Friday, February 27, 2009

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, February 27, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Living with the Animals by Mother Earth
My Favorite Record by The Asylum Street Spankers
Wishing For You by The Sir Douglas Quintet

BUTCH HANCOCK LIVE IN THE STUDIO

BUTCH HANCOCK Wishing for You (alternative version)
Road Map for the Blues
No Place to Fall
Waitin' Around to Die
Pinecone
Dangling Diamond
(end live set)
Morning Goodness by Butch Hancock & Robert Earl Keen

Turn it On, Turn it On, Turn it On by Tom T. Hall
Liquor Store by The Meat Purveyors
The Way You Can Get by The Gourds
You Snap Your Fingers (And I'm Back in Your Hands) by Amber Digby
If You Should Come Back Back Today by Johnny Paycheck
She's My Neighbor by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Bright Lights and Blonde-Haired Women by Ray Price
Bip a Little, Bop a Little by Joe Penny
Honky Tonk Kind by Charlie Feather
Did Boy Dig by Freddy Hart

Keep a Light in Your Window by Cornell Hurd
Wide River to Cross by Buddy Miller
You're the Nearest Thing to Heaven by Johnny Cash
Out of My Head by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Cool and Dark Inside by Kell Robertson
West Texas Waltz by Emmylou Harris with Flaco Jimenez
Someday by Blaze Foley
Be My Love by NRBQ
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: SPANKER TIME

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 27, 2009


They call themselves “God’s favorite band.” I’m not sure if the god they’re talking about is Dionysus or some jungle deity whose name cannot be spoken.

But even agnostics should be able to appreciate The Asylum Street Spankers, a good-time crew from Texas that has been spreading its gospel of old-timey acoustic sounds, radical politics, reefer madness, dirty jokes, and general wackiness.
Los Spankers
The Spankers have a new — well, pretty new — double live CD, What? And Give Up Show Biz? And they’re coming to Santa Fe. (Actually, according to the Spanker Web site, brassy belter Christina Marrs is on maternity leave, so the upcoming show will be an all-male revue. As the Web site says, “While the lady is with child, the dudes are going wild.”)

For those not familiar with the ASS, this live album, recorded in January 2008 at New York’s Barrow Street Theater, is a good place to start. Show Biz includes tunes spanning the band’s career — dope songs, dirty songs, children’s songs, a political-conspiracy song (“My Baby in the CIA”), and a perfectly lovely version of Harry Nilsson’s “Think About Your Troubles.”

This is one of the only bands I know that would release a record that includes a vaudeville classic like “Everybody Loves My Baby” and a Black Flag cover, “TV Party.” There is also a cool, quick medley of instrumental TV-show themes, including those of The Simpsons, Jeopardy, and Bonanza.

And like Black Flag, the Spankers have a punk-rock heart, despite their strict adherence to a no-electricity credo. Their Betty Boop-ish version of Tampa Red’s “Tight Like That” includes a quick detour to The Jim Carroll Band’s “People Who Died.”

Less successful is the band’s fusion of country music and rap with a song called “Hick Hop.” The Gourds’ version of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” set the standard for endeavors like this.

Lots of musicians of any note who’ve been around for a few years have certain songs that they’re sick of but the masses demand. (Ask Loudon Wainwright III about “Dead Skunk” or Ray Wylie Hubbard about “Redneck Mother.”) The Spankers have an answer for this — a less-than-three-minute “Medley of Burned Out Songs.” It’s a fun track, but newcomers to Asylum Street should seek out the full version of “Lee Harvey,” a sympathetic look at the late Mr. Oswald.

A lot of the album consists of between-song stage patter and shaggy-dog tales. Even though this kind of live-album stuff starts to get old after a few listens, the Spankers are better at it than most — mainly because they’re funnier. And some of these throwaway tracks have their own charm. Take the dumb, dirty-minded, a cappella ditty “My Country’s Calling Me,” which sounds like it’s straight from the playground. That reminds me of a weird little song from my own youth that starts out, “There was a miss/Who went to piiiiiiiiiiiiick some flowers” (actually an old high school teacher taught me that one).

In addition to the laffs, the Spankers are memorable because of their musicianship. Even at their silliest, they are, as Tampa Red would say, tight, tight like that.

The Asylum Street Spankers play at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, at Santa Fe Brewing Company, 37 Fire Place, 424-3333. Tickets are $17 in advance, from the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 988-1234, or $20 at the door.

Also recommended:

* American Shadows: The Songs of Moon Mullican by The Cornell Hurd Band. “He was one of the fathers of rock ’n’ roll, kid. Yes, he was.”
CORNELL'S INFOMERCIAL
That’s what Hurd says in the introduction to this album, on which he, his magical band, and guest stars pay tribute to Aubrey Wilson Mullican, a piano-playing Texan best known as a country singer in the 1940s and ’50s.

But Cornell ain’t lying about the rock ’n’ roll. Mullican embraced rockabilly, as “Moon Rocks” and “Seven Nights to Rock” prove. Those songs are included in the tribute, as are his hits like “I’ll Sail My Ship Alone” (sung by Tommy Alverson) and “Cherokee Boogie” (sung by Brad Moore).
Two of my favorites here are duets — “Southern Hospitality” and the mighty pretty “Mighty Pretty Waltz” — by Maryanne Price (former Lickette with Dan Hicks) and Chris O’Connell (ex-Asleep at the Wheel).

