| Ry Cooder — I, Flathead (June 23, 2008) |
Ry Cooder — I, Flathead (June 23, 2008)
←••→ 1st recordings: The Ceyleib People (1967) + “Safe as Milk” (1967) with Captain Beefheart. Cooder was ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. 6x Grammy Award: 1988, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2003, 2003. I, Flathead: The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns is the fourteenth studio album by Ry Cooder. It is the final concept album by Ry Cooder. It is the third in his “California trilogy” that began with Chávez Ravine (2005) and My Name Is Buddy (2007).
←••→ Ry Cooder’s I, Flathead is the culmination of his ambitious and fascinating “California Trilogy,” the last of three albums in which the singer and guitarist journeys through the real and imagined history of mid~20th century, multi~ethnic California, sampling the sounds of its barrios and byways, its nightclubs and honkytonks. The CD functions beautifully on its own, but also serves as a sort of soundtrack to the book equivalent. Abetting Cooder in his story telling is a veritable repertory of players who’ve appeared in the previous discs in the trilogy, among them drummer Joachim Cooder, Jim Keltner, Flaco Jimenez, Jon Hassell, Juliette Commagere and Gil Bernal.
© ←••→ Los Angeles, California. ←••→ Ry Cooder tries prose. PHOTOGRAPHER: Chris Pizzello Associated Press 2011, 12 04. WORDS AND MUSIC: Ry Cooder puts California tales in his book “Los Angeles Stories,” as he did in his albums. — PHOTOGRAPHER: Chris Pizzello Associated Press] *** [SUNDAY CALENDAR STORY FOR DECEMBER 4, 2011. Faturing a mural of Los Angeles' Chavez Ravine by artist Vincent Valdez, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)] ** Usable by LA and DC Only **
Birth name: Ryland Peter Cooder
Born: March 15, 1947, Los Angeles, California, United States
Origin: Santa Monica, California, United States
Instruments: Guitar bass mandolin banjo slide guitar bottleneck guitar Hawaiian guitar slack~key guitar
Genre: Americana, Roots Rock, Country Rock, Tex~Mex, Mariachi
Location: Santa Monica
Album released: June 23, 2008
Recorded: at Little Pink Studio, L.A.
Record Label: Nonesuch
Duration: 53:16
Tracks:
01. Drive Like I Never Been Hurt 4:08
02. Waitin’ For Some Girl 3:49
03. Johnny Cash 3:09
04. Can I Smoke In Here? 4:19
05. Steel Guitar Heaven 3:41
06. Ridin’ With The Blues 3:01
07. Pink~O Boogie 3:06
08. Fernando Sez 4:44
09. Spayed Kooley 2:10
10. Filipino Dancehall Girl 3:54
11. My Dwarf Is Getting Tired 4:00
12. Flathead One More Time 3:12
13. 5000 Country Music Songs 6:41
14. Little Trona Girl 3:13
Musicians:
•• Gil Bernal — Tenor saxophone
•• Ron Blake — Trumpet
•• Rene Camacho — Double bass
•• Juliette Commagere — Vocals (14)
•• Joachim Cooder — Drums, Timbales
•• Ry Cooder — Vocals, Guitars, Bass guitar, Mandolin, Electric piano, Producer, Package Design, Laud
•• Jesús Guzmán — Arranger, String Arrangements
•• Jon Hassell — Trumpet
•• Flaco Jiménez — Accordion
•• Jim Keltner — Drums
•• Martin Pradler — Drums, Electric piano, Engineer, Mixing, Package Design
•• Jared Smith — Keyboards
•• Francisco Torres — Trombone
•• Mariachi Los Campreros
Production:
•• Producer — Ry Cooder
•• Recorded & mixed by Martin Pradler
•• Production Supervisor, Karina Benznicki
•• Production Coordination, Eli Cane
•• Editorial Coordinator, Ronen Givony
•• Mastering by Stephen Marcussen
•• Assistant, Alex Pavlides
Artwork:
•• Cover photo by Robert Wilson Kellogg
•• Drawing Stewart Rouse
AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek; Score: ***½
←••→ Ry Cooder has always been a musical storyteller, from his self~titled debut album (which featured both well~known and under~recognized folk, blues, swing, and jug tunes) to Boomer’s Story, his last two offerings for Nonesuch (Chavez Ravine and My Name Is Buddy), and his many film scores (including those for The Long Riders, Paris, Texas, Last Man Standing, Geronimo, and The End of Violence, just to mention a few). When his contributions as a musicologist, producer, and collaborator — such as his contributions to the various Buena Vista Social Club recordings (including the film score) and his work with V.M. Bhatt, Pops Staples, Ersi Arvizu, and guitarist Manuel Galbán of Los Zafiros — are included, he becomes a genuine mythmaker. I, Flathead contributes to the weight of Cooder’s legend in many ways. First, there’s the title, an obvious nod to the late Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot; then there’s the legend — the entire story is told in a 100~page, hardbound novella that accompanies the Deluxe Edition — about beatnik, country music nut, and salt~flats racer Kash Buk, his band the Klowns, the strange and wonderful extraterrestrial visitor called Shakey, and the Passenger who pursues him. It’s even subtitled “The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns.” Finally, there’s the music; it’s a set of 14 original tunes that employ everything from country rockabilly to blues; strange, shimmering exotica; and Latin~influenced rock, swing, and mariachi music.
