Jun 2008

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.

He encounters the disenfranchised, the hopeful, the cheerfully strange and seriously nefarious, along with the occasional alien who races around in a souped-up flying saucer on the desert salt flats. On previous instalments, 'Chávez Ravine' (2005) and 'My Name Is Buddy' (2007), learning the facts and stories behind Cooder's songs made them even more compelling, whether it was the not-quite vanished legacy of the 'Chávez Ravine' neighbourhood of Los Angeles, bulldozed to make way for Dodger Stadium, or the allegorical, Bound For Glory-like adventures of Buddy Red Cat in a time of commie-baiting and union-busting.

This time, however, no research is necessary: Cooder, a California native, has written a remarkable 104-page novella to accompany this disc, a surreally funny page-turner of a tale about itinerant musician Kash Buk and the various characters he meets in his travels out west, all of whom get to narrate parts of the story. If you mixed John Steinbeck with, say, Thomas Pynchon, and threw in a bit of Popular Mechanics for good measure, it might read something like the I, Flathead narrative.

The CD functions beautifully on its own, but also serves as a sort of soundtrack to the book. Cooder assumes the gruff yet chummy voice of Buk, a hard-living, car-racing, guitar-playing man, and the album is subtitled 'The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns'. Aiding and abetting Cooder in his storytelling is a veritable repertory company of players who've appeared on the previous discs in the trilogy. Among them are drummers Joachim Cooder and Jim Keltner, accordionist Flaco Jimenez, trumpeter Jon Hassell, singer Juliette Commagere, saxophonist Gil Bernal and engineer/multi-instrumentalist Martin Pradler. Though Cooder is thinking conceptually big, the sound this extended family makes is loose, funky and intimate, incorporating blues, folk, country and primitive rock and roll. While the other releases featured many guest singers, Cooder is front and centre as lead vocalist on all but one song on I, Flathead (Commagere does a dreamy, Shirelles-like turn on the final track, 'Trona Girl').

In an era when music and ideas are often evanescent, Cooder literally gives us something substantial to hold onto. He never waxes nostalgic; in his California Trilogy, Cooder is engaged in a process of reclamation and restoration - of sounds, ideas, memories, dreams. In his singular career, Cooder has travelled the world, from Havana to Timbuktu, to recover lost or forgotten music and artists, and to find common ground among disparate performers and seemingly foreign cultures. With 'I, Flathead', Cooder brings it all back home, recalling California as it once was, as it might have been, and as it still may sound if, like Cooder, you know where to look.

• Q (Magazine) (p.135) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "^An] affectionate, note-perfect foray into a bygone musical world, this time involving western swing, mariachi brass and hillbilly boogie."

Personnel: Ry Cooder (guitar, bass guitar); Juliette Commagere (vocals); Joachim Cooder (drums).
Recording information: Little Pink Studio, Los Angeles, CA.
Guitarist/singer Ry Cooder is one of the original Americana/roots-rockers, and has been exploring the nooks and crannies of American music since the 1960s. I, FLATHEAD finds Cooder delving into blues, country, jazz, Western swing, and more. On some tracks, Cooder pays specific tribute to his musical heroes, name-checking pedal steel guitar legend Speedy West on "Steel Guitar Heaven," and serving up tunes named for Johnny Cash and Western swing sultan Spade Cooley. However traditional the setting, though, Cooder's raw, Captain Beefheart-like voice (he appeared on the Captain's first LP, SAFE AS MILK) keeps things agreeably quirky throughout the album.

L.A.-based guitarist Ry Cooder learned from the best, getting lessons from legendary bluesman Rev. Gary Davis at an early age. In the mid 1960s, he formed pioneering blues-rock band the Rising Sons with Taj Mahal. When that dissolved, he became an in-demand session player for everyone from Captain Beefheart to Randy Newman. He worked with the Rolling Stones in the late '60s, and nearly became Brian Jones's replacement. Over the years he released numerous quirky solo albums venturing into folk, blues, country, and even Hawaiian music. In the late '90s he instigated the Buena Vista Social Club project, getting veteran Cuban musicians together and presenting their sound to the world via shockingly successful albums, concerts, and a documentary.