Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down
Encyclopedia
Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down is the fourteenth studio album
by American recording artist Ry Cooder
, released August 30, 2011, on Nonesuch Records
. It was written and produced by Cooder and recorded at Drive-By Studios, Ocean Studios, and Wireland Studios in California. Inspired by the late-2000s economic crisis
and past protest song
s, the album features topical song
s about socio-political
subject matter in 21st-century America, including politics, war, economic disparity
, and social injustice. Its music is rooted in Americana
and incorporates traditional styles and musical language from historical sources such as country blues
, tejano
, and American roots music
. The album has been noted by music writers for its eclectic musical range, allegorical songs, working-class
perspective, and Cooder's sardonic lyrics.
The album's first and only single
, "Quicksand", was released as a digital download
, with the proceeds of its sales subsequently being donated to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Although it chart
ed modestly in the United States, the album attained relatively higher charting in European countries, including Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Norway, where it reached its highest chart position. Upon its release, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down received general acclaim from music critic
s, who praised its diverse sound, trenchant commentary, and Cooder's musicianship. Several critics drew comparisons of Cooder to singer-songwriter and folk musician Woody Guthrie
. It was nominated for a Grammy Award
for Best Americana Album
, set to be presented at the 54th Grammy Awards
in 2012.
and his work on The Chieftains
' 2010 album San Patricio
. It was inspired by the late-2000s economic crisis
and past protest song
s. In interviews prior to the album's release, Cooder expressed strong anti-Republican and anti-banker sentiments in discussion about the political and economic climate. Before conceiving the album, he wrote and recorded the song "Quicksand" in 2010, as a response to the controversy spurred by Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and anti-illegal immigration
measure in the United States. In an interview for The Australian
, he said of his decision to persue a more political direction with his songwriting, "I was still working on the Flathead record; that was during[George] Bush
's time. I was looking at things and paying attention to events, politically. So I started trying to write political songs because it's good to have something you can do other than just sit and fume about everything. After Barack Obama
got elected I started thinking about other stories that might be good to do. It occurred to me that the social and political problems that we've been having, well [...] it's deja vu all over again, as the man said."
In early 2011, Cooder was inspired to write the song "No Banker Left Behind", and subsequently the rest of the album, by a headline about bankers and other affluent people who had profited from the bank bailouts and resulting recession during the late-2000s. In an interview with Kai Ryssdal
on Marketplace
, Cooder cited the song as the starting point for writing the album and stated, "'No Banker Left Behind' originated with a line from Robert Scheer
's Truthdig
blog. I read this pretty regularly, and when I saw this, this metric I thought 'no banker left behind.'" He compared the album's content to Woody Guthrie
's songs about the Dust Bowl
era during the Great Depression
and said of his own songs, "What I like in the idea of these songs is if you follow the logic of each tune — this happened and this happened and you can see that at the end, this is the result, you just didn't see it this way before, you never thought of Wall Street
in terms of Jesse James
and bilingual heft."
Recording sessions for the album took place at Drive-By Studios in North Hollywood, Ocean Studios in Burbank, and Wireland Studios in Chatsworth, California. The album was written and produced entirely by Cooder, except "Lord Tell Me Why", which was co-written by session drummer Jim Keltner
. Cooder also worked with vocalist Juliette Commagere
, accordionist Flaco Jiménez
, bassist Robert Francis
, vocalist Arnold McCuller
, and Cooder's son, drummer Joachim. Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down was mixed
by Martin Pradler and mastered
by recording engineer Bernie Grundman
at his Hollywood studio Grundman Mastering. Most of the album was engineered in Pradler's living room.
The album's music is rooted in Americana
and draws on styles such as blues
, folk
, ragtime
, norteño
, rock
, and country music
. For the songs, Cooder adapted musical language from historical sources and incorporated styles from both North and South American traditions. In his interview on Marketplace, he explained his stylistic approach for Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, stating "to me, these musical styles and sounds are narratives as well. I mean everything about them — if it's an accordion, horns, the banda
horns for the immigrant tunes — they all are part of the story. And you can see it then, you can imagine the Arizona border that's hot, 120 degrees in the shade, dusty. The banda horns are coming from some truck over there." According to him, musical settings for certain songs were decided based on their respective compositions, such as when "the words would come to me in ¾ time
, that meant corrido
, that means accordion; banda horns because they’re exciting."
Cooder wanted the music of each song to compliment the stories and to serve as homages to particular traditional styles. Cooder said that he did not want to "over-think it" and said of his creative process for each song's distinct style, "It’s taken a long time, but it becomes natural to combine an idea you have or a story you want to tell with whatever seems conducive." Graham Reid of The New Zealand Herald
writes that the music "refers to the dustbowl era, rural blues
, Tex-Mex
(with accordionist Flaco Jimenez) and old-time folk." The Observer
s Neil Spencer comments that it is "grounded in the blues, folk and Tex-Mex the guitarist explored in the 1970s, but its songs belong to modern times."
themes of power and its abuses, the struggle for democracy
, the trials of the working class
, and the goal of equality, with songs composed as either first-person narratives or allegories. The songs deal with contemporary subject matter and topics such as immigration legislation
, the emotional and physical effects of war, the dubiousness of politics, social class
and race division, and white flight
. Cooder's songwriting is characterized by sardonic lyrics, satire, mordant humor, and wry observations on figures such as bankers, politicians, and militarists. Nick Cristiano of The Philadelphia Inquirer
writes of his lyrics, "Cooder takes deadly aim at rapacious bankers, warmongers, land barons, and the like, showing the devastating impact of their actions on ordinary folk", adding that "He does this in a manner that mixes the scrappy populism
of Woody Guthrie with the first-person narratives of Springsteen
in Steinbeckian
Ghost of Tom Joad
mode." Robin Denselow of The Guardian
notes "bleak or thoughtful lyrics [set] against jaunty melodies" and "no elaborate narratives" in the songs, while interpreting the album's motif to be that of "a broken, divided society and the gap between rich and poor
, but with the anger matched against humour." Allmusic's Steve Huey writes that the album "reache[s] all the way back to his earliest recordings for musical inspiration while telling topical stories about corruption — political and social — the erasure and the rewriting of American history
, and an emerging class war
."
