Sunday, November 27, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 27, 2011
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(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Thanksgiving in Reno by Too Much Joy
Mask Search by The Fall
Romance by Wild Flag
Rats In My Kitchen by The Fleshtones
That Creature by The Sweet Acids
My Girlfriend Is a Werewolf by Thee Gravemen
Palace of the Brine/ Letter to Memphis by The Pixies
Glorious Heroin by The Frontier Circus
Forward by Captain Barkley

Penetration by Iggy & The Stooges
It's OK by Dead Moon
Bunker Mentality by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Drinking Every Night by Twang Tango
Baby Doll by Horror Deluxe
Hell Broke Luce by Tom Waits
Ritalin by Sonic Reverends
Crawdaddy by Nine Pound Hammer
Let God's Moon Alone/Time Done Changed by Dora Alexander

Hot Rod by Joecephus & The George Jonestown Massacre
Primitive by Southern Culture on the Skids
Do The Milkshake by The Oblivians
Speedy's Coming by The Monsters
Hasil Adkins in My Head by The Vibes
Chicken Run 1999 by Hasil Adkins
Chicken Rhythm by O Lendario Chucrobillyman
Skull and Crossbones by Sparkle Moore

Fortune Teller by Coco Robicheaux
She's So Scandalous by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Nobody Gets Me Down by T-Model Ford
Inner Space by Drastic Andrew
Down for Death by Simon Stokes
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, November 25, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 25, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Old Man From The Mountain by Merle Haggard
Big Daddy by Dale Watson
Get Up and Go / Fiddle Tunes by David Bromberg
Roly Poly by Willie Nelson
Banjo Lovin' Hound Dog by Johnny Banjo
Heavy Rescue by Broomdust Caravan
Shot Four Times and Dy'in by Bill Carter
Never Be Again by Ugly Valley Boys
Avatar by Coco Robicheaux

Lee Harvey by Asylum Street Spankers
Power Of The 45 by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Samson and Delilah by Devil in a Woodpile
Don't Let Me Rock You Daddy-O by Cranes Skiffle Group
tee Makhuea Pok (Your Cheatin' Heart) by Pairote
The Bottle Let Me Down by The Frontier Circus
Open Road by Scott H. Biram
Hill Billy Hippie by Homer & Jethro

Another Hole to Fill by Kell Robertson
Special Love by Rolf Cahn
Mad Love by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Grunts
Chicken Flop by Hasil Adkins
Me Not Callin' by Rick Brousard's Two Hoots and a Holler
God Bless New Mexico by Jim Terr (featuring Buddy)
Free by Grey DeLisle
How Lew Sin Ate by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band

Touch of Evil by Tom Russell
White Dress by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Let's Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes
Me and Rose Connelly by Rachel Brooke
He Was a Friend of Mine by The Byrds
Thanksgiving by Loudon Wainwright III
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: SHARK-INFESTED CDs plus LOCAL CD ROUNDUP

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 25, 2011


Good news, reggae fans — the king has returned. I’m talking about King Shark, the nom de tune of Alphanso Henclewood, that Greenwich Farms, Jamaica, native who has been playing and promoting reggae in New Mexico on and off for more than a decade.

The Shark recently resurfaced, touting three new albums — two various- artists compilations (King Shark & Friends, Vol. 2 and Battle of Champions) and Chinna Way, a collection of instrumentals by his friend, venerated reggae guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith. Shark produced Smith’s album.

I’m no reggae expert, but I’ve liked the music ever since “The Israelites,” that bizarre freak-accident single by Desmond Dekker, twisted my head off in the late ’60s. The music of Bob Marley and the Wailers and the soundtrack of The Harder They Come represent a big chunk of my 1970s music memories. My favorite reggae album still, after 35 years or so, is Bunny Wailer’s Blackheart Man. But, to be honest, I didn’t really keep up with reggae after Marley and Peter Tosh died. I’ll probably sound like a rigid old coot, but so much of the reggae since those golden years sounds too poppy, too hip-hoppy, and just not as interesting as my old favorites.

KING SHARKBut ever since about a year ago, when King Shark started turning me onto his stable of musical friends, I’m enjoying reggae again. I’d never heard most of the artists on these collections, but they remind me of what I consider reggae’s classic era, especially the vocal-oriented ones.


