Friday, January 29, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 29, 2010
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
Do As I Say by The Waco Brothers
Jesse James Boogie by Jesse James
In Your Wildest Dreams by The Rev. Horton Heat
By the Law of the Heart by Robbie Fulks
Under the X in Texas by Johnny Gimble with Ray Benson
Soy Chicano by Flaco Jimenez
The Hucklebuck by The Riptones
It Ain't Necessarily So by The Asylum Street Spankers
He Calls That Religion by Maria Muldaur

Everybody's Getting Paid But Me by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Worry 'Bout Your Own Backyard by The South Memphis String Band
Go Baby Go by The Electric Rag Band
Betty and Dupree by Billy Lee Riley
Hoy Hoy Hoy! by Wayne Hancock
Ode to Billy Joe by Susan Voelz
Goatburger Boogie by Cousin Deems Danders & His Goatherders
Diggy Diggy Lo by Doug Kershaw

RAY WYLIE HYBBARD SET
All songs by RWH except where noted
RAY WYLIE & LUCAS
A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C)
Purgatory Road
The Way of the Fallen
Conversation with the Devil
Whoop and Holler
Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother by Jerry Jeff Walker
Pots and Pans

Where's Joe Friday? by Mike Cullison
Sad Songs and Waltzes by Jesse Dayton
Hang My Teeth on Your Door by 16 Horsepower
The Loneliness of Magnets by The Handsome Family
Baby Come and Save Me by The Bootleg Prophets
It's All in the Movies by Merle Haggard
Drinking Thing by Gary Stewart

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

REV. PEYTON TO PREACH IN SANTA FE

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band is coming back to the Santa Fe Brewing Company on Sunday. I missed them the last time, but I don't intend to this week. I've arranged for a substitute on Terrell's Sound World that night,-- thanks, Pete! -- so I'm prepared.

Tickets are $13 in advance (act quick!) or $15 at the door. Show starts 7:30 p.m.

You know they have to be cool. Jon Langford did their latest album cover,

Never heard of them? (That means you haven't been listening to my radio shows lately) Don't know what they sound like? Check out this widget -- thanks LaLa -- below.

My favorite song is still "Your Cousin's on Cops."


Thursday, January 28, 2010

SEEMS LIKE ONLY LAST SATURDAY ...

... that I saw this show with Wayne "The Train" Hancock and Felix y Los Gatos. But Esteban Bojorquez captured some songs on video. Check these out and more are HERE.



TERRELL'S TUNEUP: COSMIC TWINKIE'S HELLISH RIDE TO HEAVEN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 29, 2010



It might be a saloon or an Old West opium den. It’s dark and dusty, in the middle of nowhere. Half John Ford, half Eugene O’Neill. The grizzled singer seems to be channeling something from beyond. He stomps his foot and it sounds like a bass drum. Sometimes there’s a tambourine that sounds like a rattlesnake. The small crowd nods appreciatively at the slide licks and the singer’s metaphysical in-jokes, but they don’t look up from their tables. Half of them have halos; the other half, horns. Most are wearing Day of the Dead masks.

There are crows on the chimney, a wasp nest on the back porch, and tornadoes in the air, about to touch ground. Close your eyes when you listen to the new album by Ray Wylie Hubbard and you might envision similar scenes.

A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) is a rather unwieldy title. And that’s the only bad thing I’m going to say about the album. A couple of weeks ago on my radio show I said this might be the first great record of the decade. I’m still feeling that way.

Like the son of the redneck mother he wrote about so many years ago, Hubbard was born in Oklahoma 63 years ago. He moved to Dallas with his family as a child, where he befriended former New Mexico resident Michael Martin Murphey. The two were in a folk group for awhile.

With his band The Cowboy Twinkies, Hubbard was part of Austin’s great cosmic cowboy scare of the mid ’70s, along with Jerry Jeff Walker, Gary P. Nunn, Rusty Wier, Greasy Wheels, and Frida & The Firedogs (not to mention Willie and Waylon and the boys). And for a while, he lived in Red River, New Mexico.

But unlike his fellow cosmic cowboys of the ’70s, Hubbard stayed cosmic. Since the ’90s (like many self-respecting artists from the old days, Hubbard sat out most of the ’80s, at least as far as recording goes), his best material has been concerned with the wrath of God and the temptations of the devil, of earthly delights and heavenly light. And it’s mostly done with wry humor. One of my favorite Hubbard songs is “Conversation With the Devil” from 1999’s Crusades of the Restless Knights, in which he confesses that he preferred Satan’s fiddle solo in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

As with other recent Hubbard efforts — Growl (2003) and Snake Farm (2006) immediately come to mind — Enlightenment features a minimalist blues-y sound. There are lots of slide guitar, fierce but simple drums, and lyrics concerning sin and salvation — but little else. Some songs have echoes of bluegrass, with mandolin, banjo, and fiddle occasionally emerging from the primordial blues bog.

Then there’s “Whoop and Holler,” which seems as if it sprang from some old Alan Lomax field recording of a backwoods gospel choir. Except for one tom drum, it’s a cappella, Hubbard and a small vocal group singing about rising up with angel wings. Perhaps it’s significant that the very next song is called “Black Wings” (“Fly away on them old wings, black as they may be.”).

