''I, Flathead: The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns'' is the fourteenth studio album by Ry Cooder. It is the final

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and h ...

. It is the third in his "California

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

", which began with '' Chávez Ravine'' (2005) and '' My Name Is Buddy'' (2007).John Kruth, "Three (or Four) Chords and the Truth", ''

Sing Out! ''Sing Out!'' was a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that was published from May 1950 through spring 2014. It was originally based in New York City, with a national circulation of approximately 10,000 by 1960. Background ''Sing O ...

'', 51:3, Autumn 2007 The Deluxe Edition of the album is accompanied by a 104-page hardback book which included a CD in paper pocket, a novella (on 97 pages) and song lyrics. The title is a play on the Isaac Asimov novel "

I, Robot ''I, Robot'' is a fixup collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines '' Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' between 1940 and 1950 ...

", but the flathead in question is the Ford Flathead engine.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Ry Cooder; except where indicated # "Drive Like I Never Been Hurt" (Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder) - 4:07 # "Waitin' for Some Girl" - 3:48 # "Johnny Cash" - 3:08 # "Can I Smoke in Here?" - 4:19 # "Steel Guitar Heaven" - 3:40 # "Ridin' with the Blues" - 3:01 # "Pink-O Boogie" - 3:05 # "Fernando Sez" - 4:44 # " Spayed Kooley" - 2:09 # "Filipino Dancehall Girl" - 3:54 # "My Dwarf is Getting Tired" - 3:59 # "Flathead One More Time" (Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder, Jared Smith) - 3:12 # "5000 Country Music Songs" - 6:41 # "Little Trona Girl" (Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder) - 3:13

Personnel

Musicians

* Gil Bernal –

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 (whi ...

* Ron Blake –

Trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

* Rene Camacho –

Double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

* Juliette Commagere – Vocals (14) * Joachim Cooder –

Drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfic ...

– Vocals, Guitars,

Bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

Mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

Electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

, Producer, Package Design, Laud * Jesús Guzmán – Arranger,

String Arrangement The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...

s *

Jon Hassell Jon Hassell (March 22, 1937 – June 26, 2021) was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various w ...

– Trumpet *

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 Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

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. ''Do ...

– Drums * Martin Pradler – Drums, Electric piano, Engineer, Mixing, Package Design * Jared Smith – Keyboards * Francisco Torres –

Trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

Mariachi Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music dating back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, two ...

Los Campreros

Production

*Producer – Ry Cooder Recorded & mixed by Martin Pradler *Production Supervisor, Karina Benznicki *Production Coordination, Eli Cane *Editorial Coordinator, Ronen Givony *Mastering by

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and distri ...

*Assistant, Alex Pavlides

Artwork

*Cover photo by Robert Wilson Kellogg

Releases

References

External links

*
My Name is Buddy
', site at

Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch ...

{{Authority control 2008 albums Ry Cooder albums 2000s concept albums Nonesuch Records albums Albums produced by Ry Cooder