The highlights of King Shark & Friends, Vol. 2 (the first volume was released more than 10 years ago) include “Blaze,” a minor-key tune by Peter Rankin that features some tasty organ and electric piano interplay; “Susie Wong,” a love song by singer Fred Locks; and King Shark’s own “Escape by Night,” a story about a daring escape from a slave ship.

Battle of Champions is also packed with some fine tunes. My favorite on this one is “Forward” by the gruff-voiced Captain Barkley. Also worthy are “Me Oh My” by Pretty Rebel, one of the only female voices in these collections, and “Siren,” by Lone Ranger, which reminds me of Toots & The Maytals, though Ranger’s voice is much deeper than Toots’. These albums are available at www.rastalives.com.

Local music roundup: Here are some recent CDs by New Mexico artists.

* Heavy Rescue by Broomdust Caravan. Led by doghouse bass plunker Johny Broomdust and featuring vocals by Felecia Ford (whom we originally came to love through Hundred Year Flood), the Caravan is basically a local supergroup that includes some of my favorite usual suspects from Santa Fe area bands. The group plays good honky-tonk roadhouse music, as evidenced by this six-song EP.

My favorites here are the Spanish flavored “Hidin’ Out in Española” and the boot-scootin’ hoedown “10,000 Miles.” The title song of the CD, which is dedicated to the Santa Fe Fire Department’s heavy rescue unit, should have been released a few years ago. It would have made a far better theme song for the TV series Rescue Me than that annoying tune byThe Von Bondies .

* Save the Machine by Drastic Andrew. I’m not sure whether “Drastic Andrew” is the name of the band or of the singer/songwriter Andrew MacLauchlan, who leads it. Mighty Joe West produced this album, and some of Frogville Records’ finest play on it.

The highlights include the opening cut “John Henry” (a rocked-out update of the classic folk tune), “Inner Space,” which is spacey blues-rock, and the title song. That one’s an all-purpose protest song ranging against ecological disaster, Wall Street greed, corrupt politicians, etc. But the snappy beat and the melody are as catchy as is humanly possible.

* Living Large by The Swank Brothers. This seven-song EP is an easy-going collection of funny songs by the brothers Swank (Daniel “Flash Swank” Hagen on vocals, guitar, and bass, and Nigeria-born Akeem Ayanniyi on vocals and percussion.)

The sure bets are “I Got High Last Night” (the story of a guy who was so messed up the night before that he forgot where he parked his car), “We Gettin’ Naked for the Super Bowl” (a love song), and “I Coulda Got It for Ya Wholesale,” which is about a first-person portrait of an annoying character everybody knows.

* New Mexico Sky, Don’t Get Me Started, and Hebrew Nashville by Jim Terr. Yes, there are three new CDs from Santa Fe satirist Terr.

New Mexico Sky spotlights songs about this Enchanted Land, including “God Bless New Mexico,” a spoof of that horrendous Lee Greenwood atrocity (“I’m proud to be a New Mexican where we message when we drive/And you don’t have to wait till tomorrow for mañana to arrive”) and “Santa Fe Cowboy,” which is about the kind of cowboys who wear Gucci hats and spurs by Yves St. Laurent, sung to the tune of “Streets of Laredo.”

Don’ Me Started has mostly political tunes: “I’m Gonna Love the Glenn Beck Out of You,” “Public Campaign Finance Song,” “Bosses of the World, Unite!” etc. My favorite is “More Time With My Family,” which is about politicians in disgrace.

That song also appears on Hebrew Nashville — as do “Mama Don’t Send Me to the Big-Box Store” and “Son of a Rabbi Man,” sung by the late Kate Bennett. But this is the only place you’ll find Terr’s tune “Kosher Country,” a song about some hillbilly holler where everyone happens to be Jewish. Folks are pickin’ klezmer music on the front porch and the Katzes and the Cohens are feudin’. You don’t have to be Jewish to love it.

