the Los Angeles Dodgers marked the 50th anniversary of Dodger Stadium this week, New York Times writer George Vecsey looks back at some of the team's more checkered moments and wonders whether there might be a curse tied to Chávez Ravine, the Mexican-American community that was destroyed in the '50s to build the stadium. It's a story Ry Cooder recounts in his 2005 album Chávez Ravine. Vecsey continues the conversation with a post on his blog in praise of that album. "It is about baseball and it is about business," Vecsey writes. "But mostly it is terrific music." Rolling Stone gives four stars to Cooder's book, Los Angeles Stories, calling it "superb."
Friday, March 16, 2012

Ry Cooder Nominated for Best Artist in Songlines Music Awards; Fatoumata Diawara for Newcomer of the Year

Ry Cooder has been nominated as Best Artist in the Songlines Music Awards 2012 for his latest album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down. Fatoumata Diawara has been nominated as Newcomer of the Year for her debut album, Fatou, released in the UK on World Circuit; her debut EP, Kanou, was released on World Circuit/Nonesuch Records. Among the nominees for Cross-Cultural Collaboration are Kronos Quartet (Uniko) and Chris Thile, for his work with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer on The Goat Rodeo Sessions.

Read More News About Ry Cooder

About this Album

In response to the immigration battle currently raging in the United States, six-time Grammy winner Ry Cooder wrote "Quicksand," a slow-burning rocker that tells the story of six would-be immigrants making their way from Mexico to the Arizona border. The track, available exclusively on iTunes, features Cooder's son Joachim on drums, along with backup vocals by Lucina Rodgriguez and Fabiola Trujillo of Mexican roots band Los Cenzontles. Cooder has chosen MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, to receive all proceeds from sales of the single.

Thirst, hunger, injury, and fear befalls Cooder’s immigrants during their journey. "Quicksand I think we lost direction," he laments in the chorus, referring to more than just the song’s protagonists, "I think we're sinking down." At the border, a vigilante in a Dodge Ram turns away the song's only two survivors. "I think you'd take more pity on rescue pit bull dogs," the narrator pleads before turning around to face his death sentence in the scorching heat of the desert.

“The Devil’s Highway has been used by migrants traveling on foot for over 100 years,” says Cooder. “You should try it sometime. Out there, temperatures can get above 130 degrees. If you fall down, you have religious hallucinations, then you die, cooking from the inside out. If you get lucky, you might make it to Yuma, but then what? That's no comfort station they run up there, cabron.”

MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz says, "Defeating Arizona's SB 1070—and the potential copycat laws that have since been announced by unscrupulous legislators around the nation—will require a broad national community effort to reinforce the constitutional principles and values that characterize our nation. Our heartfelt thanks to Ry Cooder for being a leader in that necessary community effort." For more information on the organization and its efforts, visit maldef.org.

The artwork for the single features the piece "Nuthin' To See Here, Keep On Movin'!" by Vincent Valdez, the Texas-born artist whose illustrations have been featured on Cooder's 2007 album My Name Is Buddy and on El Chávez Ravine, the refurbished ice cream truck Cooder commissioned in honor of the Los Angeles Chicano community razed in the 1950s to make way for Dodger Stadium and the subject of his 2005 album, Chávez Ravine.

To purchase "Quicksand" from iTunes, click here.