RY COODER: I, FLATHEAD (NONSUCH) ***

Concluding the trilogy that began with 2005’s Chavez Ravine, I, Flathead further mythologises the disunity of post-war California, this time from fictional salt flat racer Kash Buk’s view point. Cooder’s desert-dry patter guides us through the seamy side, but the jugband-come-blues-come-bossa backdrop is too polished to make his tableaux really come to life.