Neil Spencer of Uncut
calls Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down "an impassioned portrait of 21st century America and its injustices", adding that "like Guthrie, [Cooder] nails his targets with droll humour while empathising with society's underdogs." Allmusic's Thom Jurek characterizes it as "overtly political" and comments that "the depth of Cooder's rage is quieter but more direct as the album draws to a close." Peter Kane of Q
compares it to Cooder's 1971 studio album Into the Purple Valley
, which featured Dust Bowl-era songs, and calls Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down "a collection of newly minted protest songs for today's messed-up world" that are "sly and humorous". On its themes, journalist Alec Wilkinson
compares the album to Cooder's previous trilogy of Los Angeles-themed albums, stating "What Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down shares with them is an indignation over the economic and ethical disparities of American life and the destructive and scoundrely meanness of the privileges given to the rich." Philip Majorins of PopMatters
compared the album to other American songwriters' "substantial statements" about the American zeitgeist
, including Randy Newman
's Harps and Angels
(2008), Paul Simon
's So Beautiful or So What
(2011), and Bob Dylan
's Modern Times
(2006). However, Majorins distinguishes Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down as "an attempt at the existential, providing an everyman's view of struggle during economic downturn, class disparity, injustice, and abuse of power", and he calls Cooder "a direct voice of protest, both musically and lyrically, that will not be mistaken for being impressionistic."
writes that the song "ridicules the considerations extended to the prosperous men and women who grabbed everything not nailed down during the last few years." It features marching
rhythms, mandolin
and banjo
riffs, and electric guitar. Cooder has described the song's rhythm as "a kind of clog-dance
beat". "El Corrido Jesse James" is played in waltz time
with a horn section and accordion by Flaco Jiménez. The lyrics express a fictitious narrative by American outlaw Jessie James in Heaven
, who claims to have never "turned a family from their house" when he was a bank robber. He asks God for his "trusty .44
" to persuade bankers to "put that bonus money back where it belongs". Cooder discussed the character's perspective in an interview on BBC Radio 4
's Today, stating "[T]he point here is that Jesse James was a primitive white man from the 19th Century. And in those days the hero was a one-man, one-gun hero. It's a very popular American myth. But what Jesse doesn't realise [in the song] is that while he's been up in heaven, the forces massed against him [...] He can't overcome the growth of the corporate, military-industrial equation. He can't walk down Wall Street and shoot up the place. No-one would even pay attention to him. The hero is outnumbered and outgunned. The wagons are circling, but what's he going to do? What's anyone going to do?"
"Quick Sand" is a shuffling rock song that addresses the plight of illegal immigrants entering Arizona. It follows six migrants travelling through the extreme climate of the Sonoran Desert
to reach Devil's Highway
in an attempt to cross the Mexico – United States border. They journey from Tamaulipas
and through the mountains along Devil's Highway. Partway into the journey, the migrants are abandoned by their coyote guide and subsequently lose one another one by one. They experience thirst, hunger, injury, and fear, culminating with the only two surviving migrants being turned away by a vigilante at the border. Cooder said of the route's background and the narrative in an interview, "[I]t's been a migrant trail for 200 years. People go out there and try to do it on foot, but if you make one mistake and go five minutes out of your way, you become disorientated and dehydrated. And they find these mummified bodies out there. The heat has just baked them through. And the people who live through it often refer to having a vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe
flying overhead. This is a very common vision when the dehydration sets in." Featuring guitar flourishes and countrypolitan
strings, "Dirty Chateau" follows an exchange between a reckless rich man with a big house and his maid, who comes from a community of farm workers.
"Humpty Dumpty World" incorporates marimba
with light reggae
and Mariachi
influences. The song's lyrics have God deploring the world He created, making note of incitive politicians and craven television commentators, and viewing it as "a ball of confusion" in the chorus line, "I thought I had built upon a solid rock / But it’s just a Humpty Dumpty World". "Christmas Time This Year" is an anti-war song with a Mexican polka
style, with Flaco Jiménez on accordion and Cooder on bajo sexto
. Composed as a corrido, the song is about wounded soldiers returning home for Christmas, with dismal lyrics set incongruously to an upbeat Mexican melody. Cooder wrote the song in response to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal
and previous stories of neglected soldiers returning from the Iraq War. In "Baby Joined the Army", a young man laments the departure of his girlfriend, who became uninterested in her town and enlisted in the army with the assurance that "If I get killed in battle, I still get paid." "Lord Tell Me Why" is a gospel
song with a rolling funk
groove, sung from the perspective of a lower class White man who has become disillusioned with the American dream
. His ironic lyrics ask in the chorus, "Lord tell me why a white man / Ain't worth nothin' in this world no more." The guitar-based "I Want My Crown" was recorded with an 11-piece band and has an aggressive blues style, rumba
-rock groove, and growling vocals. The song is an indictment of politicians as "Judas men" who sided with oil barons and Republicans, and their greed that leads to war. "I Want My Crown" has been described by one writer as a "Mephistopheles
-as-Right-winger
character study".