Both the sacred and the sinful are well represented here. “Drunken Poet’s Dream” is about a woman who “likes being naked and gazed upon.” And “Opium” could almost have been co-written by Junior Kimbrough and William Burroughs, though it also reminds me of Steve Earle’s stark “Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain.” Hubbard knows a little bit about addiction. He sank into alcoholism for years but eventually crawled out of that hole in the late ’80s with the help of none other than Stevie Ray Vaughan.

“Wasp’s Nest” is a slow, menacing blues (“If a wasp is to sting you, it burns like a righteous hell fire,” Hubbard raps). One of the few fast ones is “Every Day Is the Day of the Dead.” It’s a primitive, lo-fi damaged blues cruncher.
RAY WYLIE HUBBARD & SON
Not all the songs are about heavenly light or hellish darkness. “Pots and Pans” is about the simple joys of making music. Hubbard’s teenage son Lucas joins him here (and on “Wasp’s Nest”) on electric guitar. “My boy’s got an old guitar, my boy’s got an old guitar and he loves to bend them strings,” Hubbard sings with pride. I remember being at Threadgill’s restaurant in Austin a couple of years ago when Hubbard and son — wearing a Roky Erickson T-shirt — played an impromptu set of blues tunes. Young Lucas has improved since then.

The album ends with “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” a mournful fiddle and banjo tune about “the great tribulation” with lyrics ripped straight out of the Book of Revelation. David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower would have given his left testicle to have written this one.

But even when he’s relating prophecies about the moon turning to blood, there’s still a twinkle in the eye of the old Cowboy Twinkie. If there is a heaven, Ray Wylie Hubbard’s on the jukebox.

Check out this good 2006 NPR interview with Mr. Hubbard HERE.


Sunday, January 24, 2010

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 24, 2010
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
The Saints by Big Al Downing
Mardi Gras in New Orleans by Professor Longhair
Brother John by The Wild Tchoupitoulas
Down Yonder (We Go Ballin') by Smiley Lewis
Drop Me Off in New Orleans by Kermit Ruffins
Jock-a-Mo by Sugar Boy & His Cane Cutters
Goin' Back to New Orleans by Dr. John
Every Dog Has His Day by Pee Wee Crayton
When The Saints Go Marching In by Jerry Lee Lewis

Lake of Fire by The Meat Puppets
Your Salvation by The Sons of Hercules
You Stole My Love by The Mockingbirds
Cheap Women by Black Smokers
Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde by King Automatic
DTs or The Devil by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Wreck My car by Scott H. Biram
Palenque by Felix y Los Gatos
My Baby Left Me by Beverly "Guitar" Watkins

Advance Romance/Eddie Are You Kidding?/ You Didn't Try to Call Me by Frank Zappa

Nag by The Halos
Speedo is Back by The Cadillacs
Dirty Britches by The Leap Frogs
Shoppin' For Clothes by The Coasters
There's a Moon Out Tonight by The Capris
She Came Before Me by The Almighty Defenders
Native Girl by The Native Boys
My Juanita by Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge
Goodnight My Love by Jesse Belvin
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Saturday, January 23, 2010

WAYNE THE TRAIN TONIGHT!!

Perhaps the greatest living purveyor of honky-tonk music, Wayne "The Train" Hancock is appearing tonight at Santa Fe Brewing Company's Pub & Grill, 7:30 p.m. That's right off State Road 14.

Felix y Los Gatos opens (and they're really good too. I haven't seen them since last June's Thirsty Ear Festival.)

Tickets $15 at the door.

Enjoy some Wayne below:



Friday, January 22, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 22, 2010
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
Bad Times Are Coming by The Waco Brothers
Hard Times by Jon Langford
Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way/Dog-gone it Baby I'm In Love by Carl Smith
Shout You Cats by Maria Muldaur
You Ought to Move Out of Town by Jed Davenport & The Beale Street Jug Band
My Old Man Boogie by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Sittin' Here Drinkin' a Beer by Joe Swank & The Zen Pirates
Sweet Georgia Brown by Johnny Gimble with Merle Haggard

Bosco Stomp by Beausoliel
Rita's Breakdown by Mama Rosin
Hanging Dog by Jacques & The Shakey Boys
Bang Bang by Gov. Jimmie Davis
Pony Tail Partner by Bing Day
I Swear I Was Lying by Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars
Lady Killin' Pappa by Deke Dekerson
Elvis Loved His Mama by Nancy Apple
Love Me by Elvis Presley
Paper Boy Boogie by Texas Bill Strength

Big City Goodtime Gal/Your Love and His Blood by Wayne Hancock
Juke Joint Jumpin' by Wayne Hancock & Hank Williams III
(Wayne Hancock is playing The Santa Fe Brewing Co. Pub & Grill 7:30 pm Saturday)
No Muss, No Fuss, No Bother by Hank Penny
Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line by Waylon Jennings
Behind the Shield by Kevin Deal
Red's Place by The Starline Rhythm Boys
Union Maid by The New Harmony Sisterhood Band
At the End of My Blues by Ethyl & The Regulars

Pots and Pans by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Sweet Love on My Mind by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'n' Roll Trio
You Can't Judge a Book by The Cover by Sleepy LaBeef
The Heart of a Clown by Cornell Hurd
Walk That Lonesome Valley by Porter Wagoner
Lonesome Pine Special by Hazel Dickins
Worry Bout Your Own Back Yard by The South Memphis String Band
I'm Ready to Go Home by The Louvin Brothers
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: ZAPPA IN PHILLY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 22, 2010



Frank Zappa is alive and well in Philadelphia.

