On I, Flathead, as with the previous two discs in his California trilogy, Ry Cooder addresses a number of often overlooked topics in the history of mid-20th century, multi-ethnic California, and, says the Knoxville News Sentinel, "he delivers them with subtlety and humanity." The Boston Globe calls the new trilogy album "the best of the lot ... a fascinating journey by a maverick who won't be harnessed."
On I, Flathead, as with the previous two discs in his California trilogy, Ry Cooder addresses a number of often overlooked topics in the history of mid-20th century, multi-ethnic California, and, says the Knoxville News Sentinel's Wayne Bledsoe, "he delivers them with subtlety and humanity."
Writes Bledsoe of the final album in the trilogy:
Cooder has always excelled in reviving styles and applying his own distinctive bent to them. On I, Flathead, Cooder revisits the sweet, precise style of '40s and '50s guitar masters Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, and Hank Garland and follows with vintage Latino styles. Yet Cooder's own touch is unmistakable. When he sings a tribute to Johnny Cash ... his adaptation of the Cash's sound with the Tennessee Three still bears Cooder's own distinctive percussive style on the electric.
To read the review, visit knoxnews.com.
---
Among the trilogy albums, says the Boston Globe's Steve Morse, I, Flathead is "the best of the lot," which is saying a good deal, considering Morse's description of the first album in the series, Chavez Ravine, in 2005, as "an ambitious street opera" and "an acutely sensitive CD."
On the new disc, writes Morse, Cooder "burns on 'Ridin' with the Blues,' 'Pink-O Boogie' and the twangy rockabilly of 'Johnny Cash,'" just to mention a few of the songs that showcase "Cooder's guitar brilliance." Of the album as a whole, Morse concludes: "It's a fascinating journey by a maverick who won't be harnessed."
- Log in to post comments