UPDATE: 10 am The titles of  a couple of Jim Terr songs have been corrected.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 20, 2011
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(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
7 and 7 Is by Love
Greasebox by TAD
Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell by Iggy & The Stooges
Crackity Jones by The Pixies
Black Rider by Frank Black & The Catholics
Bad as Me by Tom Waits
Nate Will Not Return by The Fall
Mad Daddy by The Cramps

Fujiyama Mama by The Frontier Circus
My Love Is A Monster by The Compulsive Gamblers
Happy Hop! by The Belters
Hey Joe by The Leaves
I Got High Last Night by The Swank Brothers
Worst Record Ever Made by Althea and the Memories
Violence Inna Da Street by U Mike
Little Suzie by Harmonica Lewinski

Battle of the One-Man Bands
Coconut Road by O Lendário Chucrobillyman
Chicken Hop by Hasil Adkins
Hang On by BBQ
Ratfink by Bloodshot Bill
On the Prowl by WolfBoy Slim & His Dirty Feets
Make You Say Wow by Bob Log III
Factory Dog by John Schooley & His One-Man Band
Feed the Family by Possessed by Paul James
Hang Your Head and Cry by Scott H. Biram
Introducing Chuck Violence by Chuck Violence
Coal Black Mattie by Richard Johnston
Throwing Stones by Poor Boy's Soul

Live Like a Dog by The Kill Spectors
I Don't Think So by Dinosaur Jr.
Homicide by Dex Romweber Duo
I'm Supreme by The Mahotella Queens
Rari by The Standells
I Know by David Lynch
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis


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We Gather Together for the Latest Big Enchilada Episode JIVE TURKEYS

THE BIG ENCHILADA


Here's something to be thankful for: a brand new Big Enchilada podcast, a musical feast featuring generous portions of crazed rock 'n' roll from the garage and beyond and a gravy boat full of sweet sounds from the soul revival. Gobble it up, podlubbers!

DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBESUBSCRIBE TO ALL | FACEBOOK | ITUNES

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Turkey Trot by Satan's Pilgrims)
So Long, Silver Lining by New Bomb Turks
Cosmos 7 by The Fall
They Took You Away (Mt Bonnell Rd) by Blood-Drained Cows
See What You Cause by Cold Sun
Angry Hands by Manby's Head
Nails in the Pines by Poor Boy's Soul
Chicken Flow by O Lendário Chucrobillyman

(Background Music: Lonesome Electric Turkey by Frank Zappa & The Mothers)
Stop Breakin' Down by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Baaadnews by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Ode to Billy Joe/ Hip Hug Her by Wiley & The Checkmates
Funky Like Don King by Jon E. Edwards
Bad Trip by Lee Fields

(Background Music: Turkish Coffee by Omar Kay)
Turkey Jive by The Hormonauts 
Chicken Hop by Hasil Adkins
Cherry Muffin Time by Spit Baby
Bella Lugosi's Star by Nekromantix
Turkey and the Rabbit by T-Model Ford

Play it here:

Friday, November 18, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 18, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Foot-stomping Friday Night by The Stumbleweeds
I Ain't Never by The Head Cat
Clickity Clack by Ugly Valley Boys
Shotgun by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Hope Is A Thing With Feathers by Trailer Bride
Three Times for Johnny Minge by Rick Brousard & Two Hoots and a Holler
Truck Drivers Hell by Sonny Cole
Hidin' Out in Espanola by Broomdust Caravan
Anything Goes at a Rooster Show by The Imperial Rooster
Trouble I've Had it All My Days by Mississippi John Hurt

Chicken Strangle by O Lendário Chucrobillyman
Cookin' Chicken 1999 by Hasil Adkins
Where Is My Mind by Bobby Bare, Jr.
Dark End Of The Street by Frank Black
John Henry by Drastic Andrew
I Wanna Kill Your Man by Harmonica Lewinski
Right or Wrong by Wanda Jackson
Lady Cop by Cousin Jody
Country Porno by Jon Wayne

Another Man's Eyes by Delaney Davidson
Midnight Sun by Dex Romweber Duo
Don't Buy a Skinned Rabbit by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Mary Lou, Good Time Gal by Kell Robertson
Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man by Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
Pray I Won't Wake Up by Honky Tonk Hustlas
Jesus Was a Wino by Lydia Loveless
He's in the Nuthouse Now by Angry Johnny & GTO
Kosher Country by Jim Terr

Annalisa by Poor Boy's Soul
Wild Bill Jones by Eva Davis
Town With No Shame by Jimbo Mathus
Desperados Waiting For The Train by Jerry Jeff Walker
I Don't Worry by Rachel Brook with Brooks Robbins
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Thursday, November 17, 2011

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: One-Man Armies

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 18, 2011


The modern-day one-man band refuses to die.