"John Lee Hooker for President" is a blues song in which Cooder narrates as American blues musician John Lee Hooker
visiting the White House
. Adopting Hooker's style and laconic vocal tone, he decides to run for the presidency after disliking what he observed in his visit, naming Jimmy Reed
as Vice President, Little Johnny Taylor
as Secretary of State, and proposing to have "nine fine-lookin' womens on the Supreme Court". According to Cooder, the song was inspired by blues musician Gus Cannon
's 1927 song "Can You Blame the Colored Man", a satirical piece about Booker T. Washington
's invitation to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt
in 1901. "Simple Tools" is a Tex-Mex ballad about the contentment of leading a simple lifestyle, with references to the decline in traditional manual skills and the view of automated work as unfulfilling. Featuring a resounding mix of mandolin and guitar, "If There Is a God" is a satirical narrative about an afterlife in which Heaven is restricted by a government bill to the wealthy. Its lyrics criticize redistricting
and Republican Party
legislature. The song references "The Bourgeois Blues
" by blues and folk musician Lead Belly. In "No Hard Feelings", Cooder sings from the perspective of a lowly prospector who scolds businessmen for dealing with land exclusively in business terms. He dismisses the rich and elite as "ripples" in history and is willing to tolerate them provided that they avoid conflict.
on August 30, 2011, in the United States. It was released in the United Kingdom on September 5, and on September 9 in other European countries. Its vinyl LP
release was on September 13. The album's lead single
, "Quicksand", was released as a digital download
on June 29, 2010. Cooder donated the proceeds from its sales to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The single's cover artwork, a piece called Nuthin' to See Here, Keep on Movin'!, was designed by visual artist Vincent Valdez, a frequent collaborator with Cooder. Valdez contributed photography to the album's liner booklet. Cooder performed with a 17-piece band at the Great American Music Hall
in San Francisco, California on August 31 and September 1. However, he was not satisfied with the shows' promotional aspect, and elaborated on it as part of his general disillusionment with the music industry in an interview for The Australian
, stating:
Top Folk Albums
chart in the week of September 24, 2011. It charted at number 123 on the Billboard 200
and number 28 on the Top Rock Albums. The album also charted at number 15 on the Billboard Tastemaker Albums, a chart that ranks top-selling albums "based on an influential panel of indie stores and small regional chains."
In the United Kingdom, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down debuted at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart
, selling 6,000 copies in its first week. It spent two weeks on the chart. In Belgium, the album debuted at number 31 on the Ultratop 50 Albums
. It peaked at number 21 and spent four weeks on the chart. The album entered at number 24 and spent five weeks on the Mega Album Top 100
chart in the Netherlands. In Norway, it debuted at number 13 on the VG-lista Top 40 Albums
. It peaked at number nine and spent five weeks on the chart. In Ireland, the album reached number 26 and spent four weeks on the Irish Albums Chart
.
s. At Metacritic
, which assigns a weighted mean
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 92, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Allmusic editor Thom Jurek gave it four out of five stars and cited it as "the most overtly political album Ry Cooder has ever released, and one of his funniest, most musically compelling ones, too." MusicOMH
's Daniel Paton complimented Cooder's incorporation of traditional musical styles and stated, "For the most part, Pull Up Some Dust... is highly satisfying satire (although also often sensitive and affecting), combining Cooder’s transparent love for a wide range of roots music
with his engagement with politics." Martin Chilton of The Daily Telegraph
praised its songs as "stunning" and dubbed it "one of the best albums of a distinguished career." Hal Horowitz of American Songwriter commented that Cooder's "working class messages are enhanced by sharp musical chops". Terry Staunton of Record Collector
called the album "thought-provoking at every turn and elegantly wrapped in a dizzying array of musically schizophrenic paper" and commended Cooder's "keen observational eye", stating "Cooder's deft grip on American vernacular music infuses what could be a pretty sombre journey with some dazzling jumps in style."
Chicago Sun-Times
writer Mary Houlihan gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "an album that matters" and Cooder "a modern-day Woody Guthrie". Phil Sutcliffe of Mojo
complimented Cooder's own musical influences and "trenchant commentary", noting "the spirit of Woody Guthrie". The New Zealand Herald
s Graham Reid gave the album a five out of five rating and praised Cooder's "old styles and politics". Neil Spencer of The Observer
described it as "a fierce state-of-the-nation album" and called Cooder "a Woody Guthrie for our times." Robin Denselow of The Guardian
called the album "magnificent" and "as refreshing, brave and original as his early recordings in the 70s." Andy Gill of The Independent
dubbed it "his best effort by far since Chavez Ravine
" and perceived "a dark parade of familiar Cooder figures [...] But almost everywhere one looks, Cooder finds a new twist on these old rivalries." Nigel Williamson of Uncut
gave it five out of five stars and dubbed it "one of his best albums ever". BBC Music
's Andy Fyfe commented that "this is about as good and sustained a riposte to the grubby, grabbing times we live in as any artist has mustered, which makes it essential listening."
In his consumer guide for MSN Music
, critic Robert Christgau
gave the album an A– rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction." Christgau commented that "Cooder has brought his longstanding obsession with the Great Depression into the present, where it unfortunately, tragically, enragingly belongs", adding that the album "doesn't rock, and it shouldn't. But it rollicks, skanks, and two-steps just fine." Philip Majorins of PopMatters
commented that the album "may not be a seamless narrative, but the themes are clear. Ry Cooder plays the part of the prophet flawlessly". Majorins added that it would not have a significant impact due to commercial tastes and a "cynical" cultural climate, but wrote in conclusion, "Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down could have tremendous cathartic power for [those] who are aware of history and its knack for repeating itself. For those who are willing, this is a good place to start an education." Peter Kane of Q
gave the album four out of five stars and described its music as "the heartening sounds of an old master at work."
ranked the album number 20 on its list of Top 50 Albums of 2011. Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down was nominated for a Grammy Award
for Best Americana Album
, set to be presented at the 54th Grammy Awards
in 2012.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American recording artist Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
, released August 30, 2011, on Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
. It was written and produced by Cooder and recorded at Drive-By Studios, Ocean Studios, and Wireland Studios in California. Inspired by the late-2000s economic crisis
Late-2000s financial crisis
The late-2000s financial crisis is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s...
and past protest song
Protest song
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
s, the album features topical song
Topical song
A topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
s about socio-political
Political sociology
Contemporary political sociology involves much more than the study of the relations between state and society . Where a typical research question in political sociology might have been: "Why do so few American citizens choose to vote?" or even, "What difference does it make if women get elected?" ...
subject matter in 21st-century America, including politics, war, economic disparity
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
, and social injustice. Its music is rooted in Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
and incorporates traditional styles and musical language from historical sources such as country blues
Country blues
Country blues is a general term that refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. It often incorporated elements of rural gospel, ragtime, hillbilly, and dixieland jazz...
