Ry Cooder: Blues & Roots

LATELY A lot of folks have been going back to school again studying the roots of the music they're making so they can grow their own hybrids. It's understandable: ever since Elvis wedded hillbilly music to rhythm & blues, ever since Chuck Berry stretched c&w guitar licks over jump beats, each new generation of rockers — we're not talking the haircut variety, here — has gone through the musical process of reappropriating some other branch of the form's extensive family tree. And for nearly 20 years now, one of the senior professors in this college of musical knowledge has been a deep-voiced master of fingerpicking guitar styles, bottleneck, and blues mandolin named Ry Cooder.