Page "Ry Cooder" Paragraph 8

Throughout the 1970s, Cooder released a series of Warner Bros. Records albums that showcased his guitar work.

Cooder explored bygone musical genres and found old-time recordings which he then personalized and updated.

Thus, on his breakthrough album, Into the Purple Valley, he chose unusual instrumentations and arrangements of blues, gospel, calypso, and country songs ( giving a tempo change to the cowboy ballad " Billy the Kid ").

The album opened with the song " How Can You Keep on Moving ( Unless You Migrate Too )" by Agnes " Sis " Cunningham about the Okies who were not welcomed when they migrated west to escape the Dust Bowl in the 1930s – to which Cooder gave a rousing-yet-satirical march accompaniment.

His later 1970s albums ( with the exception of Jazz, which explored ragtime / vaudeville ) do not fall under a single genre description, but his self-titled first album could be described as blues ; Into the Purple Valley, Boomer's Story, and Paradise and Lunch as folk and blues ; Chicken Skin Music and Showtime as a mix of Tex-Mex and Hawaiian ; Bop Till You Drop as 1950s ' R & B ; and Borderline and Get Rhythm as rock-based.

His 1979 album Bop Till You Drop was the first popular music album to be recorded digitally.

It yielded his biggest hit, an R & B cover version of Elvis Presley's 1960s recording " Little Sister ".

Cooder is credited on Van Morrison's 1979 album, Into the Music, for slide guitar on the song " Full Force Gale ".

He also played guitar on Judy Collins ' 1970 concert tour, and is featured on Living, the 1971 live album recorded during that tour.