Chicken Skin Music
by Ry Cooder Model Reprise / WeaAverage Rating: 
List Price: $11.98 / Sale Price: $9.99
From the Editors
Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2007.
Album Description
Customer Response
Cooder's best, and one of my favorite all time albums...
This is one of my favorite albums from all time. I haven't thought about it for a while, but something recently clicked on how I really dug this work. I was in high school at the time, and I used to play the songs on an old boom box at work. One of the older gentlemen was amazed that a young person was listening to such old music (the album was made in 1976, but all the songs are quite old), and he asked why. I said "I just like it. That's enough".
It is Ry's best album, and it's really a collection of beautiful, timeless American folk songs. There really isn't a bad one in the whole batch. I really like the songs Always Life Him Up and He'll Have to Go. They are beautifully rendered. But the best ones have to be the opener and closer, The Bouregois Blues and Goodnight, Irene. The guitar work on The Bouregois Blues is some of Cooder's best, and he sings the song with great conviction. The closer is one of the most moving rendition of Goodnight, Irene that I've ever heard. It was originally a song by Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, and it was popularized by The Weavers. Cooder's version is very simple, but it really makes the song a deep experience. The accordion (one of my favorite instruments) throughout the song really makes it for me. Such a beautiful, moving album.
...A TRUE WORK OF ART! BEAUTIFUL JAPANESE VERSION!
This Japanese mini-lp replica version of Ry Cooder album is simply a work of art! Very beautifully designed with all the lyrics included and with a sound quality remastered to perfection.
This 2007 Warner reissue is by far the best version of this album that is out there; great sound quality, great packaging, great songs! A must have in any CD collector's library. A real collectors item of these guitarist, top 10 of all times.
His most influential......................
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
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
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.
Others also Liked
Paradise and Lunch
Into the Purple Valley
Ry Cooder
Boomer's Story
Jazz