Maybe it’s the bad economy that makes it more fiscally feasible to travel and perform without having to divide up the gate with others. Or maybe stripping music down to its gutbucket basics is a reaction to slick, over-produced rock ’n’ pop. Or, to indulge in some sociopsychological navel-gazing, perhaps the whole thing is a weird symbol for 21st-century isolation.

Whatever the case, one-man bands continue to haunt the edges of the rock ’n’ roll underground.

The concept is basic: one man plays guitar, banjo, ukulele, or sometimes keyboards with his hands, drums or other percussion with his feet, and harmonica or kazoo with his mouth.

Among the current practitioners of the art are Scott H. Biram, whose album Bad Ingredients is one of the finest records of the year; Bloodshot Bill; King Automatic; Bob Log III; John Schooley; Jawbone; Urban Junior (who calls his music “Swiss-spankin-electro-trash-garage-boogie-disco-blues-punk”); and Mark Sultan aka BBQ, whose acrimonious split from the King Khan & BBQ Show is an example of how even a two-man band can be a petri dish for personality conflicts.

Here are some recent one-man wonders whose CDs have crossed my ears in recent weeks:

* Burn Down by Poor Boy’s Soul. I first became aware of Trevor Jones, the one man behind this band, by way of a strange email from his publicist: “I have been trying to get this band serviced to you for weeks now. Want to know why I haven’t been able to get this out to you? He went missing. Got a call today from him, apparently he was in jail in a small town in North Dakota. Trevor rides the freight trains around the U.S. and, well, he got busted.”

That modern-day hobo-minstrel tale got me curious. I had to hear his voice before the railroad bulls silenced it forever.

Jones, an Oregon resident, got his band name from an old outlaw ballad, “Wild Bill Jones”: “I pulled my revolver from my side / And I destroyed that poor boy’s soul.”

He started out as a metal and punk player. But after he started riding the rails, he apparently got possessed by the lonesome ghosts of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly. “I bought a cheap acoustic and started learning folk, bluegrass, and blues from folks on the road. That’s when I started developing the style of music I play now,” he says in his official bio.

His voice has a gruff edge to it, but it’s not overdone. Crediting Mississippi Fred McDowell as a major influence, PBS plays a mean National guitar. Most of the seven songs here are hard-edged blues stompers, starting out with the title song — a slow-moving, ominous tune that sounds as if the singer is about to do something regrettable.

My favorite at the moment is “Nails in the Pine.” It’s the most uptempo number, reminding me of The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. Also notable is the almost-five- minute “Ain’t Comin’ Back,” which has a dark, spooky feel. The way it’s recorded, you might think you’re hearing it from a car radio in the 1950s (right before your car breaks down on a dirt road near the local serial killer’s house).

The biggest surprise on the album is the last song, a somber seven-plus minute ballad called “Annalisa.” Sounding like a more melodic Jandek song, this is a moving tribute to Jones’ sister — who, he says, has overcome many obstacles. “Annalisa, you’re stronger than those demons in your head,” goes the refrain.

I’m looking forward to hearing more music from this poor boy’s soul.

* The Chicken Album by O Lendário Chucrobillyman. This is some of the craziest music I’ve heard in some time. Faithful readers of this column will know that’s saying something.

Chucrobillyman, whose real name is Klaus Koti, is a one-man band from Brazil, who plays American blues with shades of Brazilian country music and some pretty snazzy percussion.

He sings in English and Portuguese. This record is pure Amazon River voodoo.

The eight-song album starts off with a tune called “Chicken Flow,” a slide-guitar blues romp with a frantic clacking beats. Add then he starts clucking — singing actually — like a dadgum chicken!

The late great Hasil Adkins — the West Virginia maniac who is the patron saint of most of these contemporary one-man bands — did a compilation called Poultry in Motion. Chucrobillyman takes that concept one level further. He doesn’t cluck on all the cuts, but a listener gets the feeling that the chicken spirit could return at any time.

All the hens in the henhouse better beware!

This album was originally released in 2008 and was recently re-released by Off Label Records, a German company.

