Over That Road I’m Bound

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. These days his main instrument is the electric mbira, and the support set he performed with it when Cooder père played in London two years ago was a revelation. Everything he’s learned during his long apprenticeship seems to have been poured into Over That Road I’m Bound. 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. The old man himself couldn’t have done it better – and there’s really no higher praise than that.