And here’s some pretty amazing musical trivia. Mullican recorded a song by none other than the late pimperiffic R & B master Rudy Ray Moore — yes, Dolomite himself — “I’m Mad With You,” sung here by Hurd. “The fact that Moon recorded a Rudy Ray Moore song puts him in a class by himself,” Hurd says in the liner notes. Cornell’s pretty much in a class of his own as well.

Note: After I wrote and submitted this column, Paul Skelton, guitarist for The Cornell Hurd Band died. He was a heck of a picker. His obit is HERE

BLESS YOU, BUTCH
Life’s a Butch: Butch Hancock is coming to town. Not only is he playing at 7 and 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28, at Gig Performance Space (1808-H Second St.; tickets, $29, are available at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 988-1234), he’s also playing live Friday night, Feb. 27, on my radio show The Santa Fe Opry. That’s at 10 p.m. on KSFR-FM 101.1 and streaming live at ksfr.org.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, February 22, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Celluloid Heroes by The Kinks
New Age by The Velvet Underground
No Business Like Show Business by Ethel Merman
She Looks Like a Woman by The Fleshtones
Mean and Evil by The Juke Joint Pimps
Burn, Baby Burn by Stud Cole
Big Game Hunter by Andy Anderson

Drinking With Jesus by The Red Elvises
The Leather by The Oblivions
People, Places and Things by The Dex Romweber Duo with Exene Cervenka
Jungle Music by Simon Stokes
Rey de Tablistas by Wau y Los Arrrghs!
Walking on My Grave by Dead Moon
Unemployment by Demon's Claws
The Itch by Chuck Higgens
Jill Used to Be Normal by Jesus H. Christ & The Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse

Makin' It by Impala
I'm Mad With You by Rudy Ray Moore
Strolling Beale # 1 by Rufus Thomas
Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller by The Flamin' Groovies
Sloe Gin by Billy Miles Brooke
Time Passes By by Lone Monk
My Little Problem by The Replacements with Johnette Napolitano
Girls Are Mad by The Ettes
Mad Daddy by The Cramps

Rockabilly Monkey-Faced Girl by Ross Johnson
Just Want Your Love by Big Maybelle
Two Wings by Alvin Youngblood Hart
He's a Mighty Good Leader by Joe Lastie & The Lastie Family Gospel
Ordinary Night by The Mekons
My Beloved Movie Star by Stan Ridgway
Porpoise Mouth by Country Joe & The Fish
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

SUNDAY MORNING

BUTCH HANCOCK at 2007 Thirsty Ear Festival
First some news. One of America's greatest living songwriters, the incomparable Butch Hancock has agreed to play live next Friday on The Santa Fe Opry.

That's 10 pm on KSFR, Santa Fe Public Radio, 101.1 FM. It'll stream live on the Web too. Click on the link back there.

Butch is playing two shows Saturday night at The Gig Performance Space. ($29 General Admission. Tickets at Lensic Box Office 505-988-1234.) It's brought to you by Southwest Roots Music, (which this year has moved the Thirsty Ear Festival up to June.)

xxxxxxx

I've been fooling around with my favorite recent Internet time-waster, Blip.FM. (For this I blame my GaragePunk Hideout pals Kaiser, Martha and Kopper.) It's been cluttering up my Twitter feed and Facebook, but it's pretty cool, providing a direct link to some of the crazy music I like.

So check out my Blip.FM page. Press play on a song you like and when that one's over, the next song on the list will begin. And if you're so inclined, sign up and set up your own station. It's easy as pie and lots of fun.

(By the way, Kaiser and Kooper have two of the most bitchen podcasts in the Free World, RadiOblivion and Savage Kick. Click the links and check those out.)

XXXXXX

One of my favorite country artists, Buddy Miller had triple bypass surgery Friday. Reportedly he's recovering well. Here's a news story from The Nashville Tennessean.

We're pulling for ya, Buddy.

XXXXXXX

Terrell's Sound World, home of freeform weirdo radio, is tonight on KSFR. Starts at 10 p.m., please tune in. And you Twitterheads, gimme a tweet.

Friday, February 20, 2009

SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, February 20, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Wickedest City by The Waco Brothers
That's What Makes the Jukebox Play by Roy Acuff
Big Harlan Taylor by Roger Miller
The Moon Is High by Neko Case
Honky Tonk Man by Johnny Horton
That Little Honkey Tonk Queen by Moe Bandy & Joe Stampley
Parchman Farm by Ray Condo & His Ricochets
The Girl on Death Row by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
I Don't Want to Go by Stud Cole
La Delaysay by The Pine Leaf Boys
Make Friends by Cornell Hurd

Tight Like That/People Who Died by The Asylum Street Spankers
Sin Away by The Grevious Angels
Poon-Tang by Deke Dekerson with The Treniers
Walking Bum by Heavy Trash
Bottle of Wine by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Be Real by Freda & The Firedogs
Let Me Be The Judge by Amber Digby
Catch 'em young, Treat 'em Rough and Tell 'em Nothing by Hank Penny
Sweet as the Flowers in Maytime by The Carter Family

