''Chicken Skin Music'' is Ry Cooder's fifth studio album, released in 1976, on the

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repe ...

label.

Reception

Reviewing the album for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, Brett Hartenbach said: "Even more than usual, Cooder refuses to recognize borders -- geographical or musical -- presenting " Stand By Me" as a gospel song with a norteño arrangement, or giving the

Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman ...

country-pop classic, "

He'll Have to Go "He'll Have to Go" is an American country and pop hit recorded on October 15, 1959, by Jim Reeves. The song, released in the fall of 1959, went on to become a hit in both genres early in 1960. Background The song is about a man who's talking by t ...

," a

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

rhythm, featuring the interplay of

Flaco Jimenez José María Avizanda Glaría (born 24 May 1966), better known as Flaco, is a Spanish football coach and former player. He won the Norwegian Football Cup with Molde in 1994. Flaco has played for Rayo Vallecano from 1986 to 1990, where he was a t ...

's accordion and

Pat Rizzo Pat Rizzo (November 30, 1941 – April 15, 2021) was an American saxophonist and flautist, best known for his work with funk band Sly and the Family Stone. Career Rizzo started performing in the sixties with The Cuff Links. He is best known f ...

's alto sax. ..This is not merely eclecticism for its own sake. ''Chicken Skin Music'' is probably Ry Cooder's most eccentric record since his first, but it's also one of his most entertaining." Writing for ''

ZigZag A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular. In geometry, this pattern is described as ...

'' magazine in November 1976, Andy Childs said: "Apart from the obvious quality of his music, there's something about his total detachment from the very formalised and generally uninspiring rock'n'roll circus that I find very appealing. ... There's so much music here, so much fascinating and enlightening music. How many so-called artists can really claim to make albums that are truly both educational and so immensely enjoyable?"

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

magazine once said that "Ry Cooder makes America come together in its music...well, now he's stretching his musical horizons to other shores, and the results, even though he's probably just begun, are just as cohesive...a pure joy – a work of art even.''"''

Track listing

Personnel

Sources:

Musicians

George Bohanon George Roland Bohanon, Jr. (born August 7, 1937) is a jazz trombonist and session musician from Detroit, Michigan. In the early 1960s, he participated in Detroit's Workshop Jazz ensemble, with Johnny Griffith, Paula Greer, David Hamilton, Lefty ...

– baritone horn and horn arrangement on "I Got Mine" * Oscar Brashear – cornet on "I Got Mine" *

Red Callender George Sylvester "Red" Callender (March 6, 1916 – March 8, 1992) was an American string bass and tuba player. He is perhaps best known as a jazz musician, but worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Cr ...

–

upright bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar ...

*Ry Cooder –

bajo sexto Bajo sexto (Spanish: "sixth bass") is a Mexican string instrument from the guitar family with 12 strings in six double courses. A closely related instrument is the bajo quinto (Spanish: "fifth bass") which has 10 strings in five double courses ...

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

bottleneck guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

, French accordion,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

, slack-key guitar,

tiple A tiple (, literally treble or soprano), is a plucked typically 12-string chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a ''tiplista''. The first mention of the tiple comes from musicologist Pablo Minguet e Irol in 1752. Although ma ...

Hawaiian guitar Hawaiian guitar may refer to: *Lap steel guitar, a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap *Ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

Chris Ethridge John Christopher Ethridge (February 10, 1947 – April 23, 2012) was an American country rock bass guitarist. He was a member of the International Submarine Band (ISB) and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and co-wrote several songs with Gram Pars ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Jimmy Adams - vocals * Terry Evans – vocals *Cliff Givens – vocals *

Laurence Fishburne Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. He is a three time Emmy Award and Tony Award winning actor known for his roles on stage and screen. He has been hailed for his forceful, militant, and authoritative charact ...

- vocals *Hugo Gonzales – bajo sexto on "Good Night Irene" *

Milt Holland Milton Holland (born Milton Olshansky; February 7, 1917 – November 4, 2005) was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian percus ...

–

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, drums * Atta Isaacs –

slack-key Slack-key guitar (from Hawaiian ''kī hōalu'', which means "loosen the uningkey") is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii after Portuguese cowboys introduced Spanish guitars there in the late 19th century. The Hawaiian ...

and acoustic guitar on "Chloe" * Fred Jackson Jr. –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

on "I Got Mine" *

Flaco Jiménez Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez (born March 11, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter and accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. He is known for playing Norteño, Tex Mex and Tejano music. Jiménez has been a solo performer and session musician, as ...

– accordion on "He'll Have to Go", "Stand By Me" and "Goodnight Irene" *Herman E. Johnson – vocals *

Jim Keltner James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America". Howard Sounes. ''Dow ...

– drums *

Bobby King Bobby King (born July 28, 1944, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States) is an American gospel-style, R&B and soul singer. He formed a singing duo with Terry Evans in the early 1970s. Since 1973, King has sung on most Ry Cooder albums. He wa ...

– vocals *Henry Ojeda – bass on "Good Night Irene" *

Gabby Pahinui Philip Kunia Pahinui (; April 22, 1921 – October 13, 1980), known as Gabby Pahinui, was a slack-key guitarist and singer of Hawaiian music. Born into a struggling family, Gabby was born Charles Kapono Kahahawai Jr. and later ''hānaied'' wi ...

– steel guitar on "Chloe" * Benny Powell –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

on "I Got Mine" *

– alto saxophone on "He'll Have to Go" *

Russ Titelman Russ Titelman (born August 16, 1944, Los Angeles, California) is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song " Higher Love", and his second and third f ...

– bajo sexto on "Stand By Me" *Frank Villarreal - alto saxophone on "Good Night Irene" *Isaac Garcia - drums on "Good Night Irene"

Technical

* Ry Cooder – producer *Judy Maizel, Trudy Portch - production coordination *Lee Herschberg - engineer, mixing *Lloyd Cruft - engineer *Bobby Hata, John Neal - assistant engineers *Chet Himes, John Ingle - engineering *Kenny Price - album cover, design and painting *Susan Titelman - photography *Noel Newbolt - production assistance

Releases

* CD Chicken Skin Music Reprise 1988 *

Cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...

Chicken Skin Music Reprise 1990 * CD Chicken Skin Music Reprise 1990 * CD Chicken Skin Music WEA 2007 * CD Chicken Skin Music Reprise 2008

Singles

*"He'll Have To Go" / "The Bourgeois Blues", Reprise: K 14457 (UK) *"Goodnight Irene" / "Chloe", Reprise: K REP14473 (Netherlands)

Charts

Album

References

1976 albums Ry Cooder albums Albums produced by Ry Cooder Reprise Records albums Covers albums {{1970s-rock-album-stub