Ry Cooder recently took New York Times writer Lawrence Downes on a tour of El Mirage Dry Lake in California's Mojave Desert, the inspiration and setting for I, Flathead, the third and final album in Ry's California trilogy, and its companion novella. Downes describes their destination as "a land of spy planes, space aliens, off-road vehicles, sturdy reptiles and people with freaky desert habits, like racing vintage hot rods on dry lakebeds ... in other words, a critical stop on Ry’s California trail." The day's adventure in the desert with Ry, he writes, "was as though I’d been roaming the Delta with Robert Johnson, or gypsy France with Django Reinhardt."

When Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall, the two-disc live recording of the renowned Cuban group's unforgettable 1998 concert, was released earlier this week, producer Ry Cooder appeared on WNYC's Soundcheck. Host John Schaefer writes on the show's blog of "the Buena Vista phenomenon" that took place upon the studio album's release, and looks to the new release as "a reminder of why 8 million of us went and bought this record in the first place." The Scotsman gives the new album five stars, suggesting, "There never was, and never will be again, a moment like the one this splendid double-CD eternalises ... [L]et this CD cast its spell on you."

Today marks the release of the two-CD set Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall, capturing the unforgettable concert event from the legendary Cuban musicians at the esteemed venue a decade ago. To celebrate the release, Ry Cooder stops by WNYC's Soundcheck this afternoon. The Sunday Times (UK) says there's "a poignant air to this recording" of "what was clearly a night of overwhelming emotion ... [T]his was one of those once-in-a-lifetime evenings when the collective spirit of old Havana carried all before it." Nonesuch offers those in the New York City area a rare opportunity to catch the 1999 Wim Wenders documentary about the group, projected onto the big screen at Lincoln Center.

Ry Cooder, fresh off his recent performance at the San Jose Mariachi Festival, makes two more rare live appearance this Thursday and Friday when he reconnects with former bandmates Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner for two concerts at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall to benefit the Richard deLone Special Housing Fund. The San Jose Mercury News talks with Ry about this atypically packed performance schedule, part of "an explosion of productivity" that includes the recent release of his I, Flathead and the new Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall album.

Ry Cooder talks to Rolling Stone about I, Flathead, the third in his "California trilogy." The magazine calls the album "light on flash, heavy on feeling." Ry also gives some insight into the forthcoming release of the live album Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall for the tenth anniversary of the group's performance at the Hall. "That was an amazing show," he says. "It has tremendous energy and verve but no aggression at all."

Ry Cooder recently spoke with Studio 360 host Kurt Anderson about his latest Nonesuch release, I, Flathead, the third in his California trilogy of records, as well as the many facets of his rich career. Cooder tells Anderson of, among other things, his earliest professional gigs in his hometown of Los Angeles while still in high school in the 1960s. "My fate was sealed, so to speak," he says, "because I had participated in this most miraculous thing I had ever seen ... that being a record studio."

Ry Cooder spoke with Associated Press writer John Rogers about his most recent release, I, Flathead, the third in his trilogy of albums about often overlooked aspects of 20th-century California history. Rogers asserts that with the trilogy, which also includes Chavez Ravine (2005) and My Name Is Buddy (2007), "Cooder has, nearly single-handedly, been keeping alive" the unique sound of mid-century Los Angeles.

Ry Cooder's I, Flathead, the third and final album in his "California trilogy," receives "wild applause" from the San Francisco Chronicle. "Of course, Ry Cooder really is all that," writes reviewer David Wiegand. "People toss the word 'genius' around far too often and too easily, but Cooder has more than earned that distinction with a long and consistently adventurous career."

On I, Flathead, as with the previous two discs in his California trilogy, Ry Cooder addresses a number of often overlooked topics in the history of mid-20th century, multi-ethnic California, and, says the Knoxville News Sentinel, "he delivers them with subtlety and humanity." The Boston Globe calls the new trilogy album "the best of the lot ... a fascinating journey by a maverick who won't be harnessed."

Ry Cooder's latest Nonesuch release, I, Flathead, receives four stars from The Independent (UK). The Philadelphia Daily News gives the album an A, with reviewer Jonathan Takiff finding Ry "really in his element," and the Hartford Courant's rock critic Eric R. Danton says Ry's "outdone himself." Pasadena Weekly sums up the new album and the accompanying novella as "a juicy celebration of hot rods, desert rats, sci-fi, and So Cal culture."

Ry Cooder's new album, I, Flathead, releases today and follows Chavez Ravine (2005) and My Name Is Buddy (2007) as the third and final album in Cooder's California trilogy. Two versions of the new record are available: the standard CD as well as a deluxe package with both the CD and the accompanying 95-page novella that Ry wrote in conjunction with the album songs, told from the perspective of the fictitious musician Kash Buk and featuring an oddball cast of characters and car obsessives from California's drag-racing salt flats in the 1960s.

"Ry Cooder is probably my guitar hero," Billy Bragg says in a Sunday New York Times Playlist. "The economy of his playing is something to be admired at a time when guitar players tend to think the more notes you play the better you are. My Name Is Buddy is up my street because it's capital-P Political ... There's a lot of love in the songs; they fit well in the tradition. Woody Guthrie's spirit runs through this record very strongly. Cooder plays stuff that we now refer to as Americana, but nobody called it that then. His excursions have been great, but for him to come back to where he began is pretty cool."