, tejano
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
, and American roots music
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
. The album has been noted by music writers for its eclectic musical range, allegorical songs, working-class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
perspective, and Cooder's sardonic lyrics.
The album's first and only single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "Quicksand", was released as a digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
, with the proceeds of its sales subsequently being donated to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Although it chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
ed modestly in the United States, the album attained relatively higher charting in European countries, including Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Norway, where it reached its highest chart position. Upon its release, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down received general acclaim from music critic
Music criticism
See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...
s, who praised its diverse sound, trenchant commentary, and Cooder's musicianship. Several critics drew comparisons of Cooder to singer-songwriter and folk musician Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
. It was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Americana Album
Grammy Award for Best Americana Album
The Grammy Award for Best Americana Album is an honor presented to recording artists for quality albums in the Americana music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
, set to be presented at the 54th Grammy Awards
54th Grammy Awards
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards will be held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It will be broadcasted on CBS. Nominations were announced on November 30, 2011 on prime-time television as part of "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night", a...
in 2012.
Background and recording
The album follows Cooder's 2009 album I, FlatheadI, Flathead
I, Flathead:The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns is a concept album by Ry Cooder. It is the third in his "California trilogy" that began with Chávez Ravine and was followed by My Name Is Buddy ....
and his work on The Chieftains
The Chieftains
The Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...
' 2010 album San Patricio
San Patricio (album)
San Patricio is an album by the Irish musical group, The Chieftains and Ry Cooder, released in 2010. It tells the story of the San Patricio battalion - a group of Irish immigrant volunteer soldiers who deserted the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight on the Mexican side in the Mexican-American War...
. It was inspired by the late-2000s economic crisis
Late-2000s financial crisis
The late-2000s financial crisis is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s...
and past protest song
Protest song
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
s. In interviews prior to the album's release, Cooder expressed strong anti-Republican and anti-banker sentiments in discussion about the political and economic climate. Before conceiving the album, he wrote and recorded the song "Quicksand" in 2010, as a response to the controversy spurred by Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and anti-illegal immigration
Illegal immigration to the United States
An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa....
measure in the United States. In an interview for The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
, he said of his decision to persue a more political direction with his songwriting, "I was still working on the Flathead record; that was during
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's time. I was looking at things and paying attention to events, politically. So I started trying to write political songs because it's good to have something you can do other than just sit and fume about everything. After Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
got elected I started thinking about other stories that might be good to do. It occurred to me that the social and political problems that we've been having, well [...] it's deja vu all over again, as the man said."
In early 2011, Cooder was inspired to write the song "No Banker Left Behind", and subsequently the rest of the album, by a headline about bankers and other affluent people who had profited from the bank bailouts and resulting recession during the late-2000s. In an interview with Kai Ryssdal
Kai Ryssdal
Kai Ryssdal is an American radio journalist best known as the host of Marketplace, a business program that airs weekdays on U.S. public radio stations....
on Marketplace
Marketplace (radio program)
Marketplace is a radio program that focuses on business, the economy, and events that influence them. Hosted by Kai Ryssdal, the show is produced and distributed by American Public Media, in association with the University of Southern California...
, Cooder cited the song as the starting point for writing the album and stated, "'No Banker Left Behind' originated with a line from Robert Scheer
Robert Scheer
Robert Scheer is an American journalist who writes a column for Truthdig which is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate in publications such as The Huffington Post and The Nation...
's Truthdig
Truthdig
Truthdig is a Web magazine that provides a mix of long-form articles, interviews, and blog-like commentary on current events, delivered from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major "digs" led by authorities in their fields who write multifaceted pieces about contemporary, often...
blog. I read this pretty regularly, and when I saw this, this metric I thought 'no banker left behind.'" He compared the album's content to Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's songs about the Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
era during the Great Depression
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement...
and said of his own songs, "What I like in the idea of these songs is if you follow the logic of each tune — this happened and this happened and you can see that at the end, this is the result, you just didn't see it this way before, you never thought of Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
in terms of Jesse James
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. He also faked his own death and was known as J.M James. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary...
and bilingual heft."
Recording sessions for the album took place at Drive-By Studios in North Hollywood, Ocean Studios in Burbank, and Wireland Studios in Chatsworth, California. The album was written and produced entirely by Cooder, except "Lord Tell Me Why", which was co-written by session drummer Jim Keltner
Jim Keltner
James Lee "Jim" Keltner is an American drummer known primarily for his session work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists...
. Cooder also worked with vocalist Juliette Commagere
Juliette Commagere
Juliette Commagere is a Los Angeles based singer/songwriter who previously worked with the band Hello Stranger and The Bird and the Bee. She has toured with Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder, Pete Yorn and played the Download Festival with Bat for Lashes as well as co-headlined the 2nd annual Manimal Festival...
, accordionist Flaco Jiménez
Flaco Jiménez
Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is a Tejano music accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez's father, Santiago Jiménez Sr. was a pioneer of conjunto music. He began performing with his father at age seven and recording at age fifteen, as a member of Los Caporales...
, bassist Robert Francis
Robert Francis (musician)
Robert Francis is a multi-instrumentalist, Americana singer-songwriter. His debut full-length album One By One was released in August 2007 by Aeronaut Records...