←••→ Musically, there isn’t anything here you haven’t heard from Cooder before, but it’s shaken and stirred differently and owes a nod or two to Tom Waits’ deadpan storytelling manner. This album doesn’t have the futuristic Latin groove of Chavez Ravine or the traveling dust~bowl balladic country and folk that was on My Name Is Buddy, but it is simultaneously as welcoming and off~putting as both those earlier records. The songs can be enjoyed with or without the novella, as they were meant to stand apart. The story in it is directly related, but there is a story the recording tells on its own. The sound of the record is frighteningly crystalline for roots~oriented music — the dirty~assed bottleneck slide guitar~fueled “Ridin’ with the Blues,” with drummer Jim Keltner and guitarist Rene Camacho, feels too clean despite its tempo and loose vibe. “Pink~O Boogie” follows with the same band — with added percussion from Joachim Cooder — but the groove is nastier and dirtier, and feels like it could have come from the Get Rhythm album in 1987. Near the end, Jesús Guzmán arranges some crazy string work to take it out. The rootsy rocker “Waitin’ for Some Girl,” where Cooder plays everything but drums (courtesy of Martin Pradler) sounds like a lost John Hiatt tune from Ry’s Slide Area period (it’s also better than anything that Hiatt has come up with himself in ages). Old pal Flaco Jiménez lends his accordion to “Filipino Dancehall Girl,” a beautiful norteño tune that is kissed by cha~cha in Joachim’s rhythms. “Spayed Kooley” is, as one might expect, a humorous Western swing jam, but played by a basic rock trio. And then there’s the beautifully articulated swing ballad “My Dwarf Is Getting Tired,” one of the more beautifully warm broken love songs Cooder has ever written — and the string touches by Guzmán make it a shuffling lounge fave. Ultimately, “quirky” doesn’t begin to describe I, Flathead, but it doesn’t have to: this disc is simultaneously both vintage and futuristic Cooder doing what he does best, offering listeners ghost traces of the past as they materialize on the dusty desert horizon like a mirage.
Solo albums:
♦ Ry Cooder (December 1970)
♦ Into the Purple Valley (February 1972)
♦ Boomer’s Story (November 1972)
♦ Acoustic Performance: Radio Ranch, 12–12–1972 (December 1972)
♦ Paradise and Lunch (May 1974)
♦ Chicken Skin Music (October 1976)
♦ Showtime (August 1977)
♦ Jazz (June 1978)
♦ Bop Till You Drop (August 1979)
♦ Borderline (October 1980)
♦ The Slide Area (April 1982)
♦ Get Rhythm (November 1987)
♦ Chávez Ravine (May 2005)
♦ My Name Is Buddy (March 2007)
♦ I, Flathead (June 2008)
♦ Live On Air (October 2010)
♦ Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (August 2011)
♦ Election Special (August 2012)
Soundtracks:
♦ Performance (1970)
♦ The Long Riders (June 1980)
♦ Southern Comfort (1981)
♦ The Border (1982)
♦ Streets of Fire (1984)
♦ Paris, Texas (February 1985)
♦ Music from Alamo Bay (August 1985)
♦ Blue City (July 1986)
♦ Crossroads (July 1986)
♦ Cocktail (1988)
♦ Johnny Handsome (October 1989)
♦ Trespass (January 1993)
♦ Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
♦ Last Man Standing (1996)
♦ The End of Violence (1997)
♦ Primary Colors (1998)
←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←
| Ry Cooder — I, Flathead (June 23, 2008) |
←••→ 1st recordings: The Ceyleib People (1967) + “Safe as Milk” (1967) with Captain Beefheart. Cooder was ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. 6x Grammy Award: 1988, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2003, 2003. I, Flathead: The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns is the fourteenth studio album by Ry Cooder. It is the final concept album by Ry Cooder. It is the third in his “California trilogy” that began with Chávez Ravine (2005) and My Name Is Buddy (2007).
