Ry Cooder's cross-cultural Chicken Skin Music, a mix of Hawaiian, gospel, conjunto, folk and blues

Mastered from the original master tapes

Strictly limited to 2,000 numbered copies!

Natural-sounding Hybrid SACD features defined textures, intricate details and ample airiness

The title of Ry Cooder's Chicken Skin Music — Hawaiian slang for goosebumps — serves as a direct, simple description of the album's emotional appeal. But it barely scratches the surface of a 1976 effort that triggered an interest in "world music" a decade before the term became commonplace and a genre into and of itself.

Part of a series of inimitable mid-1970s records on which Cooder ignored traditional boundaries and instigated lasting cross-cultural communication, Chicken Skin Music blends gospel, Hawaiian, folk, blues, and Tex-Mex styles into a brilliant roots stew distinguished with virtuosic playing and inspired contextual surprises.

Mastered from the original master tapes and strictly limited to 2000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's hybrid SACD of Chicken Skin Music brings the brilliant instrumental textures and lively tonalities to the fore like no prior digital edition. Graced with silent, black backgrounds and generous soundstages, this reissue particularly underscores the depth of Flaco Jimenez's accordion contributions. You'll hear the air flowing through the reeds, pressure resonating from the bellows, and the wide-spanning timbres emanating from the register stops.

Equally transfixing are the lifelike manners in which the rich assortment of guitars come alive, with each note occupying its own space and portraying a character unique to the individual instrument, be it a slack-key, steel, or acoustic guitar. The result is a multi-detailed, organic-sounding musical tapestry that dazzles by way of beautiful interplay,

Track Listing
The Bourgeois Blues
I Got Mine
Always Lift Him Up/Kanaka Wai Wai
He'll Have to Go
Smack Dab in the Middle
Stand by Me
Yellow Roses
Chlo-e
Goodnight Irene

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