Listening to John Mellencamp’s ‘back to the roots’ album makes you realise what a loss it is that Ry Cooder no longer makes these kind of records. The blues numbers by the likes of Son House and Robert Johnson are dull enough. But there’s a spectacular version of Lucinda Williams’ “Lafayette”, a stirring “John The Revelator” and a nice take on Woody Guthrie’s “Johnny Hart”. Mellencamp even covers “Teardrops Will Fall”, an early Cooder favourite. But if you really want to hear folk-blues played with rock’n’roll attitude then go back to Boomer’s Story or Into The Purple Valley.
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