, vocalist Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller is an American vocalist, record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. While establishing his own career as a singer, and working as a very busy session musician, McCuller has become best known for his work as a back-up singer for famous artists with long careers, including...
, and Cooder's son, drummer Joachim. Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down was mixed
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
by Martin Pradler and mastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
by recording engineer Bernie Grundman
Bernie Grundman
-Biography:He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1983 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan and Brian Gardner, mastered 37 projects which received Grammy Award nominations in 2005.Grundman...
at his Hollywood studio Grundman Mastering. Most of the album was engineered in Pradler's living room.
Music and style
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
and draws on styles such as blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
, norteño
Norteño (music)
Norteño , also norteña or conjunto, is a genre of Mexican music. The accordion and the bajo sexto are norteño's most characteristic instruments. The norteño genre is popular in both Mexico and the United States, especially among the Mexican community...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
. For the songs, Cooder adapted musical language from historical sources and incorporated styles from both North and South American traditions. In his interview on Marketplace, he explained his stylistic approach for Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, stating "to me, these musical styles and sounds are narratives as well. I mean everything about them — if it's an accordion, horns, the banda
Banda music
Banda is a brass-based form of traditional music. Bandas play a wide variety of songs, including rancheras, corridos, cumbias, baladas, and boleros. Bandas are most widely known for their rancheras, but they also play modern Mexican pop, rock, and cumbias...
horns for the immigrant tunes — they all are part of the story. And you can see it then, you can imagine the Arizona border that's hot, 120 degrees in the shade, dusty. The banda horns are coming from some truck over there." According to him, musical settings for certain songs were decided based on their respective compositions, such as when "the words would come to me in ¾ time
Triple metre
Triple metre is a musical metre characterized by a primary division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 or 9 in the upper figure of the time signature, with 3/4, 3/2, and 3/8 being the most common examples...
, that meant corrido
Corrido
The corrido is a popular narrative song and poetry form, a ballad, of Mexico. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for peasants, and other socially important information. It is still a popular form today, and was widely popular during the Mexican Revolution and Nicaraguan...
, that means accordion; banda horns because they’re exciting."
Cooder wanted the music of each song to compliment the stories and to serve as homages to particular traditional styles. Cooder said that he did not want to "over-think it" and said of his creative process for each song's distinct style, "It’s taken a long time, but it becomes natural to combine an idea you have or a story you want to tell with whatever seems conducive." Graham Reid of The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald
- External links :* * *...
writes that the music "refers to the dustbowl era, rural blues
Country blues
Country blues is a general term that refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. It often incorporated elements of rural gospel, ragtime, hillbilly, and dixieland jazz...
, Tex-Mex
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
(with accordionist Flaco Jimenez) and old-time folk." The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
s Neil Spencer comments that it is "grounded in the blues, folk and Tex-Mex the guitarist explored in the 1970s, but its songs belong to modern times."
Lyrical themes
Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down features socio-politicalPolitical sociology
Contemporary political sociology involves much more than the study of the relations between state and society . Where a typical research question in political sociology might have been: "Why do so few American citizens choose to vote?" or even, "What difference does it make if women get elected?" ...
themes of power and its abuses, the struggle for democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, the trials of the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
, and the goal of equality, with songs composed as either first-person narratives or allegories. The songs deal with contemporary subject matter and topics such as immigration legislation
Immigration law
Immigration law refers to national government policies which control the phenomenon of immigration to their country.Immigraton law, regarding foreign citizens, is related to nationality law, which governs the legal status of people, in matters such as citizenship...
, the emotional and physical effects of war, the dubiousness of politics, social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
and race division, and white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
. Cooder's songwriting is characterized by sardonic lyrics, satire, mordant humor, and wry observations on figures such as bankers, politicians, and militarists. Nick Cristiano of The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
writes of his lyrics, "Cooder takes deadly aim at rapacious bankers, warmongers, land barons, and the like, showing the devastating impact of their actions on ordinary folk", adding that "He does this in a manner that mixes the scrappy populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
of Woody Guthrie with the first-person narratives of Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
in Steinbeckian
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
Ghost of Tom Joad
The Ghost of Tom Joad
The Ghost of Tom Joad is the eleventh studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1995 . The album was recorded and mixed at Thrill Hill during the spring and summer of 1995. Musically and lyrically reminiscent of Springsteen's 1982 critically acclaimed album Nebraska, The Ghost of Tom Joad...
mode." Robin Denselow of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
notes "bleak or thoughtful lyrics [set] against jaunty melodies" and "no elaborate narratives" in the songs, while interpreting the album's motif to be that of "a broken, divided society and the gap between rich and poor
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
, but with the anger matched against humour." Allmusic's Steve Huey writes that the album "reache[s] all the way back to his earliest recordings for musical inspiration while telling topical stories about corruption — political and social — the erasure and the rewriting of American history
History of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
, and an emerging class war
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
."
Neil Spencer of Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
calls Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down "an impassioned portrait of 21st century America and its injustices", adding that "like Guthrie, [Cooder] nails his targets with droll humour while empathising with society's underdogs." Allmusic's Thom Jurek characterizes it as "overtly political" and comments that "the depth of Cooder's rage is quieter but more direct as the album draws to a close." Peter Kane of Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
compares it to Cooder's 1971 studio album Into the Purple Valley
Into the Purple Valley
Into the Purple Valley is the second album by roots rock legend Ry Cooder, released in 1972 .-Track listing:#"How Can You Keep Moving " – 2:25#"Billy the Kid" – 3:45...
