The Whites(Cheryl,Sharon and Buck),Ricky Skaggs, Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder, and Mark Fain at the Ryman Theater, April 5, 2016. (re-post)

Ry Cooder, the guitarist, producer and bridge-building guru of American roots music, and Mr. Skaggs, a shining paragon of bluegrass and country traditionalism, were performing under the banner of a supergroup, Cooder-White-Skaggs. The middle name in that triumvirate belongs to the Whites, a family group of longstanding renown in country music — principally Sharon White, a soulful singer and guitarist who has been married to Mr. Skaggs for more than 30 years.( NATE CHINEN for The New York Times)

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It was “You Must Unload,” originally recorded by Blind Alfred Reed in 1927, during the Bristol Sessions, a watershed moment for country music. Mr. Cooder, whose history with Reed’s music runs long and deep, recast the tune as a folk-gospel trudge, in the spirit of Bob Dylan with the Band. The lyrics, which sternly inveigh against material urges, also got a playful tweak, but Mr. Cooder didn’t tinker with its message of a straight and narrow path to heaven.(NATE CHINEN for The New York Times)

“About the only thing newer than 1965 in this show,” Mr. Skaggs said, “is our bass player and our drummer.” The bassist is Mark Fain, a Nashville stalwart; the drummer is Joachim Cooder, Ry’s son. (They played superbly, with buoyant ease.) Buck White, 84, the family patriarch, brought a seasoned touch to his piano playing, which rang with delicate authority, courtly but rarely ornate..(NATE CHINEN for The New York Times)


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 If Mr. Cooder was its wild card, the person most likely to make a single-chorus solo feel expansive and wind-borne, Mr. Skaggs was the resident ace, firmly grounded at every turn. To the extent that there was a tension in this dynamic, it was productive and subtle. Their common language of casual virtuosity — on fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar — found traction in a repertory suitable for the Grand Ole Opry..(NATE CHINEN for The New York Times)



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 They did this for the exquisite second encore, “Reunion in Heaven,” by Flatt and Scruggs. As heavenward songs go, it was focused less on the straight and narrow than on the sweet reward — a reunion with loved ones whose earthly time had come and gone.(NATE CHINEN  for The New York Times)

                              (The revieuw is from the concert at the  Zankel Hall)