* One man vs. the radio industry: I’m doing a one-man-band special Sunday night on Terrell’s Sound World, freeform weirdo radio. The show starts at 10 p.m. on KSFR-FM 101.1, and the special segment begins right after the 11th hour. It’s streaming atcha and screaming atcha on the web at www.ksfr.org. And don’t forget The Santa Fe Opry, the country music Nashville does not want you to hear, same time, same station, Friday nights.

* One-man Spotify: Hear a selection of some of the finest past and present one-man (and one one-woman) bands on my new Spotify playlist One-Man Wonders. (Unfortunately, neither Poor Boy’s Soul nor O Lendário Chucrobillyman is on Spotify, at least yet.) It’s at www.sharemyplaylists.com/one-man-wonders.

Blog Bonus! Enjoy some videos:





and here's Dock Boggs singing "Wild Bill Jones"

Monday, November 14, 2011

eMusic November

Here's my latest batch of downloads from eMusic:

* Wolf Call! by Various Artists. Another fine Norton collection of greasy, sleazy rock 'n' roll and R&B from the late '50s and early '60s.

This isn't quite as diverse as other Norton compilations like Mad Mike's Monsters or the I Hate CDs series. But he'll, plaster a picture of a stripper on the cover and you probably could pass this off  as a new Las Vegas Grind volume.

Wolf Call! features music from the Golden Crest label, a Long Island-based company, though the best known band on the album, The Wailers, was from Tacoma. hjat band has two songs here, their classic "Tall Cool One" and "Snake Pit." Both are rollicking instrumentals

"Cleopatra" by The Precisions reminds me a lot of The Coasters, except the weird little Del Shannon organ seller in the middle. "I'm Buggin' Out Little Baby," is some good obscure rockabilly byDonny Lee Moore. "Let Your Love Light Shine" by The Kack-ties is raw, unfetterfed doo-wop.  "Roaches" is early '60s soul, sounding like the Isley Brothers would have sounded had they been exterminators. The singer notes that the Civil Rights Bill has passed, but there's nothing in the bill that guarantees you a home free of roaches.

"Bandito" by The Banditos has  south- of-the-border rhythms and a corny, probably offensive to some, monologue between the "bandito" and a bartender. But the strangerst here is "The Beatle Song" by The Japanese Beatles. It puts the ethnic stereotypes in "Bandito" to shame. In fact, shame's a pretty good word here.

* Raw Power Live: In the Hands of the Fans by Iggy & The Stooges. I couldn't resist. This is one of those concerts where a band plays a classic album in its entirety decades later. Lou Reed got away with it on his recent live version of Berlin, so why not Iggy?

The original Raw Power has been remixed, repackaged and regurgitated so many time it's hard to keep track. The 2010 version included a live disc from a 1973 concert in Atlanta featuring half of the Raw Power songs.

But this new show, recorded last year at the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in New York, featuring original Raw Power ax man James Williamson on guitar duties, is a welcome addition.  Iggy and the other surviving original Stooges are in their mid 60s now (Bassist Mike Watt, who's been a Stooge on recent outings, is the baby of the group. He's only in his 50s.). Even so, they rock like young bucks half their age.

Here's a video:



* South of Nashville by Honky Tonk Hustlas. When I first saw this band's name I feared it might be some crappy alt country/hip-hop fusion. But then I heard a song of theirs on Outlaw Radio Chicago and realized these guys sound a lot more like Wayne "The Train" than Cowboy Troy.

The Hustlas come from Montgomery, Alabama. The core of the band is , T. Junior on lead vocals and rhythm guitar and Stemp on stand-up bass. The sound is acoustic-based traditional country with lots of fiddle, mandolin and dobro.

Even if country radio still played good country music they'd never play the HTH -- not only because of the occasional use of profanity, but because the lyrics to some of the songs are so dark. "My Worst Enemy," "Pray I Won't Wake Up" and even the upbeat "Never Gonna Quit" deal frankly with self-destructive urges. And the chilling  "Death's Cold Sting" reminds me a lot of Hank Williams' "Alone and Forsaken" -- which wasn't exactly a big radio hit for Hank.

So they're just going to have to make do with being played on shows like Outlaw Radio Chicago and, of course, The Santa Fe Opry. I hope to hear more from this band.



