Description:
Ry Cooder completes his California trilogy (which began with 2005`s `Chavez Ravine` and 2007`s `My Name is Buddy`) with `I, Flathead`, an album of music by the fictional musician Kash Buck and his band the Klowns, characters in Cooder`s 95-page novella. The novella (which is only available with the Deluxe Edition of `I, Flathead`) tells the story of Kash Buck and his friend Shakey the alien, along with various friends, lovers, enemies, and associates in a bygone California filled with deserts, salt-flat racing, Native Americans, seedy dance halls, amusement parks, and sinister plots. The album comprises fourteen songs by Buk, a hard-boiled salt flat racer and roadhouse musician. With the story and the music, Cooder creates a universe where "strange people are the norm," drawing from country western music, popular mechanics magazines, and science fiction films. Following `Chavez Ravine`, which examined loss of place and history, and `My Name is Buddy`, which explored the loss of solidarity and unity, `I, Flathead` reflects change and disruption in a young, post-war do-it-yourself culture of outsiders obsessed with racing cars fashioned from military surplus parts and flathead engines. (Nonesuch)
