Ry Cooder recommendation...

Shoukichi Kina "Bloodlines"

Essential!

Avoid anything where he sings!

Been a huge fan if RC since about 1974, no bad albums and few like one another.  Older stuff is a hoot; funky, country-ish, blues-ish, comical.  He is hysterical!  Chavez Ravine and I Flathead are more recent records which show his musical genius.  Other perhaps under the radar albums definitely worth owning are The Slide Area, Borderline, Chicken Skin Music.  I think I own most every commercial record and/or cd he's recorded.  IMHO one of the top modern American musicians of our era.  Hard to go wrong with Ry on the slide.  

A real rare one that is pretty bare bones instrumental music is the soundtrack to The End of Violence. Now most all of Wim Wender's films have great soundtracks (Until the End of the World is a stupendous mix of tracks, enhanced with overdubs and short cello pieces). The thing is there was a pre-release version I have that is quite different from the official release. Very moody and brooding sort of atmospheric stuff that is actually quite a challenge to play loud on a good hifi. It's not 100% great but most of it is quite excellent. Both of these qualify as audiophile imho.

Didn't see mention of his soundtrack for Last Man Standing.  The imagery bounces around a bit and he pushes the envelope in a couple of places, but it's all pure Cooder.

This thread inspired me to clean/play "Chicken Skin Music".

It was recommended to me by a former friend who didn't really like blues based music! Wow!

Isn't most music some form of blues?? Is it just me??

Cheers!