Not literally. But the recently released live double-disc Philly ’76 is like a sweet postcard from the dead for Frank-ophiles everywhere. It’s a dynamic two-hour-plus show with a little-recorded Mothers lineup doing a wide variety of material.

For those who like those lengthy instrumentals in which Zappa draws from jazz and modern classical sounds, there’s a near-19-minute version of “Black Napkins”; and there are lots of his better-known funny songs like “Dinah-Moe Humm,” “Stink Foot,” and “Dirty Love.” Zappa reaches back to his first album, Freak Out! (1966), for “You Didn’t Try to Call Me” and to the groupie suite of Fillmore East: June 1971 for the song “What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are.” And there is some funk fusion (“City of Tiny Lites”), a cool old R & B cover (The Cadets’ “Stranded in the Jungle”), and a song that later became the basis for U.S. foreign policy (“The Torture Never Stops”).

Material from some of my favorite underappreciated Zappa albums, Chunga’s Revenge (two songs!) and Bongo Fury (ditto), are here.

Zappa plays the hip MC, “a more sinister Dick Clark,” as he says during one spiel. His twisted pseudo-scientific/pseudo-religious “The Poodle Lecture” is classic Zappa humor.

The true star of this album is a singer called Lady Bianca Thornton, billed as Bianca Odin and introduced by Zappa at this show as “the Bionic Woman.” Her résumé includes background vocals with Jon Hendricks, the late disco star Sylvester, Sly Stone, Taj Mahal, and Van Morrison. Before now, the only (legal) Zappa album that featured Odin was You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 6.

She was only a Mother for a few months. According to Zappa Wiki Jawaka (Wikipedia for Zappa fans), “She quit the band thanks to audience members constantly wanting her to take her clothes off.” Other accounts say she quit because of the crazy Zappa sex lyrics she was supposed to sing. I guess it’s harder than you think to find a woman willing to sing lines like “I get off being juked with a baby octopus and spewed upon with cream corn.”

That’s truly a shame. Her sultry, bluesy interpretation of “What Kind of Girl” is a treat — baby octopus and all. Her soulful rendition of “You Didn’t Try to Call Me” transforms the old doo-wop parody into a thing of beauty. And it gives a new perspective to hear a female sing lead on “Dirty Love” and “Advance Romance.” (“No more credit at the liquor store” is an ominous way to start off any song, no matter who sings it.)

Also standing out on this album is guitarist/singer Ray White, who in 1976 was new to Zappa’s band but stayed until the mid-’80s. White was in the Zappa lineup that played the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater in 1984 — the only time I got to see Zappa live. He especially shines on “City of Tiny Lites,” performed here three years before the song appeared on a Zappa record. White’s scatting and his call-and-response segment with Odin is a real pleasure.

Others shine too. Eddie Jobson’s violin solo on “Black Napkins” stands proud by the work of previous Zappa fiddlers Jean-Luc Ponty and Don “Sugarcane” Harris. And drummer Terry Bozzio — another longtime Zappa player — is, as always, a powerhouse.

This is a warts-and-all recording. You hear Zappa calling to the sound man in “Advance Romance” when the power goes out on Patrick O’Hearn’s bass. I’m glad they didn’t edit it out. It’s almost like being there.

Bonus: Back in 2002 when Rykodisc released Zappa Picks, a couple of “mix tape” collections of Zappa songs compiled by musician fans (one by Larry LaLonde of Primus, the other by Jon Fishman of Phish), I compiled my own “Zappa Picks by Steve Terrell” list. My selections still hold up today. (Though how could I have forgotten "Latex Solar Beef"?) Here’s that list.

1. “Are You Hung Up” and “Who Needs the Peace Corps” from We’re Only in It for the Money
2. “Inca Roads” from One Size Fits All
3. “WPLJ” from Burnt Weenie Sandwich
4. “Zomby Woof” from Over-Nite Sensation
5. “Harder Than Your Husband” (vocals by the late Jimmy Carl Black) from You Are What You Is
6. “The Mud Shark” from Fillmore East
7. “Advance Romance” from Bongo Fury
8. “Concentration Moon” from We’re Only in It for the Money
9. “Who Are the Brain Police?” from Freak Out!
10. “The Torture Never Stops” from Zoot Allures
11. “Oh No” and “The Orange County Lumber Truck” from Weasels Ripped My Flesh
12. “Later That Night” from Cruising With Ruben & The Jets
13. “Lemme Take You to the Beach” from Studio Tan
14. “Teen-age Prostitute” from Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
15. A condensed version of “Porn Wars” from Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention

Sunday, January 17, 2010

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 17, 2010
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
Rockin' Bones by Ronnie Dawson
Jailbait by Flamin' Groovies
Radio Beat by The Devil Dogs
The Gospel by The Sworn Liars
You're Not as Pretty by Reigning Sound
Perverts in the Sun by Iggy Pop
Thinkin' About You by The Hollywood Sinners
Raspberry Beret by The Hindu Love Goods
Gravedigger by Beat Happening
Bikini by The Bikinis

See You Later Alligator by Bobby Charles
Walking to New Orleans by Fats Domino
Take it Easy, Greasy by Bobby Charles
Beer:30 by Rev. Horton Heat
I Need Somebody by ? & The Mysterians
Surfing in the China Sea by The Hong Kongs
What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are? by Frank Zappa
Pink Berets by Tin Huey
Wobble Lou by Hector & The Eastmen

Wounded/An Ugly Death/My Shadow by Jay Reatard
There Goes George by King Automatic
Bitter Heart by Marshmallow Overcoat
Low Budget Life by J.J. & The Real Jerks
Video Violence by Lou Reed
Drums in My Typewriter by Woody Leafer

Manny's Bones by Los Lobos
Goon Squad by Elvis Costello
I Fought the Law by The Clash
Up and Down by The Chesterfield Kings
Mr. Potato by Kahuna Kawentzmann
Deep Blue Sea by North Mississippi Allstars
Blue Rendevous by Bernadette Seacrest
Picture in a Frame by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Saturday, January 16, 2010

WAGOGO HAITI BENEFIT

To benefit relief efforts in Haiti following the earthquake, Fan Man, the band Wagogo and the Santa Fe Brewing Co have decided to make Saturday night's concert a benefit to aid Haitian relief efforts.

Proceeds from the concert will be donated to the American Red Cross.

Wagogo is an Albuquerque band that plays Zimbabwe/world music fusion

Tickets are still only $6. They also will be accepting donations at the door.

The show starts at 8 pm tonight.

Friday, January 15, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 15, 2010
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
Shufflin' Shoe Boogie by Wes Holly
The Hell I'm Raising Now by Mike Cullison
Real Gone Lover by Van Morrison & Linda Gail Lewis
Down by The Riverside by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
My Drinkin' Problem by Hank Williams III
Strut My Stuff by Slim Redman & Donny Bowshier
I'm Gonna Strangle You Shorty by Joe Ely, Lee Rocker & All the King's Men
Who, Tell Me Who by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
A Man of the Road by Wayne Hancock
Mississippi Muddle by Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys
Satan's Burning Hell by Bill Neely

I Hung it Up by Junior Brown
Truck Stop at the End of the World by Bill Kirchen
Too Hip Gotta Go by The Stray Cats
She Got the Gold Mine (I Got the Shaft) by Jerry Reed
A Satisfied Mind by Jean Shepard

Rough and Rocky Road by Stars of Harmony
Golden Gate Gospel Train by Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet
What Kind of Man by The Caravans
Dig a Little Deeper by Mahalia Jackson
Where the Soul of Man Never Dies by Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy
My Troubles Are So Hard to Bear by Ethel Davenport
Strange Things Happen Every Day by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Between Darkness and the Light of Day by Clarence Fountain & Sam Butler
I Want My Crown by The Five Blind Boys of Alabama
Babylon's Fallen by The Trumpeteers

The Legend of Hell's Half Acre by Bootleg Prophets
Deep Blue Sea by South Memphis String Band
Black Wings by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Cathead Biscuits and Gravy by Nancy Apple with Rob McNurlin
Look at that Moon by Carl Mann
We Live in Two Different Worlds by Hank Williams
Accidently on Purpose by George Jones
The Great Speckled Bird by Kitty Wells
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: HONORING DICKINSON

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 16, 2010



One of the undersung giants of American music died last summer. I speak of Jim Dickinson — songwriter, piano player, record producer, music preservationist, singer (in his own gruff manner), Memphis royalty, and spiritual force.

Dickinson’s footprint is all over the blues and rock ’n’ roll. He played piano on the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit in the Dark,” and Bob Dylan’s album Time Out of Mind. He produced albums by The Replacements, Mudhoney, The Flamin’ Groovies, and Big Star. He was a sideman for Ry Cooder for years.

He’s responsible for some wonderful field recordings of Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis, and Otha Turner. Although a Southerner through and through, he captured the spirit of the Southwest in his soulful, Mexican-flavored “Across the Borderline,” (co-written with Cooder and John Hiatt), the best version of which was sung by Freddy Fender in Cooder’s soundtrack for the 1982 movie The Border.

The list of artists he produced and/or recorded with seems to go on forever: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Jerry Jeff Walker, Esther Phillips, Joe “King” Carrasco, T-Model Ford, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Flat Duo Jets, Toots & The Maytals, Jason & The Scorchers, the Tarbox Ramblers, and Petula Clark.

Yes, Petula Clark!

Dickinson also released several good-time, blues-soaked, country-fried albums of his own in recent years, including Free Beer Tomorrow and Jungle Jim and The Voodoo Tiger. I recently stumbled across a live Dickinson collaboration with Chuck Prophet, A Thousand Footprints in the Sand (a line from “Across the Borderline”) from the ’90s.

Dickinson’s spirit is all over a couple of new CDs involving his son Luther Dickinson, who is best known for his work in the North Mississippi Allstars. There’s Onward and Upward, credited to Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy, released late last year. And Home Sweet Home by the South Memphis String Band is released on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Onward and Upward was recorded last August, three days after Jim Dickinson’s death, at the old master’s Zebra Ranch Studio in Independence, Mississippi. Musicians include Jimbo Mathus (best known as the frontman of the Squirrel Nut Zippers), singer Shannon McNally, and two members of Dickinson’s old band, Mudboy and the Neutrons — guitarist Sid Selvidge and Jimmy Crosthwait, who plays washboard and sings. Also on board were Steve Selvidge on dobro and guitar and Paul Taylor on washtub bass.

Dickinson is listed as one of the producers “in absentia.” According to the other producer, David Less, in the liner notes, “To say [the recording sessions] were cathartic for all those participating would be to undervalue the music. Everyone understood that Jim was there and despite his passing, the music can still survive. To quote his epitaph, ‘I’m just dead, I’m not gone.’ ”

Cathartic or not, this album does have a funereal feel. For the most part, it’s somber and mournful — not to mention heartfelt. I wouldn’t be the first to compare it to a musical wake for Dickinson. Close your eye you can easily imagine yourself sitting in his living room while his son and friends pay tribute in the best way they know how.

The album is mostly a collection of classic gospel tunes and spirituals: “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning,” “Softly and Tenderly,” “You’ve Got to Walk That Lonesome Highway,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” and from the bluegrass world, “Angel Band.” It’s acoustic, low-key, and unflashy. Most of the tracks were first takes with no overdubbing or other studio trickery.

Among the standouts are the upbeat “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies,” a song I think I first heard done by Delaney & Bonnie; “Let it Roll,” a dobro-driven dirge written by Dickinson the younger the day he started recording the album; and “Back Back Train,” a Mississippi Fred McDowell song, which features some snazzy washboard and washtub bass interplay.

You know that Jim Dickinson is smiling somewhere.
Home Sweet Home was recorded sometime before Dickinson’s death. That’s apparent, because he wrote the liner notes for the CD and basically reviewed the album in the process. “If you don’t dig this there is seriously something wrong with you,” he wrote. I won’t go quite that far, but I agree with old Jim that this is seriously righteous album.

Luther Dickinson is joined in the South Memphis String Band by Mathus as well as by Alvin Youngblood Hart. Luther and his pals share Dickinson’s love for the old string bands and jug bands that sprouted up around Memphis and other parts of the South in the early part of the last century. This album has covers of songs done decades before by The Mississippi Sheiks, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, Blind Willie Johnson, The Carter Family, and others.

There’s not one but two outlaw songs here — the good old “Jesse James” (yes the one with the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard) and “Bloody Bill Anderson,” which is about the life of an anti-Union guerilla fighter in Missouri during the Civil War.

And, don’t you know, there’s the sound of a prison chain-gang tune called “Eighteen Hammers.” There are moaning call-and-response vocals, and the percussion sounds like shovels and hoes clanking on the ground.

With its buzzing kazoo, honking harmonica, and lazy rhythm, I assumed “Worry ’Bout Your Own Backyard” was some ancient jug band song. However, it’s a Mathus original. And a fine one it is.

One of the jewels is Hart’s “Deep Blue Sea,” which he also sang on Otis Taylor’s Recapturing the Banjo a couple of years ago and his own Jim Dickinson-produced album Down in the Alley a few years before that. Actually, Luther Dickinson’s North Mississippi Allstars a few years back took a respectable crack at this folk tune — which has been done by Odetta, Pete Seeger, and who know how many others. But nobody sings it like Hart.

Both CDs are available from Memphis International Records at memphisinternational.com, among other places

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

NO COMMENT

Looks like Haloscan made good on their promise to switch from a free service for comments to a paid service called Echo.

Sorry, I'm a cheapskate. So all my old comments from Halo have gone away. (To the conspiracy-minded out there, yes this is an evil plot to HIDE THE TRUTH FROM THE PEOPLE, and I'M IN ON IT! Please, don't tell anybody.)

I'm trying to get the free Blogger comment thing to work, but so far, no luck. Anyone have any ideas? If so, e-mail me.


Meanwhile, enjoy some Cankisou:

Sunday, January 10, 2010

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 10, 2010
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
Blow Up Your Mind by The Cramps
Roller Coaster by The 13th Floor Elevators
Hey Hey Spaceman by Stranger Family Band
Tripmaker by The Seeds
The Trip by The Rockin' Guys
Doves by The Black Angels
LSD by The Pretty Things

Mad Libs by Bichos
Fiery Jack by The Fall
Psychedelic Sex Machine by The North Mississippi Allstars
Black Magic by King Automatic
Bad Blood by The Sons of Hercules
Wild Man by Thee Headcoatees
Cholla Polka by Mike Enis & Company
We're all water ...
Buckle Down with Nixon by Oscar Brand
Nixon's Dead Ass by Russell Means
Superbird/Tricky Dick by Country Joe & The Fish
One Tin Soldier by The Dick Nixons

Evil Eye by Dead Moon
Fire in The Western World by The Dirtbombs
Girl from Outer Space by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages Sunrise by The Chesterfield Kings
Holy Juke Joint Beat by The Juke Joint Pimps

Hipsville 29 BC by The Sparkles
I Caveman and You? by Los Peyotes
Stranded in the Jungle by Frank Zappa
Thursday by Morphine
I See the Light by Rev. Beat-Man
My Old Man Boogie by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Destination Mars by Frosty & The Diamonds
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

eMUSIC JANUARY


* The Roots of The Cramps by various Artists Hot diggity dog! Not only is this a serious eMusic bargain (56 tracks for 12 credits!) it's a serious dose of rockabilly, R&B, surf and garage obscurities.

In short, these are the songs The Cramps covered or, in some cases the tunes that The Cramps mutated into their original songs. (Listen to "Strolling After Dark" by The Shades and you can easily understand why Lux and Ivy were inspired to add a teenage werewolf.)

There's lots of overlap here with a now-out-of print 2007 compilation called Songs The Cramps Taught Us. But that only had 31 tracks.

Among my favorites here are "Miniskirt Blues" performed by The Flower Children, an early band of Simon Stokes; the bubblegum classic "Quick Joey Small" by The Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus; a version of Elroy Dietzel's "Rockin' Bones" by a young Ronnie Dawson; and "Storm Warning," some pre-Dr. John gris-gris from Mac Rebennack.

Then there's the girl-biker anthem "Get Off the Road" by The R. Lewis Band. "We are the Hellcats who nobody likes/Man-eaters on motorbikes." Well, I like 'em


* Interplanetary Melodies by Sun Ra. If Lux Interior runs into Sun Ra up in Rock 'n' Roll Heaven, they will have a lot more to talk about than you might initially imagine.

You see, Herman Sonny Blount not only played cosmic jazz, but also dabbled in recording doo-wop and R&B in the 1950s. And damned if he didn't make that sound cosmic too! One of the bands represented here was even called The Cosmic Rays, but they're not as otherwordly as The Nu Sounds, a Ra vocal group performing songs like "Spaceship Lullaby" and "Africa."

Norton Records recently released three CDs of this material. I picked up Rocketship Rock over on Amie Street. (My favorite tracks there are the down and gritty "Hot Skillet Mama" by Yochanan -- there are two versions here -- and the short version of "I Am Gonna Unmask the Batman" by Lacy Gibson.) I'll definitely pick up The Second Stop is Jupiter before long.


* Ow! Ow! Ow! by Barrence Whitfield. Good news: Rounder Records is now on eMusic. That means classic '80s Barrence albums are now available.

For those unfamiliar with this contemporary R&B wildman, I'd start out with Live Emulsfied, (which I already had) -- if only for "Mama Get the Hammer" and "Bloody Mary."

But Ow! Ow! Ow! is a fine choice too. Not a bad track here and some, like "Girl From Outer Space" are downright crazy. And for those who like Whitfield's slower, prettier side, "Apology Line" is one of his finest ballads.


PLUS:
* Sun Recordings Vol. 1 by Jerry Lee Lewis. Here's another good eMusic bargain. Several years ago I downloaded eight tracks from this album. With eMusic's new pricing plan, they only charged me four credits for the other 12 tracks.

Those familiar only with the smattering of Lewis hits they play on oldies radio might be surprised to know that Lewis' fire went well beyond "Great Balls of Fire." He did an excellent version of Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush," not to mention his raucous cover of The Dominos' "60 Minute Man."

But even back in those Sun Records years, Jerry Lee displayed his knack for country music. "Who Will Buy the Wine," included on this volume, has as much soul as The Killer's honk-tonk classics like"What Made Milwaukee Famous" and "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye."


* Seven tracks from No Requests Tonight by The Devil Dogs. This is a live album, released in 1997 by the Dogs, a fine New York punk/trash trio. It's a California show and the stage patter consists largely of East Coast/West Coast abuse Previously my favorite Devil Dogs tune was their cover of former New Mexico Music Commissioner Tony Orlando's grease ballad "Bless You" from the Choad Blast EP. But here the The Devil Dogs cover Bono -- Sonny Bono, that is. Their version of Sonny's proto-hippie lament "Laugh at Me" is a heart-warming delight.

* The tracks I didn't get last month from The Kids Are All Square - This Is HipGirlsville by Thee Headcoats and Thee Headcoatees. Most of the ones I got this month were by Thee Headcoatees, Billy Childish's "girl group" of the '90s, which included Holly Golightly, Miss Ludella Black, Kyra Rubella and Bongo Debbie.

There's a great cover of The Beatles' "Run for Your Life" (remember the John Lennon Rolling Stone interview in which he was expressing politically-correct remorse about this tune?) Meanwhile, "Melvin" is a re-write of Them's "Gloria." But none of these are as cool as "Wild Man," in which the singer sounds as if she's on the verge of a lust-induced nervous breakdown over the boy next door's uncivilized daddy.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

BIG SHOW AT AZTEC



Hey Santa Fe readers,

Be sure to join Gregg Turner, Lenny Hoffman, Tom Trusnovic and me 7 p.m. tonight at the Aztec Cafe.

We're going to sing about the love between our brothers and our sisters all over the land.

In addition to the music, Turner has arranged a PARASITIC EXORCISM by 'alt' healer, Tobi Wilde. Bring your parasites.

No cover. No shame.

Friday, January 08, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 8, 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

Back From the Shadows Again by Firesign Theatre
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Who Put the Turtle in Myrtle's Girdle? by The Western Melody Makers
Bright Lights & Blonde Haired Women by Ray Price
A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment (Hint: There is No C) by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Bloody Bill Anderson by South Memphis String Band
Let it Roll by Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy
Duck for the Oysters by Malcom McLaren
It Pays to Advertise by The Farmer Boys
Tequila Sheila by Bobby Bare

Green Tree Boogie by Bill Haley & The Saddlemen
I Didn't Mean to Be Mean by Ray Campi
Lord, Mr. Ford by Jerry Reed
Hayride Boogie by Tillman Franks with Webb Pierce
Voodoo Queen Marie by The Du-Tells
Coyote by The Bootleg Prophets
Creole Boy With a Spanish Guitar by Nancy Apple
Train of Life by Roger Miller
Love-a-Rama by Southern Culture on the Skids

A TRIBUTE TO ELVIS
(All songs by Elvis Presley unless otherwise noted)
King of the Whole Wide World
Big Train from Memphis by John Fogerty
Heartbreak Hotel by The Cramps
Reconsider Baby
Este Bien, Mamacita by El-Vez
Crying in the Chapel
Jailhouse Rock by Jerry Lee Lewis
My Boy Elvis by Janis Martin
Tiger Man
Rockabilly Rebel by Orion
One Night of Sin

The Birth of Rock n' Roll by Class of 55
Everybody's Getting Paid But Me by Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
I Ain't Always Lived This Way by Jacques & The Shakey Boys
Evil On Your Mind by Jan Howard
We Three (My Shadow, My Echo and Me) by Wayne Hancock
I'm Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail by The Everly Brothers
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Comical Correction: This post initially said that "Jailhouse Rock" was done by "Jerry Lewis." Actually it was The Killer, not the Nutty Professor.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: NEW GARAGE ROCK GOODIES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 8, 2010



Most rock ’n’ roll bands that model themselves after the Rolling Stones try to be subtle about it. Not The Chesterfield Kings. They’ve always been blatantly proud of it — and never more so than on their new CD/DVD Live Onstage ... If You Want It.

The title alludes to the Stones’ first live album — Got Live If You Want It! The Kings are introduced as “the second-greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world.” Singer Greg Prevost prances around like Jagger and bassist Andy Babiuk even looks like Brian Jones. And most obvious of all, listen to the guitar hook of “Flashback.” Remind you of a certain Jumping Jack?

So dock them points for originality. But still, you’d have to have a heart of stone (dang, it’s contagious!) not to get a jolt from the rockin’ fun these guys bring. Just like the old slogan of the lethal product from which they got their name, they satisfy.

The Kings, from Rochester, New York, have been around since the late ’70s and releasing records since the early ’80s. Along with groups like The Fuzztones and The Fleshtones, The Kings were leaders of a garage-rock revival in that era.

In the mid part of the past decade, the band came under the sway of a certain mobster named Silvio Dante (a little in-joke for fans of The Sopranos) aka Little Steven Van Zandt, who made them a flagship band of his label, Wicked Cool.

This album, recorded live at a Rochester television studio, includes material going back at least as far as The Chesterfields’ 1994 album Let’s Go Get Stoned — which is cool, because so much of their older material is hard to find. (Some of the earlier albums have apparently never been released on CD.)

Some of the highlights of the show are “Johnny Volume,” in which guest sax-man Chris Wicks wails like Bobby Keys in his prime; “I Walk in Darkness” — a pure ’60s garage-rock thriller with its Farfisa (or at least Farfisa-sounding) organ (by guest keyboardist Paul Nunes) and Yardbirdsian harmonica (by Prevost); “I’m So Confused, Baby” — Nunes’ organ riff sounding like it’s borrowed from “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”; and “Transparent Life,” which reminds me of “Paint it Black.”

While the basic sound of The Chesterfield Kings is right out of the ’60s, part of this album is a journey into the ’90s. I’m referring to an “unplugged” four-song segment. The Chesterfields go “country” on Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home” (which they first recorded for Let’s Go Get Stoned). But the best tune from this part of the show is the country-bluesish “Drunkhouse,” which sounds like some long-lost Beggars Banquet outtake.

Speaking of going country, the first verse of “Stayed Too Long” starts out as if it’s going to be a rocked-up version of the Louvin Brothers’ “The Christian Life,” the opening line being “My friends tell me that I should have waited.” It soon veers into another direction, however.

One small quibble: recording this performance at a TV studio probably ensured good sound quality. But I bet The Chesterfield Kings would sound twice as crazy before a hopped-up nightclub crowd where people aren’t sitting politely in chairs.

More goodies from the garage

* In the Blue Corner by King Automatic. He’s a one-man garage band from Nancy, France, playing guitar, keyboards, harmonica, and drums and melding them all together through the magic of tape loops. It’s high tech and primitive at the same time.

On Automatic’s previous album, I Walk My Murderous Intentions Home, he displayed a knack for garage noir. He carries that even further on the new record, On Blue Corner, his second release on Voodoo Rhythm Records. KA expands his sound, showing more influence from blues, sinister jazz, and Jamaican rock-steady.

A couple of my favorites here are “Doctor Jekyll & Sister Hyde,” which suggests blues from some dark alley with a piano riff lifted from “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” and “Things Are What They Are but Never What They Seem,” which has a melody that might have been inspired by an all-night binge while listening to Tom Waits albums — though it sounds like Jerry Lee Lewis is playing piano.

“Let’s Have a Party” could be Martians playing rockabilly, while “Le Redresseur de Torts,” with its thumping bass and drums answered by harmonica honks, might be described as a brontosaurus blues. Then there’s “Mood Swings” — with its slinky, sleazy organ and faux Jamaican-rhythm guitar, it could almost be a scene from a movie in which something’s about to go terribly wrong in a cocktail lounge.

*A Different Kind of Ugly by The Sons of Hercules. Here’s Texas’ answer to The Chesterfield Kings. They might be from San Antonio, but the Sons are far more influenced by The New York Dolls, The Stooges, and other proto-punks than they are by Doug Sahm.

Singer Frank Pugliese belts ’em out like a world-weary pro wrestler taunting an opponent. He’s already won a place in punk-rock history. His 1978 band The Vamps opened for The Sex Pistols at their San Antonio show.

While offering few revelations, this album is good rocking fun. I love how Dale Hollow’s guitar goes from Chuck Berry to Cheetah Chrome in nothing flat on “Still Waitin’.”

Back from the shadows again: After a two-week holiday break, The Santa Fe Opry returns to KSFR-FM 101.1 at 10 p.m. Friday night. And don’t forget Terrell’s Sound World same time, same channel, Sunday night.

Steve Terrell live: I’m doing an increasingly rare personal musical appearance on Richard Nixon’s birthday with ex-Angry Samoan Gregg Turner and Lenny Hoffman at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9, at the Aztec Café (317 Aztec St.). There’s no cover.

Sunday, January 03, 2010

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 3, 2010
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
Jack Ruby by Camper Van Beethoven
Miniskirt Blues by The Flower Children
The Snake by Johnny Rivers
Laugh at Me by The Devil Dogs
Mystery Plane by The Cramps
I Walk in Darkness by The Chesterfield Kings
Mystic Eyes by Them
I am Gonna Unmask the Batman by Lacy Gibson
Theme From The Cheaters by Southern Culture on the Skids

Shoulder Pads by The Fall
No One Has by Mudhoney
It's Lame by Figures of Light
Booze Party by 3 Aces & A Joker
Night of the Phantom by Larry & The Bluenotes
Eagle Never Hunts the Fly by The Music Machine
Sock it To Me by Mitch Ryder & His Detroit Wheels
Spreadin' Your Love Around by Rev. Peyton & His Big Damn Band

Traveling Mood by Wee Willie Wayne
Real Gone Lover by Smiley Lewis
The Girl From Kooka Munga by Tommy Ridgley
Cherry Red by Little Richard
Gunpowder by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
I Can't Get No Ride by Barrence Whitfield
The Hurt's All Gone by The Detroit Cobras
Come Back by Dex Romweber
Bow-Legged Woman, Knock-Kneed Man Part 1 by Bobby Rush
Scream and Scream by Screaming Lord Sutch
Quick Joey Small by Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus

Girl of Ye Ye by Zoe & The Stormies
Things are What They Are But Never What They Seem by King Automatic
(Hot Pastami With) Mashed Potatoes by Joey Dee & The Starlighters
Ding Dong by Johnny Dowd
Whiskey and Wimmin by John Lee Hooker & Canned Heat
God's Been Drinking by Bernadette Seacrest & Her Provacateurs
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Friday, January 01, 2010

FIRST BIG ENCHILADA OF THE DECADE!

THE BIG ENCHILADA



Happy New Year, podlubbers!

To kick off the new year (and the new decade) The Big Enchilada presents a rocking ragtag compilation of tunes from three sources -- The Free Music Archive, The Live Music Archive and Music Alley.

There's tunes from The Dirtbombs, Dead Moon, The Butthole Surfers, The Mekons, Giant Sand, Paul "Wine" Jones, The Minutemen, Wau y Los Arrrghs!!!, New Bomb Turks, Miss Ludella Black and more.

The Free Music and The Live Music archives are great places to legally download and listen to free music. But I encourage you also to go out and buy music from all these artists that you like. (That goes for all the musicians I play on The Big Enchilada.)

CLICK HERE to download the podcast. (To save it, right click on the link and select "Save Target As.")

Or better yet, stop messing around and CLICK HERE to subscribe to my podcasts and HERE to directly subscribe on iTunes.

You can play it on the little feedplayer below:


The official Big Enchilada Web Site with my podcast jukebox and all the shows is HERE.

Here's the play list:

Free Music Archive Set
(Background Music: Mission Bucharest by Pharoas)
Puto by Davila 666
Nina by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!
Johnny's Got a Gun by Dead Moon
Pretty Lightning by New Bomb Turks
Crows by Modey Lemon
Stop Arguing by Paul "Wine" Jones
Baltimore Raven by Little Howlin' Wolf

Wreck My Flow by The Dirtbombs
Who Was In My Room Last Night? by The Butthole Surfers
Beaten and Broken by The Mekons
Tumble and Tear by Giant Sand
I Feel Like a Gringo by The Minutemen
Gravity by Buick MacKane

(Background Music: Mr. Potato by Kahuna Kawentzmann)
Cannibal Girls by The Hydes
Bleed for You by Los Hories
Tumbleweed Blues by Howlin' Tumbleweeds
Mean Maria by Don Juan y Los Blancos *
Deadbeat by The Hoodlum Circus
(I Swear) From This Witness Stand by Miss Ludella Black & The Masonics
(Background Music: Graveyard Hand by Get Three Coffins Ready)

* (I gave the wrong name for Don Juan y Los Blancos on the podcast itself. Sorry guys)

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...