, which featured Dust Bowl-era songs, and calls Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down "a collection of newly minted protest songs for today's messed-up world" that are "sly and humorous". On its themes, journalist Alec Wilkinson
Alec Wilkinson
Alec Wilkinson is a writer who has been on the staff of The New Yorker since 1980. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer he is among the "first rank of" contemporary American "literary journalists... of Naipaul, Norman Mailer and Agee." He is the author of nine books: "Midnights," , "Moonshine,"...
compares the album to Cooder's previous trilogy of Los Angeles-themed albums, stating "What Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down shares with them is an indignation over the economic and ethical disparities of American life and the destructive and scoundrely meanness of the privileges given to the rich." Philip Majorins of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
compared the album to other American songwriters' "substantial statements" about the American zeitgeist
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
, including Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
's Harps and Angels
Harps and Angels
Harps and Angels is a studio album by Randy Newman. It was released on August 5, 2008 and was produced by Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker. It contains two updated versions of previously released compositions...
(2008), Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
's So Beautiful or So What
So Beautiful or So What
So Beautiful or So What is the twelfth studio album by American recording artist Paul Simon, released April 8, 2011, on Hear Music. It was produced by Simon and record producer Phil Ramone. The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 68,000 copies in its first week,...
(2011), and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Modern Times
Modern Times (Bob Dylan album)
Modern Times is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 32nd studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 2006. The album was Dylan's third straight to be met with nearly universal praise from fans and critics...
(2006). However, Majorins distinguishes Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down as "an attempt at the existential, providing an everyman's view of struggle during economic downturn, class disparity, injustice, and abuse of power", and he calls Cooder "a direct voice of protest, both musically and lyrically, that will not be mistaken for being impressionistic."
Content
The opening track "No Banker Left Behind" references the financial bailout of 2007 and criticizes bankers and government. Alec Wilkinson of The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
writes that the song "ridicules the considerations extended to the prosperous men and women who grabbed everything not nailed down during the last few years." It features marching
March (music)
A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
rhythms, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
and banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
riffs, and electric guitar. Cooder has described the song's rhythm as "a kind of clog-dance
Clogging
Clogging is a type of folk dance with roots in traditional European dancing, early African-American dance, and traditional Cherokee dance in which the dancer's footwear is used musically by striking the heel, the toe, or both in unison against a floor or each other to create audible percussive...
beat". "El Corrido Jesse James" is played in waltz time
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
with a horn section and accordion by Flaco Jiménez. The lyrics express a fictitious narrative by American outlaw Jessie James in Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, who claims to have never "turned a family from their house" when he was a bank robber. He asks God for his "trusty .44
.44 Magnum
The .44 Remington Magnum, or simply .44 Magnum, is a large-bore cartridge originally designed for revolvers. After introduction, it was quickly adopted for carbines and rifles...
" to persuade bankers to "put that bonus money back where it belongs". Cooder discussed the character's perspective in an interview on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's Today, stating "[T]he point here is that Jesse James was a primitive white man from the 19th Century. And in those days the hero was a one-man, one-gun hero. It's a very popular American myth. But what Jesse doesn't realise [in the song] is that while he's been up in heaven, the forces massed against him [...] He can't overcome the growth of the corporate, military-industrial equation. He can't walk down Wall Street and shoot up the place. No-one would even pay attention to him. The hero is outnumbered and outgunned. The wagons are circling, but what's he going to do? What's anyone going to do?"
"Quick Sand" is a shuffling rock song that addresses the plight of illegal immigrants entering Arizona. It follows six migrants travelling through the extreme climate of the Sonoran Desert
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest...
to reach Devil's Highway
U.S. Route 491
U.S. Route 491 is a north–south U.S. Highway serving the Four Corners region of the United States. One of the newest designations in the U.S. Highway System, it was created in 2003 as a renumbering of U.S. Route 666...
in an attempt to cross the Mexico – United States border. They journey from Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the...
and through the mountains along Devil's Highway. Partway into the journey, the migrants are abandoned by their coyote guide and subsequently lose one another one by one. They experience thirst, hunger, injury, and fear, culminating with the only two surviving migrants being turned away by a vigilante at the border. Cooder said of the route's background and the narrative in an interview, "[I]t's been a migrant trail for 200 years. People go out there and try to do it on foot, but if you make one mistake and go five minutes out of your way, you become disorientated and dehydrated. And they find these mummified bodies out there. The heat has just baked them through. And the people who live through it often refer to having a vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
flying overhead. This is a very common vision when the dehydration sets in." Featuring guitar flourishes and countrypolitan
Nashville sound
The Nashville sound originated during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of honky tonk music which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...
strings, "Dirty Chateau" follows an exchange between a reckless rich man with a big house and his maid, who comes from a community of farm workers.
"Humpty Dumpty World" incorporates marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
with light reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and Mariachi
Mariachi
Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...
influences. The song's lyrics have God deploring the world He created, making note of incitive politicians and craven television commentators, and viewing it as "a ball of confusion" in the chorus line, "I thought I had built upon a solid rock / But it’s just a Humpty Dumpty World". "Christmas Time This Year" is an anti-war song with a Mexican polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
style, with Flaco Jiménez on accordion and Cooder on bajo sexto
Bajo sexto
A bajo sexto is a musical instrument with 12 strings in 6 double courses, used in Mexican music. It is used primarily in norteño music of northern Mexico and across the border in the music of south Texas known as "Tex-Mex", "conjunto, or "música mexicana-tejana".A similar instrument with five...
. Composed as a corrido, the song is about wounded soldiers returning home for Christmas, with dismal lyrics set incongruously to an upbeat Mexican melody. Cooder wrote the song in response to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal
Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal resulted from a series of allegations of unsatisfactory conditions and management at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. culminating in two articles published by The Washington Post in February 2007...
and previous stories of neglected soldiers returning from the Iraq War. In "Baby Joined the Army", a young man laments the departure of his girlfriend, who became uninterested in her town and enlisted in the army with the assurance that "If I get killed in battle, I still get paid." "Lord Tell Me Why" is a gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
song with a rolling funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
groove, sung from the perspective of a lower class White man who has become disillusioned with the American dream
American Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
. His ironic lyrics ask in the chorus, "Lord tell me why a white man / Ain't worth nothin' in this world no more." The guitar-based "I Want My Crown" was recorded with an 11-piece band and has an aggressive blues style, rumba
Rumba
Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...
