I, Flathead Limited Deluxe Edition | Ry Cooder

I, Flathead Limited Deluxe Edition | Ry Cooder | He's got this runnin fine on all cylinders

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	I, Flathead Limited Deluxe Edition Ry Cooder Nonesuch, 2008 average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Ry!

OK, you don't need a whole history.
Most people don't end up here cold.
Read the other reviews or the label PR to give you the basics about this trilogy.
This record continues the eclectic journey that is the essence of Ry's music. He really goes back to the music he would have heard on the radio and in the streets of LA as a kid. Amalgam of 50's Mex-pop, big-band, jazz, blues, rock and all that. Like his recent series, he is very reserved with the guitar solos that so defined his early work. With age he's become even more subtle, as if that was possible. But, when he puts it out it is as sweet as it gets. The best way to define this is adventurous (as always), fun, retro and still progressive.
Personally, my own view,I am a major Ry fan, and have been since the 70s. Of the recent works, Mambo Sinuendo was one of my favorites, but I found Chavez Ravine a bit of a push. The heavy Mexican pop undercurrent was not up my alley, although it had its moments. My name is Buddy took me back a little closer to home and I, Flathead took me back to the glory days.
Makes sense? I think this is en par with the best of Ry's work- Paradise & Lunch, Boomer's Story, and Chicken Skin Music.

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He's got this runnin fine on all cylinders

It's said to be part of Cooder's California Trilogy along with Chavez Ravine and My Name is Buddy. The other two are great in their own right but this one excels at very fine guitar work which drew us to Ry Cooder in the first place. The songs and lyrics are clever and wacky at times but the great vocal inflections and intonations give a splashing of personality that's entertaining and fun to listen to. Cooder gets right down into his subject matter be it a dialogue with his Mexican mechanic about getting his Cadillac back or a country-light whimsy about a steel guitar heaven. The last song called Little Trona Girl may not be too fancy with words but the female vocalist is perfect as is the fantastic instrumentation. The first song, Waitin' for Some Girl, however is what sucks you in, it's great. Great stuff here, it takes you back when times were a whole lot less complicated. Oh yeah, the book is pretty cool too. Maybe an afternoon at the pool read.

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California Trilogy, Part 3 maintains the high standard.

I, Flathead, part 3 of Cooder's California trilogy sees the high standards set with "Chavez Ravine" and "My Name is Buddy" continuing.

Again a concept album telling the story of Kash Buk, a drag racer who wants to be a Country Musician. Despite this the music consists of several genres Western Swing, Country,Rock, tex Mex and Cooder teams again with old partners Jim Keltner and Flaco Jimenez to great success.

Cooder has been very prolific in recent years and I heard in a recent interview that the reason is he wants to get as much music out before the recording industry collapses!

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A fine end piece to his trilogy.

It takes courage to release a concept album, and something close to mad faith in one's art to release three in succession, as Ry Cooder has.
The concept album is usually an accident waiting to happen, so Ry Cooder is pushing his luck making three in a row.
"I, Flathead" is the concluding part of his 'California Trilogy', following 2005's "Chavez Ravine" and last year's "My Name Is Buddy", and it's a tribute to Cooder's talents that it's a match for either.
More than four decades since he emerged as an electric blues guitarist so highly rated that he turned down an offer to join the Rolling Stones when they looked for a replacement for Brian Jones in the Sixties, Cooder has ploughed a less commercial but hugely rewarding furrow as possibly America's most important rock musician.
A set of linked songs supposedly performed by one Kash Buk and his 'Klowns', a circle of 'petrolheads': drag racers and automotive junkies who wander the salt flats of California in the early 60s.
This third album in the guitarist's recent Californian collection is the most essential, with the former Captain Beefheart and Randy Newman sideman mining a rich southern Cafifornia seam.
Kash's story is nostalgic for a time when weird was commonplace. There are a couple of awkward narrative moments but they're soon forgotten in a project that affirms Cooder's acute sense of place and musical history, and his fiery ambition to make 'vernacular American music'.
The music is sharp and enjoyably coherent throughout. The playing is sublime, the drama captivating - check out "Can I Smoke In Here" for authentic atmosphere and "Pink O Boogie" for jangly In Here' for authentic atmosphere and 'Pink O Boogie' for jangly paranoia.
Pick of the album: "Waitin' For Some Girl", "Ridin' With the Blues", "Can I Smoke In Here" , "Pink-O Boogie", "5,000 Country Music Songs".

Chavez Ravine
My Name Is Buddy

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3

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