The music of the border. Ry Cooder, in one way or another, has been straddling borders his entire life. Which is what makes, for Cooder, the improbable, probable and the impossible, possible. It is as if Cooder sought in these collaborations a musical borderland where distinct traditions could collide, meld and produce a third language-a democratic language, in which all the participants are on equal footing. This is far different from the enduring American and European pop trait of the last few decades of appropriating the exotic, which, of course, makes of the whole endeavor a narrative not at all about who's being appropriated but rather all about who's doing the appropriating.
Music is a treasure hunt.
But in the context of Cooder's serpentine musical life, it all makes perfect sense. Film Images appear courtesy of Road Movies.