A record that opens doors
A familiar song can suddenly find a different home. It happens throughout Chicken Skin Music: an accordion joins in, a guitar answers, and a tune you know becomes an encounter you had not expected.
Curiosity holds Ry Cooder’s 1976 album together. Flaco Jiménez brings the supple language of Tex-Mex accordion; Gabby Pahinui and Atta Isaacs open a path towards Hawaii. Cooder does not stand in front of these musicians. His guitar enters into conversation with them, and that willingness to listen becomes a signature of its own.
Familiar songs, unexpected company
“He’ll Have to Go” is a lesson in how gently a song can change. Accordion and Pat Rizzo’s alto saxophone shift its movement without removing its familiar heart. The point is not to devise the cleverest arrangement, but to find what else the song can offer.
On “Chloe”, follow the exchange between guitars. “Stand by Me” opens out through accordion and shared voices. These colours are not decorations added to finished songs: they change the way the music breathes and the way it reaches us.
Several musical worlds, not one backing band
The credits for “Yellow Roses” and “Chloe” distinguish different kinds of guitar playing: Gabby Pahinui plays steel guitar, Atta Isaacs guitar, while Cooder adds tiple and mandolin respectively. That distinction matters. The sliding steel voice and the plucked strings are not interchangeable components of a vaguely Hawaiian sound. They give these performances a particular ensemble language, with Red Callender’s double bass and Milt Holland’s drums providing a foundation different from the Tex-Mex selections.
Pahinui also brought the experience of a living musical community. His gatherings in Waimānalo connected musicians and families; this was music shared between people, not a style preserved behind glass. Cooder’s collaborators were working within traditions they knew from the inside. The record’s crossings consequently need little explanation. The playing makes the case.
Nor does “Goodnight Irene” simply bring the same studio group back for a final number. Alongside Flaco Jiménez, its credits include Henry Ojeda, Isaac Garcia, Hugo Gonzales and Frank Villarreal. That changing company is part of the album’s identity. Continuity comes less from a fixed backing band than from Cooder’s readiness to let familiar songs acquire a different musical neighbourhood.
About this pressing
Analogue Productions · Acoustic Sounds 40 Series · 2 LPs · 180-gram vinyl · 45 RPM. Mastered from the original master tape and pressed at Quality Record Pressings (QRP). Stoughton Printing tip-on gatefold jacket.
Also on SACD: Chicken Skin Music
More by Ry Cooder: Paradise And Lunch · Paris, Texas
Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe
Series: Acoustic Sounds 40th Anniversary – all 25 albums, recommendations and musicians
Musicians
Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.
- Ry CooderElectric guitar, Accordion, Mandolin, Vocals, Guitar
- Flaco JiménezAccordion
- Gabby PahinuiGuitar
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