Ry Cooder: Bop Till You Drop (Warners Import)

RYLAND P. Cooder is a most reliable fellow. Ever since the days when he was laying down that stinging bottleneck guitar behind the likes of Captain Beefheart and Taj Mahal and Randy Newman and – for that one titanic moment on the Performance soundtrack – Mick Jagger, his name has been synonymous with quality, integrity and a total absence of bullshit.