Mustang Kid/Fuzzy Stuff by Andy Anderson
I Can't Find the Doorknob by Jimmy & Johnny
Shortnin' Bread Rock by The Collins Kids
Red Hot by Billy Lee Riley
Trucker From Tennessee by Link Davis
I'm Comin' Home by Sleepy LaBeef
Hillbilly Music by Jerry Lee Lewis
Honey Hush by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'n' Roll Trio
Johnny Valentine by Andy Anderson

Don't Buy a Skinned Rabbit by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Cool and Dark Inside by Kell Robertson
One More Down by John Egenes
Grinding Wheel by Hundred Year Flood
Tiny Island by Leo Kottke
You Coulda Walked Around the World by Butch Hancock
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: A ROLLING STONE IN TAOS?

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 20, 2009


Bet you didn't know that one of the original Rolling Stones used to live in Taos.

No, not Mick or Keith or any of those other limeys who popped up in the '60s. I'm talking about Andy Anderson, the founder of a first-generation rockabilly band by that name, which sprang out of Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the mid-1950s; he sang songs like "Johnny Valentine" and "Tough, Tough, Tough." He never sold a fraction of the records the latter-day Stones did. But Mick Jagger can't say he helped build a New Mexico state fish hatchery, now can he?

I recently received a package of CDs with a personal note from Andy. "Many of these songs were written when we lived in Taos. Many great memories from Santa Fe and the area." He went on to write that he lived in Taos between 1976 and 1988.

The CDs he sent are all titled One Man's Rock & Roll. My favorite is subtitled The Early Years 1955-1965. The other two, which also include some dang good tracks, are more recent recordings. They are subtitled Anthology Vol. 1 and Anthology Vol. 2: Party Down.

Like many ascended masters of the blues, Anderson grew up on a Mississippi plantation. One big difference: he wasn't a sharecropper. His parents owned the plantation. The liner notes for The Early Years say that as a child he actually went to live shows featuring the likes of Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and B.B. King.

Anderson formed The Rolling Stones during his college years at Mississippi State University. A 2005 interview with The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, quotes the singer talking about his early years with The Stones: "Nobody drank. We were clean livin' rock 'n' rollers, good old boys who just wanted to make music and took everything for granted. We didn't want a million dollars, we wanted more gigs."

Clean living? That doesn't sound like the Rolling Stones most of us know.

The group cut a lot of records, even some at Sun Studio with Jack Clement as producer. Alas, those songs have yet to be released. The Early Years, however, is a great sampler of Anderson's Rolling Stones years and of his work with his next band, The Dawn Breakers (from 1959 on).

Though you never hear them on oldies radio, Anderson had some extremely cool tunes. There's "Johnny Valentine" — three versions of which are included in this collection — a song about a rockin' Romeo who "goes out with the girls all of the time/He's in love with 'em all; he goes out every night/He's got about a hundred; he likes to hold 'em tight." "I-I-I Love You" is simple and greasier than Kookie's comb. And "Tough, Tough, Tough," is a punchy little rocker that lives up to its name.

Unlike the golden gods of rockabilly whose names we all cherish, Anderson had some regional hits, but he never quite caught on. He kept his day job as manager of an electrical- supply store and kept recording through the late '60s. The later songs on The Early Years show Anderson progressing beyond rockabilly, incorporating elements of soul, R & B, and country.

He worked the business end of the music biz too. During a stint in California in the late '60s, he was part of a management company whose clients included Jefferson Airplane, The Seeds, and Canned Heat. Anderson had all but given up on music by the early 1970s. But then he hooked up with a songwriter named J.J. Hettinger and started a band called The Eagle and the Hawk. The group relocated to New Mexico in the mid-'70s — perhaps because they heard our music industry was for the birds.

Not only did Anderson play music in Taos, he also sold real estate. And though he didn't mention it in his note to me, he spent some time in Albuquerque building custom homes. Shortly after moving to Taos, Anderson lost a finger in a mishap with a hydraulic lift. That was the end of The Eagle and the Hawk. Anderson started a construction company called Big Valley Land & Construction.

According to his biography in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame Web site, the company was subcontracted to help build the state fish hatchery near Questa. But Anderson's hard luck continued. "The general contractor on the project went bankrupt," the Web site says. "This cost Andy his profit from the job and forced him to liquidate his company to pay off all of his debts."

By this time, Anderson was doing some gigs and even some recording with local musicians. But he returned to Mississippi by the end of the '80s, reportedly so he could work with hard-core Southern rockers.

The two anthologies are from his post-New Mexico period. While they aren't as much fun as the '50s and '60s recordings on The Early Years, there are some great blues-drenched boogie stompers here. These include "Wichita Watchita Omaha Cowboy," "Red Dog Cider," "Sweet Imogene," and "Damned Old Ford." Then there's "Fuzzy Stuff," which starts out "I went on down to the fabric store." Anderson's voice has gotten rougher and gruffer with age, and it suits these songs well. Never has a trip to the fabric store sounded more fun or nastier.

