CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

RY COODER: "Chicken Skin Music" (Reprise) ::The title refers to an Hawaiian expression closely allied to "goose bumps," which has to be the most modest instance of hubris on record—I mean, does Ry really believe this is gonna make my skin prickle? Folk eclecticism is a nouveau jug commonplace, after all, even if most nouveau jugheads do lack Rj/s imagination and musicianship, not to mention the capital to add color from Honolulu and San Antonio onto the same LP. Too tame.