←••→ Ry Cooder’s I, Flathead is the culmination of his ambitious and fascinating “California Trilogy,” the last of three albums in which the singer and guitarist journeys through the real and imagined history of mid~20th century, multi~ethnic California, sampling the sounds of its barrios and byways, its nightclubs and honkytonks. The CD functions beautifully on its own, but also serves as a sort of soundtrack to the book equivalent. Abetting Cooder in his story telling is a veritable repertory of players who’ve appeared in the previous discs in the trilogy, among them drummer Joachim Cooder, Jim Keltner, Flaco Jimenez, Jon Hassell, Juliette Commagere and Gil Bernal.
Birth name: Ryland Peter Cooder
Born: March 15, 1947, Los Angeles, California, United States
Origin: Santa Monica, California, United States
Instruments: Guitar bass mandolin banjo slide guitar bottleneck guitar Hawaiian guitar slack~key guitar
Genre: Americana, Roots Rock, Country Rock, Tex~Mex, Mariachi
Location: Santa Monica
Album released: June 23, 2008
Recorded: at Little Pink Studio, L.A.
Record Label: Nonesuch
Duration: 53:16
Tracks:
01. Drive Like I Never Been Hurt 4:08
02. Waitin’ For Some Girl 3:49
03. Johnny Cash 3:09
04. Can I Smoke In Here? 4:19
05. Steel Guitar Heaven 3:41
06. Ridin’ With The Blues 3:01
07. Pink~O Boogie 3:06
08. Fernando Sez 4:44
09. Spayed Kooley 2:10
10. Filipino Dancehall Girl 3:54
11. My Dwarf Is Getting Tired 4:00
12. Flathead One More Time 3:12
13. 5000 Country Music Songs 6:41
14. Little Trona Girl 3:13
Musicians:
•• Gil Bernal — Tenor saxophone
•• Ron Blake — Trumpet
•• Rene Camacho — Double bass
•• Juliette Commagere — Vocals (14)
•• Joachim Cooder — Drums, Timbales
•• Ry Cooder — Vocals, Guitars, Bass guitar, Mandolin, Electric piano, Producer, Package Design, Laud
•• Jesús Guzmán — Arranger, String Arrangements
•• Jon Hassell — Trumpet
•• Flaco Jiménez — Accordion
•• Jim Keltner — Drums
•• Martin Pradler — Drums, Electric piano, Engineer, Mixing, Package Design
•• Jared Smith — Keyboards
•• Francisco Torres — Trombone
•• Mariachi Los Campreros
Production:
•• Producer — Ry Cooder
•• Recorded & mixed by Martin Pradler
•• Production Supervisor, Karina Benznicki
•• Production Coordination, Eli Cane
•• Editorial Coordinator, Ronen Givony
•• Mastering by Stephen Marcussen
•• Assistant, Alex Pavlides
Artwork:
•• Cover photo by Robert Wilson Kellogg
•• Drawing Stewart Rouse
←••→ Ry Cooder has always been a musical storyteller, from his self~titled debut album (which featured both well~known and under~recognized folk, blues, swing, and jug tunes) to Boomer’s Story, his last two offerings for Nonesuch (Chavez Ravine and My Name Is Buddy), and his many film scores (including those for The Long Riders, Paris, Texas, Last Man Standing, Geronimo, and The End of Violence, just to mention a few). When his contributions as a musicologist, producer, and collaborator — such as his contributions to the various Buena Vista Social Club recordings (including the film score) and his work with V.M. Bhatt, Pops Staples, Ersi Arvizu, and guitarist Manuel Galbán of Los Zafiros — are included, he becomes a genuine mythmaker. I, Flathead contributes to the weight of Cooder’s legend in many ways. First, there’s the title, an obvious nod to the late Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot; then there’s the legend — the entire story is told in a 100~page, hardbound novella that accompanies the Deluxe Edition — about beatnik, country music nut, and salt~flats racer Kash Buk, his band the Klowns, the strange and wonderful extraterrestrial visitor called Shakey, and the Passenger who pursues him. It’s even subtitled “The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns.” Finally, there’s the music; it’s a set of 14 original tunes that employ everything from country rockabilly to blues; strange, shimmering exotica; and Latin~influenced rock, swing, and mariachi music.