Unfortunately, too many slow ballads on these albums are sappy. Andy's more convincing as a tough old rocker than an old softie.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

THE PLANT-KRAUSS COLLABORATIVE MODEL


I've got to post this one in both my blogs, music and politics.

In her column at The Ventura County Star, Beverly Merrill Kelley says politicians could learn a lot from the Grammy-winning collaboration between former Led Zep wailer Robert Plant and modern bluegrass princess Allison Krauss.

I don't think much of the Grammys, but it's still a worthwhile column.

You can read it HERE.

Thanks to Deborah Baker at the Associated Press for showing me this.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, February 15, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Do the Clam by The Cramps
Spreading the Love Vibration by 27 Devils Joking
Hate You Baby by The Marshmellow Overcoat
Sonny Could Lick All Those Cats by Chuck E. Weiss
Kingdom of My Mind by The Blood-Drained Cows
Primitive by The Groupies
You Talk, I Listen by Ross Johnson
House of Pain by Johnny Dowd

Outta Gear by Los Straitjackets
Spastica by Elastica
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) by The Grateful Dead
Occurance on the Border by Gogol Bordello
Where the Flavor Is by Mudhoney
Somebody in My Home by John Schooley
Picture of You by The Dex Romweber Dup
City Hob Goblins by The Fall
Tallahassee Lassie by The Flamin' Groovies
Let That Liar Alone by Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Things Are Movin' Way Too Fast by Hasil Adkins
An Ugly Woman (Is Twice as Sweet) by Don Covay
Pachuca Hop by Mad Mel Sebastian
The Monkey Song by The Big Bopper
Baby by Marty Roberts & His Nightriders
Money (That's What I Want) by Paul Revere & The Raiders
I'm the Wolf by Howlin' Wolf
Boom Chank by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Goo Goo Muck by Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads
Bacon by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

I'm Watching You by Jay Reatard
The Piston and The Shaft by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
My Hat by Pere Ubu
Broken World by Shemekia Copeland
Miss Beehive by Howard Tate
Longtime Jerk by The Clash
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Friday, February 13, 2009

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, February 13, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson with The Cramps
Sucker for a Cheap Guitar by Ronnie Dawson
Wild and Free by Hank Williams III
Out There a Ways by The Waco Brothers
Hesitation Blues by Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel
Tough Tough Tough by Andy Anderson
White Trash Girl by Candye Kane
Adios Mexico by Joe "King" Carrasco & Texas Tornados
Dallas Alice by Doug Sahm

California Blues by Alejandro Escovedo with Jon Langford
21 Days in Jail by The Blasters
Give That Love to Me by Ray Campi
Why I'm Walkin' by Johnny Paycheck
Crazy Mixed Emotions by Rosie Flores
Firewater Seeks Its Own Level by Butch Hancock & Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Deep as Your Pockets by Amber Digby
Handyman by C.W. Stoneking
Beer by Asylum Street Spankers

How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live by The Del-Lords
Brother Can You Spare a Dime by Dr. John with Odetta
Hollis Brown by Thee Headcoats
Busted by Ray Charles
Artificial Flowers by Cornell Hurd featuring Blackie White
Going Down This Road Feeling Bad by Doc Watson
Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls? by Ann Magnuson

Tangled Up in Love by The Rifters
Willie the Weeper by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Lucille by The Beat Farmers
Loudmoth Cowgirls by Kim & The Cabelleros
Magnificent Seven by Jon Rauhouse
Green Green Grass of Home by Ted Hawkins
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Thursday, February 12, 2009

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: MUSICAL STIMULUS PACKAGE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 13, 2009


You want a silver lining for this economic crisis? Here's one: hard times often produce great songs. This is a Top 10 list of my favorite tunes about poverty and economic stress.

Steve Terrell's musical stimulus package

1. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" This Great Depression classic (also known as "Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?"), written in 1931 by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney — who used a melody based on a Russian lullaby — is the story of a down-and-out World War I veteran. "Half a million boots went slogging through hell, and I was the kid with the drum." Bing Crosby's is the best-known version, but Rudy Vallee also had a hit with it about the same time. But for my dime, the greatest version ever was a bluesy one done in 1992 by Odetta and Dr. John on a charity compilation CD called Strike a Deep Chord: Blues Guitar for the Homeless. Harburg, by the way, went on to write all the lyrics for the songs in The Wizard of Oz.

2. "Busted." The first line tells it all: "My bills are all due and the baby needs shoes, and I'm busted." Harlan Howard wrote it, and Johnny Cash was the first to record it, but the most glorious bust of all was Ray Charles' big-band version in 1963. I'm also fond of the Hazel Dickens hillbilly version on her album Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People.

3. "Inner-City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)." This was the angriest song on Marvin Gaye's masterpiece What's Going On. It's the last song on the album, a five-plus-minute cry of frustration about poverty, war, and "trigger-happy policemen."

4. "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" This song was written and recorded in 1929 by West Virginia singer Blind Alfred Reed. According to legend, Reed died of starvation in 1956. Ry Cooder covered this song on his first album, as did Bruce Springsteen just a couple of years ago. But the best version is the rocked-up rendition by The Del-Lords in the '80s.