* Miami by The Gun Club. I confessed a couple of months ago when I downloaded their wonderful debut album Fire of Love  that I'm just a newcomer to the glory that was The Gun Club. 

This is the second album. Some consider Miami to be a sophomore slump for Jeffrey Lee Pearce and the Club. But while it's true that it doesn't quite match Fire of Love, there's plenty to love here.

Actually there's a song called "Fire of Love" here (it wasn't on the album of the same name.)  It borrows liberally from Jody Reynolds' "Endless Sleep."

Almost as powerful is "Like Calling Up Thunder" It's like a hoedown for maniacs (and Ward Dotson plays a guitar lick lifted from "Dixie" as Pearce sings, "Look away, look away ..."

Also there's a couple of great covers here. "John Hardy" is a wild cowpunk update of the the old outlaw ballad. But even better is the ferocious version of Creedence Clearwater Revivals' "Run Through the Jungle." This might even be more nightmarish than the original tune.

PLUS
* Three songs from Halloween Classics: Songs That Scared The Bloomers Off Your Great Grandma:  "The Skeleton In The Closet" by Putney Dandridge," "Minnie The Moocher At The Morgue" by Smiley Burnette and "Hush, Hush, Hush (Here Comes The Boogie Man" by Henry Hall. This is the second year in a row I hit up this fun collection for some Halloween material for my radio -- and this year my podcast -- Spooktaculars.

I doubt if any of these novelty tunes from the 30s would scare the bloomers off anyone, even your great granny. But they're still lotsa fun.

* "Ghoulman Confidential" by The Fleshtones. I used this one on the 2011 Big Enchilada Spooktacular also. This is the second "Ghoulman" song by The Fleshtones I'm aware of, the first being "Dance With the Ghoulman." Are there more?

Sunday, November 13, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 13, 2011
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(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Shuffling Spectre by Dan Melchior und Das Menace
Cry! by The Monsters
The World's Greatest Sinner by The A-Bones
Little Cockroach by The Treblemakers
King Takes Queen by King Automatic
Loveminer by O Lendario Churcrobillyman
No Confidence by Simon Stokes
Night of the Caveman by The 99ers
Baby Please Don't Go by Them

Get Lost by Tom Waits
He's Doin' It by The Gories
Livin' in the Jungle by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Heavy Metal Blues by The Revelations feat. Tre Williams (Click link to download album for free.)
Don't Lock the Door by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
I Got The Feeling by Sharon Jones
I'm Mad by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
Unchained Melody by Golden Group Memories
House Where Nobody Lives by King Ernest

DAVID LYNCH SET

Pinky's Dream by David Lynch with Karen O
I've Told Every Little Star by Linda Scott
Wicked Game by Chris Issak
Sycamore Trees by Little Jimmy Scott
Dark Night Of The Soul by Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse with David Lynch
Up in Flames by Koko Taylor
Floating by Julee Cruise
Noah's Ark by David Lynch

Bitch Done Quit Me by King Ivory
My Love Is A Monster by The Compulsive Gamblers
Love $$$ by Helium
See What you Cause by Cold Sun
Escape by Night by King Shark
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis


 Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Friday, November 11, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 11, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
South of Nashville by Honky Tonk Hustlas
Sinkhole by Drive-By Truckers
Daddy Was A Preacher But Mama Was A Go-Go Girl by Southern Culture On The Skids
Laugh it Off by Merle Haggard
The Wheels Fell Off The Wagon by Johnny Paycheck
Mama Hated Diesels by Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen
Death Of Country Music by The Waco Brothers
Hey, Good Lookin' by Ray Charles

Different Girl by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Throwing Stones by Poor Boy's Soul
Pearly Lee by Billy Lee Riley
Long Live by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Look at that Moon by Carl Mann
The Marching Hippies by Guy Drake
Come and Go by John Lilly
The Cuban Sandwich by Tom Russell & Barrence Whitfield
Cootzie Coo by Charlie Feathers
Veteran's Day by Johnny Cash

KELL ROBERTSON
Kell Robertson at Cafe Oasis 2004
KELL ROBERTSON
(All songs by Kell Unless Otherwise Noted)
Cool and Dark Inside
Died For Love
A Family Joke
Song
Dusty Little World
Another Hole to Fill by Jason Eklund
Down the Bar From Me
Wine Spodee Odee
For Woody Guthrie