←••→ Musically, there isn’t anything here you haven’t heard from Cooder before, but it’s shaken and stirred differently and owes a nod or two to Tom Waits’ deadpan storytelling manner. This album doesn’t have the futuristic Latin groove of Chavez Ravine or the traveling dust~bowl balladic country and folk that was on My Name Is Buddy, but it is simultaneously as welcoming and off~putting as both those earlier records. The songs can be enjoyed with or without the novella, as they were meant to stand apart. The story in it is directly related, but there is a story the recording tells on its own. The sound of the record is frighteningly crystalline for roots~oriented music — the dirty~assed bottleneck slide guitar~fueled “Ridin’ with the Blues,” with drummer Jim Keltner and guitarist Rene Camacho, feels too clean despite its tempo and loose vibe. “Pink~O Boogie” follows with the same band — with added percussion from Joachim Cooder — but the groove is nastier and dirtier, and feels like it could have come from the Get Rhythm album in 1987. Near the end, Jesús Guzmán arranges some crazy string work to take it out. The rootsy rocker “Waitin’ for Some Girl,” where Cooder plays everything but drums (courtesy of Martin Pradler) sounds like a lost John Hiatt tune from Ry’s Slide Area period (it’s also better than anything that Hiatt has come up with himself in ages). Old pal Flaco Jiménez lends his accordion to “Filipino Dancehall Girl,” a beautiful norteño tune that is kissed by cha~cha in Joachim’s rhythms. “Spayed Kooley” is, as one might expect, a humorous Western swing jam, but played by a basic rock trio. And then there’s the beautifully articulated swing ballad “My Dwarf Is Getting Tired,” one of the more beautifully warm broken love songs Cooder has ever written — and the string touches by Guzmán make it a shuffling lounge fave. Ultimately, “quirky” doesn’t begin to describe I, Flathead, but it doesn’t have to: this disc is simultaneously both vintage and futuristic Cooder doing what he does best, offering listeners ghost traces of the past as they materialize on the dusty desert horizon like a mirage.
Solo albums:
♦ Ry Cooder (December 1970)
♦ Into the Purple Valley (February 1972)
♦ Boomer’s Story (November 1972)
♦ Acoustic Performance: Radio Ranch, 12–12–1972 (December 1972)
♦ Paradise and Lunch (May 1974)
♦ Chicken Skin Music (October 1976)
♦ Showtime (August 1977)
♦ Jazz (June 1978)
♦ Bop Till You Drop (August 1979)
♦ Borderline (October 1980)
♦ The Slide Area (April 1982)
♦ Get Rhythm (November 1987)
♦ Chávez Ravine (May 2005)
♦ My Name Is Buddy (March 2007)
♦ I, Flathead (June 2008)
♦ Live On Air (October 2010)
♦ Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (August 2011)
♦ Election Special (August 2012)
Soundtracks:
♦ Performance (1970)
♦ The Long Riders (June 1980)
♦ Southern Comfort (1981)
♦ The Border (1982)
♦ Streets of Fire (1984)
♦ Paris, Texas (February 1985)
♦ Music from Alamo Bay (August 1985)
♦ Blue City (July 1986)
♦ Crossroads (July 1986)
♦ Cocktail (1988)
♦ Johnny Handsome (October 1989)
♦ Trespass (January 1993)
♦ Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
♦ Last Man Standing (1996)
♦ The End of Violence (1997)
♦ Primary Colors (1998)
←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←••→♦←