Over that road I'm bound

"There's something of his dad Ry's lightly worn musicology about Joachim Cooder's Nonesuch debut. A buoyant and joyful long-player that gives props to the collected songs of Uncle Dave Macon, country music progenitor and Grand Ole Opry star of the early 20th century, it includes vaudeville tunes, folk songs and spirituals .. Dad guests on banjo, guitar and bass, and Rayna Gellert's fiddle playing shines, but the all-important twist is the welcome ubiquity of Joachim's electric mbira, a chipper relative of the African thumb piano, which can twinkle like a Fender Rhodes or chink like a gamelan ensemble".

"Just as his father's reputation was made with a series of interpretive works in the early '70s, so Joachim Cooder has turned to pre-war pioneer Uncle Dave Macon as inspiration for this third solo album. Warm, uplifting and quietly spectacular it is too, as Cooder and assorted help - including Ry himself and Vieux Farka Touré - reimagine Macon's banjo-led songs as percussive lullabies, driven by Joachim's gentle voice and electric mbira".

"Top of the world" - "In the two decades and more since the 18-year-old Joachim Cooder played percussion alongside Ry Cooder on Buena Vista Social Club, he's grown into an arrestingly original musician, whether playing on his father's productions or in his own right ... The dozen songs have all been culled from old-time recordings made by banjo player Uncle Dave Macon 80-90 years ago - although so radically does Cooder rework both the melodies and lyrics that you would never guess their source was the country-music progenitor heard on Harry Smith's famous Anthology of American Folk Music. The mesmerising, rhythmic throb of Joachim's electric mbira is brilliantly supported by Ry's banjo and guitar plus a virtuosic cast on fiddle, bass and pump organ and a guest appearance by Vieux Farka Touré, creating other-worldly textured layers of acoustic roots music at its most inventive and beguiling".