5. "The Ballad of Hollis Brown." Back in the early '60s, Bob Dylan ripped this murder-suicide from the headlines. I don't know the true story, but in the song, farmer Brown is driven to the desperate deed by starvation. "You looked for work and money/And you walked a rugged mile/Your children are so hungry/That they don't know how to smile." The original version is probably the best, but also worthwhile are covers by the Neville Brothers, Thee Headcoats, and The Pretty Things.

6. "Artificial Flowers." Bobby Darin had a hit in 1960 with this song from a Broadway musical called Tenderloin by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick — who would become famous for Fiddler on the Roof. Tenderloin is about a crusading minister in 1890s New York, and this song tells of the need for some serious crusading.

"With paper and shears, with some wire and wax/She made up each tulip and mum/As snowflakes drifted into her tenement room/Her baby little fingers grew numb. ... They found little Annie all covered in ice/Still clutchin' her poor frozen shears/Amidst all the blossoms she had fashioned by hand/And watered with all her young tears."
Darin turned it into an upbeat swing that belied the horrible story, perhaps to emphasize the "happy ending," in which Annie goes to heaven and gets to wear real flowers.
Stephen Foster
7. "Hard Times Come Again No More." Stephen Foster wrote this in 1854. Hard times, he says, have "lingered around his cabin door." He also admonishes the well-off not to ignore the poverty around them. "While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay/There are frail forms fainting at the door." This tune has been recorded by Dylan, Cash, and Mavis Staples. But my favorite is by a bunch of New Mexico misfits, the Bubbadinos. Mark Weber croaks it with soul, as the Bubbas, backing him on guitar, banjo, tuba, and clarinet, sound like a Salvation Army band in the drunk tank. The overall effect is oddly dignified. It's on the album The Band Only a Mother Could Love. (Check out zerxpress.blogspot.com and click on "The Bubbadinos.")

8. "Rag Doll." Not only is this haunting tune by The Four Seasons one of the finest — if indeed not the finest — single ever produced in the history of popular music, the story of how the song came to be is stirring. In his online column "Classic Tracks," Dan Daley quotes Four Seasons member and songwriter Bob Gaudio:

"I was driving into [Manhattan] for a session and I got stopped at Eleventh Avenue, which back then seemed like the longest traffic light in the world, like three minutes long. ... If you got stopped there, you'd have these homeless people come up and try to wash your windshield for spare change. I saw this hand come up to my windshield and connected to it was a woman whose clothes were all tattered and who had this dirty face, like something out of Oliver. .. I didn't have any change on me. All I had was a ten-dollar bill, so I gave it to her. I drove off and saw her in the rearview mirror just staring at it. That image stayed with me."


9. "I'm Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad." Woody Guthrie is often credited for this song, which plays on the archetype of the happy-go-unlucky hobo. But there are versions that go back to the 1920s — and, I suspect, further. My favorite version is Doc Watson's 1973 take, in which the protagonist is plagued by hard luck, cruel jailers, shoes that don't fit, and climates that don't fit his clothes. He's determined though, and he "ain't gonna be treated this way."

10. Sorry, I can only afford nine.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, February 8, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Bless You by The Devil Dogs
Lover's Gold by The Dex Romweber Duo
Preacher and the Bear by The Big Bopper
Rebellious Jukebox by The Fall
If I Had a Son by Lone Monk
Coffee Date by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire
Wildcat Tamer by John Schooley & His One-Man Band
One Monkey Don't Stop No Show by Big Maybelle
Cleo's Mood by Junior Walker & The All-Stars
Dead on Arrival by Jay Reatard
Vanity Surfing by Jesus H. Christ & The Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse

My Soul is a Witness by Alvin Youngblood Hart with Sharon Jones
Death Trip by The Stooges
Lap Dance by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with Andre Williams
Nudist Camp by Ross Johnson
Madhouse by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Dog Meat by The Flamin' Groovies

LUX INTERIOR TRIBUTE
All songs by The Cramps unless otherwise noted
R.I.P. Lux Interior
Zombie Dance
Garbage Man
Voodoo Idol
Riot in Cell Block #9 by Wanda Jackson with The Cramps
Bend Over I'll Drive
Shortnin' Bread by The Ready Men
Papa Satan Sang Louie
Can Your Pussy Do the Dog by The Rockin' Guys

Rockin' Bones
Thee Most Exalted Potentate of Love
Green Fuz by Green Fuz
TV Set
Can't Hardly Stand It by Charlie Feathers
She Said by Hasil Adkins
Sunglasses After Dark
Miniskirt Blues by The Cramps with Iggy Pop
Bikini Girls With Machine Guns
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Friday, February 06, 2009

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, February 6, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Muleskinner Blues by The Cramps
I'm Not That Kat Anymore by Terry Allen
Daddy Was a Preacher, Mama Was a Go Go Girl by Southern Culture on the Skids
We love Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur
Marie by Martin, Bogan & Armstrong
I'll Sail My Ship Alone by Cornell Hurd with Tommy Alverson
Mustang Kid by Andy Anderson
Soakin' Wet by Amber Digby
That Little Ol' Winedrinker Me by Miss Leslie
Jean Arthur by Robbie Fulks
You're the Reason Our Kids are Ugly by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn

Changing All Those Changes by Buddy Holly
Crying, Waiting, Hoping by Marty Stuart & Steve Earle
Skip a Rope by The Kentucky Headhunters
All the Way to Jericho by The Gourds
Time Bomb by The Old 97s
The Golden Inn Song by The Last Mile Ramblers
Junkyard in the Sun by Butch Hancock
Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town by Walter Brennan

Mud/Another Bottle by Rev. Payton & His Big Damn Band
My Baby in the CIA by The Asylum Street Spankers
Sharon by David Bromberg
T'es Pas La Meme by The Pine Leaf Boys
Pine Grove Blues by Mama Rosin
Girl Called Trouble by The Watzloves

Waiting Room by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Sweet Mary Alice by Possessed by Paul James
I'm Happy by Rev. Beat-Man
Ghost of Hollywood by John Egenes
She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye by Jerry Lee Lewis
Another Place I Don't Belong by Big Al Anderson
Hank Williams' Ghost by Darrell Scott
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Thursday, February 05, 2009

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: AL & SONNY ON FILM

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 13, 2009



Robert Mugge has been making documentaries about his favorite musicians since the mid-’70s. His first was George Crumb: Voice of the Whale, a portrait of the American avant-garde composer. That was soon followed by a movie about Alabama’s most famous space alien, Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise.

The thing I like best about Mugge docs is that the music is never shortchanged. He often lets an entire song play, allowing the music to speak for itself. And while he gives his subjects lots of leeway to tell their stories, Mugge’s interview segments go straight to the core.

Two long out-of-print Mugge movies from the 1980s about very different titans of American music were recently released on DVD by Acorn Media: Gospel According to Al Green (the 25th-anniversary edition) and Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus.The Green movie is one of the finest musical biographies I’ve ever seen.

It opens with Green in a recording studio, picking a guitar, and playfully toying with a song that mainly consisted of the lyrics, “I love you ... I love you with all my heart.” He grins as he reaches the high notes, subliminally invoking the ghost of Sam Cooke. He makes it look so easy. Viewers can’t help but be mesmerized.

The scene shifts to Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., where a tuxedo-clad Green is escorted to the stage by military personnel, and with full band and backup chorus, leads the crowd in a hallelujah gospel stomp. After cutting away for an interview segment, we return to the base, with Green putting his stamp on The Impressions’ “People Get Ready.” He works the crowd and brings down the spirit.

In a 2005 interview, Mugge told me that “the sacred-secular conflict clearly represents both the heart and the soul of Al Green. ... This is a film about love, about the connections between soul music and gospel, and about a man who flew too close to the sun, got his eyeballs burned, and has been singing ever since with fire coming out of his mouth.” (Mugge repeats this almost word-for-word in a director-reflections feature on the new DVD.)

The singer’s conflicts between his big-time soul-star lifestyle and his religious upbringing were starting to tear at him by the mid-’70s. Green’s experience with this battle culminated in violence — on a hellish night in 1974 when a spurned girlfriend threw a pot of boiling grits in his face as he was bathing, causing second-degree burns. She then went into a bedroom and shot herself. Following the suicide, Green became an ordained minister. By the end of the ’70s, he had turned his back on secular music.

Mugge told me that his filmed interview with Green was one of the first times Green publicly talked about some of his darker times.

“Some of his longtime musicians were in the control room of his studio, basically standing there with their mouths hanging open,” the director said. “I learned from them afterward that Al had spoken to me of things that, to their knowledge, he had never discussed with anyone. Naturally, the so-called ‘hot-grits incident’ was, for him, the most painful subject for him to address. But I had the sense that he really did want to talk about it that day — to get the matter out on the table, to let people know exactly what had happened, and then to be done with it.”

But Mugge wouldn’t let his movie become a glorified version of VH1’s Behind the Music. Remember, “gospel” means “good news,” and Gospel According to Al Green is the story of a man who has become comfortable with his contradictions. He laughs when talking about crowds of women trying to rip off his clothes in his early days. He does a version of his hit “Let’s Stay Together” with no hint of compromise. (Those who have seen Green’s shows in recent years know he freely mixes his secular hits with his gospel music.)

Toward the end of the movie, Mugge takes us to Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle church in Memphis, where Green still preaches — and if this film is any indication, gives amazing musical services — most Sundays.

The new DVD features the above-mentioned Mugge interview, plus an audio version of Mugge’s complete interview with Green, some concert excerpts, and more than an hour of an Al Green church service.

As a film, Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus doesn’t quite measure up to the Green documentary, which was made just a couple of years before. Mugge spends too much time with a trio of near-worshipful jazz critics who don’t shed much light on Rollins’ music. And he spends way too much time on Rollins’ collaboration with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony in Tokyo.

About the last half of the film deals with the world premiere of the sax man’s Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra on May 18, 1986. I guess this is just a little too highfalutin for my taste. I’d much rather watch performances like the 15-minute “G-Man” that opens the movie. Shot at an outdoor concert in upstate New York, this footage — and to a lesser extent the excepts from “Don’t Stop the Carnival,” shot at the same show, that end the film — inspired me to seek out Rollins’ album G-Man, which features some of the performances here.