-rock groove, and growling vocals. The song is an indictment of politicians as "Judas men" who sided with oil barons and Republicans, and their greed that leads to war. "I Want My Crown" has been described by one writer as a "Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles is a demon featured in German folklore...
-as-Right-winger
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
character study".
"John Lee Hooker for President" is a blues song in which Cooder narrates as American blues musician John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
visiting the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. Adopting Hooker's style and laconic vocal tone, he decides to run for the presidency after disliking what he observed in his visit, naming Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
as Vice President, Little Johnny Taylor
Little Johnny Taylor
Little Johnny Taylor was an American blues and soul singer, who made recordings throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and continued public performances through the 1980s and 1990s....
as Secretary of State, and proposing to have "nine fine-lookin' womens on the Supreme Court". According to Cooder, the song was inspired by blues musician Gus Cannon
Gus Cannon
Gus Cannon was an American blues musician, who helped to popularize jug bands in the 1920s and 1930s. There is doubt about his birth year; his tombstone gives the date as 1874....
's 1927 song "Can You Blame the Colored Man", a satirical piece about Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
's invitation to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
in 1901. "Simple Tools" is a Tex-Mex ballad about the contentment of leading a simple lifestyle, with references to the decline in traditional manual skills and the view of automated work as unfulfilling. Featuring a resounding mix of mandolin and guitar, "If There Is a God" is a satirical narrative about an afterlife in which Heaven is restricted by a government bill to the wealthy. Its lyrics criticize redistricting
Redistricting
Redistricting is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census. In 36 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan, in many cases subject to...
and Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
legislature. The song references "The Bourgeois Blues
The Bourgeois Blues
"The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues song by Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly. It was written after Lead Belly went to Washington, D.C. at the request of Alan Lomax, to record a number of songs for the Library of Congress. After they had finished, they decided to go out with their wives to...
" by blues and folk musician Lead Belly. In "No Hard Feelings", Cooder sings from the perspective of a lowly prospector who scolds businessmen for dealing with land exclusively in business terms. He dismisses the rich and elite as "ripples" in history and is willing to tolerate them provided that they avoid conflict.
Release and promotion
The album was released by Nonesuch RecordsNonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
on August 30, 2011, in the United States. It was released in the United Kingdom on September 5, and on September 9 in other European countries. Its vinyl LP
LP record
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
release was on September 13. The album's lead single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
, "Quicksand", was released as a digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
on June 29, 2010. Cooder donated the proceeds from its sales to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The single's cover artwork, a piece called Nuthin' to See Here, Keep on Movin'!, was designed by visual artist Vincent Valdez, a frequent collaborator with Cooder. Valdez contributed photography to the album's liner booklet. Cooder performed with a 17-piece band at the Great American Music Hall
Great American Music Hall
The Great American Music Hall is a concert hall in San Francisco, California. It is located on O'Farrell Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood on the same block as the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater...
in San Francisco, California on August 31 and September 1. However, he was not satisfied with the shows' promotional aspect, and elaborated on it as part of his general disillusionment with the music industry in an interview for The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
, stating:
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number five on the US BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Top Folk Albums
Folk Albums
Folk Albums is a music chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the top selling "current releases by traditional folk artists, as well as appropriate titles by acoustic-based singer-songwriters" in the United States. The chart debuted on the issue dated December 5, 2009...
chart in the week of September 24, 2011. It charted at number 123 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
and number 28 on the Top Rock Albums. The album also charted at number 15 on the Billboard Tastemaker Albums, a chart that ranks top-selling albums "based on an influential panel of indie stores and small regional chains."
In the United Kingdom, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down debuted at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
, selling 6,000 copies in its first week. It spent two weeks on the chart. In Belgium, the album debuted at number 31 on the Ultratop 50 Albums
Ultratop
Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts...
. It peaked at number 21 and spent four weeks on the chart. The album entered at number 24 and spent five weeks on the Mega Album Top 100
MegaCharts
MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...
chart in the Netherlands. In Norway, it debuted at number 13 on the VG-lista Top 40 Albums
VG-lista
VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...
. It peaked at number nine and spent five weeks on the chart. In Ireland, the album reached number 26 and spent four weeks on the Irish Albums Chart
Irish Albums Chart
The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...
.
Critical response
Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down received general acclaim from music criticMusic criticism
See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...
s. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a weighted mean
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 92, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Allmusic editor Thom Jurek gave it four out of five stars and cited it as "the most overtly political album Ry Cooder has ever released, and one of his funniest, most musically compelling ones, too." MusicOMH
MusicOMH
musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...
's Daniel Paton complimented Cooder's incorporation of traditional musical styles and stated, "For the most part, Pull Up Some Dust... is highly satisfying satire (although also often sensitive and affecting), combining Cooder’s transparent love for a wide range of roots music
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
with his engagement with politics." Martin Chilton of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
praised its songs as "stunning" and dubbed it "one of the best albums of a distinguished career." Hal Horowitz of American Songwriter commented that Cooder's "working class messages are enhanced by sharp musical chops". Terry Staunton of Record Collector
Record Collector
Record Collector is the United Kingdom's longest-running monthly music magazine. It distributes both within the UK and worldwide. It started in 1979.-The early years:...
called the album "thought-provoking at every turn and elegantly wrapped in a dizzying array of musically schizophrenic paper" and commended Cooder's "keen observational eye", stating "Cooder's deft grip on American vernacular music infuses what could be a pretty sombre journey with some dazzling jumps in style."
