Nonesuch / Perro Verde Records release Ry Cooder’s first live record in more than 35 years, Live in San Francisco, on September 10, 2013. Recorded in 2011 during a special two-night engagement at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, the album includes 12 songs and was produced by Cooder. The Corridos Famosos band includes Joachim Cooder on drums; Robert Francis on bass; vocalists Terry Evans, Arnold McCuller, and Juliette Commagere; Flaco Jimenez on accordion; and the ten-piece Mexican brass band La Banda Juvenil. The vinyl edition includes the complete album on two 140-gram LPs plus a CD in the sleeve.
Live in San Francisco includes original songs and interpretations of other material ranging across Cooder’s entire career, from classics like “Boomer’s Story” and “Dark End of the Street” to more recent originals such as “Lord Tell Me Why” and “El Corrido de Jesse James,” with a detour for Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ “Wooly Bully” and Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene." Cooder’s only previous live album was the 1977 release Show Time, on which Evans and Jimenez were also featured. Show Time was also recorded at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall.