Ersi Arvizu
(Anti-)
Ry Cooder in his middle age has become one of the most gallant figures in the music business – sensitively producing and championing older acts such as Mavis Staples and Buena Vista Social Club’s Cuban musicians and giving them new currency and relevancy. Here, he turns his attention to Ersi Arvizu, once a singer for Los Angeles’ El Chicano and long out of the limelight until she sang on his Chavez Ravine project. Some of the breezy, swayingly percussive, colorfully arranged songs are in Spanish and ache with romanticism. The best English-language ones flow with the kind of specific autobiographical detail one usually doesn’t see in pop songwriting; “Windows of Dreams,” for example, is about her desire to learn boxing.
Friend for Life lacks the epic, historical sweep of Staples’ We’ll Never Turn Back from last year, maybe Cooder’s finest project, which musically and spiritually updated her commitment to the civil-rights anthems that defined her. By comparison, this consists of snapshots and memories of one not-very-well-known but self-respecting woman’s personal life and career. It’s been turned into the stuff of pleasurable, sometimes-poignant songs.
Standout Tracks: “En El Tambo,” “Friend for Life” STEVEN ROSEN
Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails by Baseball Project (Wynn, McCaughey, Buck, Pitmon)07/21/2008