In general, I’d much rather see and hear Rollins in a red sweater backed by a small combo (Clifton Anderson on trombone, Mark Soskin on piano, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Marvin Smith) in a park than Sonny all gussied up in a tux with a full orchestra in a concert hall.

A December 2005 profile of Robert Mugge I wrote can be found HERE.

R.I.P. LUX INTERIOR

Poster by Psychotonic
Erick Lee Purkhiser, better known as Lux Interior, the voice of The Cramps, died Wednesday due to heart problems. There are conflicting reports of his age. Some say 60, some say 62.

His Los Angeles Times obit is HERE.

I'll give him a decent tribute Sunday night on Terrell's Sound World, probably just after the 11th Hour (Mountain Time) on KSFR.

In the meantime, here's a couple of videos.





Lux Poster above by Psychotonic

eMUSIC FEBRUARY

For those counting you'll see there's more than 90 tracks here. I still had some bonus tracks left over from recruiting a new eMusic member. Also, for those of you who count the tracks -- GET A DAMNED LIFE!



* Stop Talking About Music (Let's Celebrate That Shit) by Thee Butchers' Orchestra. You can't blame this on the bosa nova. If the Girl from Ipanema was kidnapped by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ...

Oh Hell, I'm not going to bother with any more cheesy rock critic metaphors. This is just good bluesy garage grease music from São Paulo, Brazil. Naturally it's on Voodoo Rhythm.

The trio, which has been together for a decade or so, romp and stomp through songs like "Everybody's Got the Devil Inside," "Drama Queen" and "Coconut Heart." I don't think Sergio Mendes done it this way ... There I go again!


* The Day the Music Died by The Big Bopper (and others). I stumbled upon this while looking for stuff to play on my tribute to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Bopper on Terrell's Sound World last week.

J.P. Richardson, aka The Big Bopper, is the only one of those musicians who never got a movie made about his life story. I don't know the cinematic quality of his life, but the man was a fine songwriter. His one big hit was "Chantilly Lace," but he's also responsible for George Jones' "White Lightning" and Johnny Preston's "Running Bear."

This album shows the Bopper had a knack with novelty songs. There's "The Big Bopper's Wedding," "Bopper's Boogie Woogie," "The Preacher and the Bear" (an old tune, later recorded by Jerry Reed, which might have roots in minstrel shows), "The Monkey Song (You Made a Monkey Out of Me)" and perhaps the ultimate '50s novelty song, "Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor."

There's also some non-Bopper tracks including a spooky little Buddy Holly song I'd never heard before called "Valley of Tears," "We Belong Together" by Valens and a maudlin little talking-song tribute to Holly, Valens and Richardson called "Three Stars" by someone named Tommy Dee.


* The Radio One Sessions by Elastica. Justine! You just don't treat me right. What the hell ever happened to this band? They are one of the major shoulda-beens of the '90s. Justine Frischmann and her band were critical darlings for about twenty minutes back then after Elastica, their first album. In retrospect they seem like a poppier, British version of Sleater-Kinney. But, due mainly to all those typical '90s rock band problems, they didn't come out with a followup for another five years. The original spark was gone.

This is a Peel Sessions album and it shows Elastica at their best. Even when they started fooling around with techno sounds (the last few songs in this collection) Justine and Elastica sound fresh. And there's even a couple of Christmas songs here. There's "I Wanna Be a King of Orient Aah" And "All For Gloria," which I've been playing on my Sound World Christmas shows for more than a decade. (It was on a Geffen sampler called Just Say Noel, under the title of simply "Gloria," along with Sonic Youth's "Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope" and other classics.)


* Slow Death by The Flamin' Groovies. I'm not sure how The Groovies pulled it off. One could argue that they were just a glorified bar band, covering well-ploughed ground like "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash." But glorified is right. There was such spirit in their attack on these and most all of their material, they really did live up to this album's subtitle, "Amazin' High Energy Rock 'n' Roll."

This is a collection of live cuts and demos from the early '70s, the dawn of their post-Roy Loney era. The title is a lo-fi demo that's anything but slow. The slide guitar sounds is straight out of Beggar's Banquet-period Stones, mixed in with a little Velvet Underground. And there's an early version of one of the Groovies' greatest, "Shake Some Action" that should make you wonder why this group didn't make it bigger.


* You Without Sin Cast The First Stone by Isaiah Owens. I was looking for something wild for my recent gospel podcast. Somehow I stumbled upon Isaiah. Just what the mad doctor order. This Montgomery, Alabama native just might be the Hasil Adkins of gospel music. Owens wails and pounds his electric guitar, tuned to the key of H. And this isn't some field recording from some long-gone era. All these tracks were recorded, mostly from radio broadcasts, in the late 90s and early '00s.

This album gives 17 amazing testimonials for Jesus, and one fine pitch for a local auto mechanic if you're down in Montgomery and need your brake pads fixed.

* The Best of the War Years and More by Louis Prima. All too often the origins of rock is boiled down into the over-simplified story of white country boys trying to imitate blues singers and accidentally inventing rockabilly. But it's way more complex than that. You could make the argument that flamboyant jazz band leaders like Cab Calloway and Louie Prima were proto-rock stars.

