A Meeting by the River was recorded in September 1992; it features Cooder solely on slide guitar and Bhatt on the Mohan veena, a stringed instrument he created.

[2][3] Allmusic's Daniel Gioffre described the instrument as a hybrid between a guitar and a vichitra veena;[2] it is played with a metal slide moving across steel rods along the neck.

[4] Cooder had heard a recording of Hindustani classical music performed by Bhatt and was impressed by his playing and the "haunting clarity" of the Mohan veena.

[7] Author George Plasketes described Bhatt's playing as "highly nuanced" and said, Cooder performs in a more "loose-jointed, slip 'n' slide style".

Author Tom Moon said Cooder takes the lead on the hymn "Isa Lei" as Bhatt contributes "elaborate squiggling asides" and "swooping nosedives".

A Meeting by the River is a must-own, a thing of pure, unadulterated beauty, and the strongest record in Cooder's extensive catalog.

"[2] Peter Margasak of the Chicago Tribune awarded the album four stars out of four, describing Cooder's performance as "arresting" and Bhatt's as "haunting".

Margasak wrote that the fusion revealed a "rare, often transcendental beauty" as the two artists "gently and intuitively" found common ground.