Chicken Skin Music
This 1976 effort contains some of Cooder's most compelling work and finds  him reexploring some of the fundamental influences on a musician known for  remarkable eclecticism.  Most notable are "Always Lift Him Up," "Smack Dab in the  Middle," and a beautiful adaptation of "Stand By Me" (which includes Flaco Jimenez on  accordion.) The album opens and closes with covers of Leadbelly, namely "The  Bourgeois Blues" and (you guessed it) "Goodnight Irene." Also notable is a fine reworking of the traditional number "I Got Mine."--Wayne Pernu