Consumer alert here. The first track, "White Cliffs of Dover" begins with a weird electronic glitch. But even worse, Track 20, "That's my Desire" is so digitally damaged, the last part is unplayable -- it caused by iTunes to freeze up. eMusic made good on my complaint and gave me a free track to compensate, but as of today, they still haven't fixed it, so do not download!

Sunday, February 01, 2009

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Febuary 1, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Drop Kick Me, Jesus by Bobby Bare
Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed
Journey to the Center of the Mind by The Amboy Dukes
Baron of Love Part II by Ross Johnson with Alex Chilton
Ruins of Berlin by Dex Romweber Duo
I'm Gona Booglarize You Baby by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Charlie by Gibby Haynes & His Problem

The Day the Music Died: Feb. 2, 1959
(Newscast)
Three Stars by Tommy Dee
Reminiscing by Buddy Holly
That's My Little Suzie by Ritchie Valens
Big Bopper's Wedding by The Big Bopper
Words of Love by The Beatles
Oh Boy by The Sir Douglas Quintet
Midnight Shift by Los Lobos
We Belong Together by Ritchie Valens
Walking Through My Dreams by The Big Bopper
Valley of Tears by Buddy Holly
Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly
Not Fade Away by The Rolling Stones

VOODOO RHYTHM SET
Everybody's Got the Devil Inside by Thee Butcher's Orchestra
Holy Juke Joint Beat by The Juke Joint Pimps
Demolicion by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!
Jesus Christ Christ Twist by Reverend Beat-Man
Dark Sunday Evening by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle
Here Comes the Terror by King Automatic
Looking for a Girl by Stinky Lou & The Goon Mat with Lord Bernardo
Three Hairs and You're Mine by King Khan & His Shrines
What Do You Look Like by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers with Holly Golightly

Shape Shifter/Saguaro by Lone Monk
Palestine, Texas by T-Bone Burnette
Tearin' Up the Town by Billy Miles Brooke
Sharkey's Night by Laurie Anderson
My Night With the Prostitute from Marseille by Beirut
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

I CAN'T REMEMBER IF I CRIED WHEN I READ ABOUT HIS WIDOWED BRIDE


"But February made me shiver, with every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step ..."
-- Don McLean --

I'm just sitting here reminiscing ...

Monday is the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, aka The Big Bopper.

Here's a link my good Lubbock buddy Paul Milosevich sent me about how they've commemorating The Day the Music Died in Lubbock. CLICK HERE .

I'll play some Buddy tunes on Sound World tonight. (The show starts at 10 p.m. Mountain Time on KSFR. )

VOODOO RHYTHM IN TROUBLE

One of my favorite reecord companies in the world, Switzerland's Voodoo Rhythm, is in a real bind.

Here's a message from Beat-Man that was posted in The GaragePunk Hideout:


APPEAL FOR FUNDS

Hello, this might be a bit of a strange E-Mail. I have treated bands very fairly since I've started Voodoo Rhythm and have given them their records for cost price so that they could make a solid profit when selling their records on tour (we all know payouts are lousy nowadays). I did approach the SUISA (Copyright Company, musicians' union) and informed them of the nature of my agreement with the bands. Unfortunately I never put it in writing.

Now that is exactly the problem: The SUISA demands payback of a total of 42.500 Swiss Franks (roughly 38.000 US $). Basically they want money for productions that had long been settled. The bitter irony is that bands of course prefer free copies of their album, yet the Suisa is oblivious to this fact and demand the money within 30 days.

If we cannot meet their demands we might have to shut down business, since it is completely impossible to for us to raise that kind of money.

Therefore we kindly ask for your support. Even if we can pay we will not be able to offer the bands the same deal as before, in spite of the fact that they would much rather get free copies from us as opposed to Suisa money (especially American bands since they don't get any Suisa money at all).

We hope you can help us. We don't want to quit, we want to resume or work and our journey. Plea se transfer funds to the following account and forward this message.

Sincerely,
Reverend Beat-Man

So there you have it.

Voodoo Rhythm in the past few years has provided some of the craziest sounds in pyschobilly, punk blues, garage music and even alt county. You've heard a lot of Voodoo Rhythm acts on my radio shows -- Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers, Stinky Lou & The Goon Mat, Wau y Los Arrrghs!!, The Dead Brothers, Zeno Tornado, Mama Rosin, John Schooley, The Monsters, King Automatic, Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle, The Watrzloves, The Juke Joint Pimps ... and of course Rev. Beat-Man, aka Lightning Beat-Man aka Jerry J. Nixon ("The Gentleman of Rock 'n' Roll" from, so the story goes, Santa Fe, N.M.)

Help them if you can. At least buy some Voodoo Rhythm CDs. You can get 'em directly from the Web site. Plus. for eMusic members, there's 25 Voodoo Rhythm albums, including King Khan & His Shrine's Three Hairs and You're Mine you can find HERE.




My review of the documentary Voodoo Rhythm: The Gospel of Primitive Rock ’n’ Roll is HERE.

The true shocking story of Jerry J. Nixon -- how I became acquainted with Voodoo Rhythm -- is HERE.

UPDATE: What the heck, here's a trailer from that documentary:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

  Sunday, March 17, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Te...