Chicken Skin Music

Amazon.com essential recording
This 1976 effort contains some of Cooder's most compelling work and finds him reexploring some of the fundamental influences on a musician known for remarkable eclecticism. Most notable are "Always Lift Him Up," "Smack Dab in the Middle," and a beautiful adaptation of "Stand By Me" (which includes Flaco Jimenez on accordion.) The album opens and closes with covers of Leadbelly, namely "The Bourgeois Blues" and (you guessed it) "Goodnight Irene." Also notable is a fine reworking of the traditional number "I Got Mine." --Wayne Pernu

Chicken Skin Music,Ry Cooder,Reprise / Wea,Album Rock,Blues-Rock,Country-Rock,Pop,Popular Music,Rock,Rock/Pop,Roots Rock,Slide Guitar Blues

Chicken Skin Music

Average customer rating:

His most influential......................
Ry Cooder speaks today
More solid work from a legend
Chicken What?
Sometimes I have a great notion to jump into the river and drown.

Chicken Skin Music
Ry Cooder
Manufacturer: Reprise / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Contemporary Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

Slide Guitar | Blues | Styles | Music

Blues Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Country Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Roots Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Paradise and Lunch
Into the Purple Valley
Boomer's Story
Jazz
Ry Cooder

ASIN: B000002KCO
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

The Bourgeois Blues
I Got Mine
Always Lift Him Up/Kanaka Wai Wai
He'll Have To Go
Smack Dab In The Middle
Stand By Me
Yellow Roses
Chloe
Goodnight Irene

Amazon.com essential recording

This 1976 effort contains some of Cooder's most compelling work and finds him reexploring some of the fundamental influences on a musician known for remarkable eclecticism. Most notable are "Always Lift Him Up," "Smack Dab in the Middle," and a beautiful adaptation of "Stand By Me" (which includes Flaco Jimenez on accordion.) The album opens and closes with covers of Leadbelly, namely "The Bourgeois Blues" and (you guessed it) "Goodnight Irene." Also notable is a fine reworking of the traditional number "I Got Mine." --Wayne Pernu

Customer Reviews:

His most influential.............................2007-05-31

Ry always seems intent on making musicologists of all of us. Bring in a little Tex Mex with Flaco Jimenez, some Hawaiian with Atta Isaacs, and so on. He had made some doggone good efforts in this vein before I decided to plunk down $8 or so for this as a freshly released LP. Maybe it was the strange cover that made me originally pick it up and go "Wha???" But this is where I got hooked. The bluesy "Bourgeois Blues" gave us no warning of the kick that was soon to follow with "Always Lift Him Up"/"I Got Mine"/"He'll Have to Go"/"Stand By Me." It is on these songs that the guest artists pump up their accordians and such at just the right place and give wing to the music, and Ry increases the emotion in his voice. The biggest nice surprise is "He'll Have to Go." Ry Cooder, tackling a song by the velvet throated Jim Reeves? And making it all his own. I suppose Ry did some works that I enjoy better all the way through. But this is where I got on board.

Ry Cooder speaks today.......2007-05-07

An excellent CD with great documentation of Ry Cooder's feelings about each selection. Great numbers with Flaco Jimenez.

More solid work from a legend.......2007-05-06

Ry Cooder never fails to amaze. Unlike other Cooder albums ("Into the Purple Valley", "Boomer's Story", and "Paradise and Lunch"), "Chicken Skin Music" isn't organized around a central theme. It begins and ends with Leadbelly songs and, in the middle, works in some wonderful Tejano and Hawaiian sounds. Guest musicians are top-notch--accordion master Flaco Jimenez, slack-key guitarists Gabby Pahinui and Atta Isaacs--as is his backup band. My personal favorite is a Tejano send up of the Jim Reeves hit "He'll Have to Go." It's risky covering a classic. You just cover it or, as in this case, make it completely your own. In either event, the risk is cheapening the song. Cooder's rendition of the song as a bolero with brilliant work by Jimenez shows reverence for an old favorite. This record was made in 1976, but the fantastic musicianship and song selection make it timeless.

Chicken What?.......2007-02-12

Saw Ry Cooder on the PBS station with Buena Vista Social Club, bought this album expecting something I didn't get. It's ok, I guess I just don't get Ry Cooder

Sometimes I have a great notion to jump into the river and drown........2006-06-02

There are few albums, sigh, all to few, from the mid-seventies that bear repeated listening 30 years later.

Immerse yourself often in this treasure, it's better than Prozac and will open your ears to the great music of the past.

Average customer rating:

Chicken Skin Music
Ry Cooder
Manufacturer: Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Blues Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Country Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Roots Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Slide Guitar | Blues | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000RT3RS6
Release Date: 2007-08-20

Tracks:

Bourgeois Blues
I Got Mine
Always Lift Him Up/Kanaka Wai Wai
He'll Have to Go
Smack Dab in the Middle
Stand By Me
Yellow Roses
Chloe
Goodnight Irene

Album Details

Japanese Digitally Remastered Limited Edition Issue of the Album Classic in a Deluxe, Miniaturized LP Sleeve Replica of the Original Vinyl Album Artwork.