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
writer Mary Houlihan gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "an album that matters" and Cooder "a modern-day Woody Guthrie". Phil Sutcliffe of Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
complimented Cooder's own musical influences and "trenchant commentary", noting "the spirit of Woody Guthrie". The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald
- External links :* * *...
s Graham Reid gave the album a five out of five rating and praised Cooder's "old styles and politics". Neil Spencer of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
described it as "a fierce state-of-the-nation album" and called Cooder "a Woody Guthrie for our times." Robin Denselow of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called the album "magnificent" and "as refreshing, brave and original as his early recordings in the 70s." Andy Gill of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
dubbed it "his best effort by far since Chavez Ravine
Chávez Ravine (album)
Chávez Ravine: A Record by Ry Cooder is a concept album and historical album by Ry Cooder which tells the story of Chávez Ravine, a Mexican-American community demolished in the 1950s in order to build public housing. The housing was never built...
" and perceived "a dark parade of familiar Cooder figures [...] But almost everywhere one looks, Cooder finds a new twist on these old rivalries." Nigel Williamson of Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
gave it five out of five stars and dubbed it "one of his best albums ever". BBC Music
BBC Music
BBC Music is a team working in the department of Audio and Music Interactive at the BBC. Responsible for the BBC Music website - the portal site to music content across the BBC website....
's Andy Fyfe commented that "this is about as good and sustained a riposte to the grubby, grabbing times we live in as any artist has mustered, which makes it essential listening."
In his consumer guide for MSN Music
MSN Music
MSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...
, critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave the album an A– rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction." Christgau commented that "Cooder has brought his longstanding obsession with the Great Depression into the present, where it unfortunately, tragically, enragingly belongs", adding that the album "doesn't rock, and it shouldn't. But it rollicks, skanks, and two-steps just fine." Philip Majorins of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
commented that the album "may not be a seamless narrative, but the themes are clear. Ry Cooder plays the part of the prophet flawlessly". Majorins added that it would not have a significant impact due to commercial tastes and a "cynical" cultural climate, but wrote in conclusion, "Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down could have tremendous cathartic power for [those] who are aware of history and its knack for repeating itself. For those who are willing, this is a good place to start an education." Peter Kane of Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
gave the album four out of five stars and described its music as "the heartening sounds of an old master at work."
Accolades
UncutUNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
ranked the album number 20 on its list of Top 50 Albums of 2011. Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Americana Album
Grammy Award for Best Americana Album
The Grammy Award for Best Americana Album is an honor presented to recording artists for quality albums in the Americana music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
, set to be presented at the 54th Grammy Awards
54th Grammy Awards
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards will be held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It will be broadcasted on CBS. Nominations were announced on November 30, 2011 on prime-time television as part of "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night", a...
in 2012.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits for Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down adapted from liner notes.- Karina Beznicki – production supervisor
- Rene Camacho – bass
- Edgar Castro – bass drums, snare drums, percussion, timbales
- Juliette CommagereJuliette CommagereJuliette Commagere is a Los Angeles based singer/songwriter who previously worked with the band Hello Stranger and The Bird and the Bee. She has toured with Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder, Pete Yorn and played the Download Festival with Bat for Lashes as well as co-headlined the 2nd annual Manimal Festival...
– background vocals - Joachim Cooder – bass, drums
- Ry Cooder – art direction, bajo sexto, banjo, bass, composer, guitar, keyboards, mandola, mandolin, marimba, producer, vocals
- Raúl Cuellar – violin
- Jacques Demêtre – photography
- Robert Edridge-Waks – editorial coordinator
- Terry Evans – background vocals
- Robert FrancisRobert Francis (musician)Robert Francis is a multi-instrumentalist, Americana singer-songwriter. His debut full-length album One By One was released in August 2007 by Aeronaut Records...
– bass - Arturo Gallardo – alto saxophone, clarinet, saxophone
- Carlos Gonzalez – trumpet
- Willie Green – background vocals
- Bernie GrundmanBernie Grundman-Biography:He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1983 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan and Brian Gardner, mastered 37 projects which received Grammy Award nominations in 2005.Grundman...
– mastering
- Jesus Guzman – violin
- Ismael Hernandez – violin
- Flaco JiménezFlaco JiménezLeonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is a Tejano music accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez's father, Santiago Jiménez Sr. was a pioneer of conjunto music. He began performing with his father at age seven and recording at age fifteen, as a member of Los Caporales...
– accordion - Jimmy Cuellar – violin
- Jim KeltnerJim KeltnerJames Lee "Jim" Keltner is an American drummer known primarily for his session work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists...
– composer, drums - Arnold McCullerArnold McCullerArnold McCuller is an American vocalist, record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. While establishing his own career as a singer, and working as a very busy session musician, McCuller has become best known for his work as a back-up singer for famous artists with long careers, including...
– background vocals - Pablo Molina – alto horn, sousaphone
- Arthur Moorhead – production coordination
- Martin Pradler – engineer, mixing
- Al Quattrocchi – art direction
- William Reagh – photography
- Erasto Robles – trombone
- Jeff Smith – art direction
- Susan Titelman – photography
- Paul Turonet – photography
- Vincent Valdez – photography
Charts
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums Chart | 74 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Flanders) |
21 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
24 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 40 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
18 |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
54 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
28 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
9 |
| Spanish Albums Chart | 77 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
12 |
| Swiss Albums Charts Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
64 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
26 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
123 |
| US Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Top Folk Albums Folk Albums Folk Albums is a music chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the top selling "current releases by traditional folk artists, as well as appropriate titles by acoustic-based singer-songwriters" in the United States. The chart debuted on the issue dated December 5, 2009... |
5 |
| US Billboard Top Rock Albums | 28 |
External links
- Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
- Q. and A.: Ry Cooder on Woody Guthrie, Politics and a New Album by The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...