Blonde Boy Grunt on the Santa Fe Opry
Blonde Boy Grunt live on
The Santa Fe Opry
The Pilgrim Chapter 33 by Kris Kristofferson
Madonna on the Billboard
Dizzy Gillespie
Song for Roxy
Junkie Eyes
Greensleeves
When You Come Down Off the Mountain by Blonde Boy Grunt (live in studio)
I'll Walk Around Heaven With You by  Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Tell 'em What I Was



Music by Kell Robertson as well as Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans can be found at www.blondeboygrunt.com

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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

Thursday, November 10, 2011

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Music from the Black Lodge

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 11, 2011



Have you heard the latest David Lynch movie?

Actually, it’s not a movie at all. Not even a TV show like Twin Peaks or the lesser-remembered On the Air. Crazy Clown Time is an album — the first “solo” album by the 65-year-old Montana-born director of Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and other surreal, dreamlike cinematic endeavors.

But as Lynch fans know, the man is no stranger to making music. Since the lady came out of the radiator in Eraserhead in 1977, music has been an essential factor in creating the mood.

Along with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, Lynch was part of 2009’s Dark Night of the Soul, a trip-hoppy work featuring a small army of guest vocalists, including Iggy Pop and Frank Black. (Sadly, two of the album’s vocalists, Linkous and Vic Chesnutt, committed suicide.) Lynch also wrote and produced the lush but mostly plodding This Train by Chrysta Bell, released a couple of months ago.

Crazy Clown Time is Lynch’s peculiar vision. One might argue that it’s a continuation of the dark electro-pop of Dark Night of the Soul and that he picked up a lot of musical ideas from Angelo Badalamenti, the composer responsible for Lynch’s best soundtracks.

There’s truth to all that, but through his past work, he’s established what can only be called a David Lynch sound. This album, with its slow minor-key sonic backdrops and distorted vocals, builds on that.

Lynch saves his best on the first track on the album. “Pinky’s Dream” features the vocals of Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Over heavy drums, tremolo guitar, and otherworldly squiggle noises, Karen O seems as if she’s scared and desperate. I’m not sure who Pinky is, but it sounds as if someone could get killed any minute.

The title song features Lynch singing in falsetto over an ominous soundscape. He sounds like a little kid talking about a wild teenage party he witnessed. “Suzy ripped off her shirt completely. ... They all ran around. It was crazy clown time. ... We all ran around. It was real fun.”

Some of these horny teenage high jinks reappear in “Speed Roadster,” but here the narrator is a jealous, lovelorn, obsessed boy. (“Why won’t you answer the phone? Billy’s having a party, I wish you were goin’.”)

Then there’s “Strange and Unproductive Thinking,” in which Lynch’s voice sounds like it was stolen from an old Laurie Anderson record. This is a seven-minute monologue featuring a funky beat and a bass line reminiscent of David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Here Lynch speaks authoritatively about the connection of dental and mental health.

Put Crazy Clown Time on and close your eyes. The visions dancing in your head will provide images to create stories as spooky, mysterious, and funny as any Lynch film. Check out www.davidlynch.com.

Lynch party: 

As far as movie soundtracks go, in my book (an admittedly strange book), nothing compares with those of Lynch’s films, for both the original scores and the existing songs chosen for the movies. Here’s my favorite music from the world of Lynch.

* “Up in Flames” by Koko Taylor. The late Chicago blues queen appears singing this song only for a few seconds in the movie Wild at Heart, but it’s there in all its eerie glory on the soundtrack album.

* “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison. Nobody who saw Blue Velvet can ever hear this song again without thinking of Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, and Lynch’s “joy ride.” Another Orbison song, “Crying” was used in Mulholland Drive, performed by Rebekah Del Rio. But it wasn’t a fraction as fearsome as “In Dreams.”

* “In Heaven.” In one of the most bizarre scenes in one of the most bizarre movies Lynch ever made (and that’s saying something!), the protagonist of Eraserhead (Jack Nance) has a vision of a tiny woman with horrible growths on her cheeks coming out of his radiator and singing this strange little tune, accompanied only by what sounds like a pump organ. The singer is portrayed by an actress named Laurel Near, but I’m not sure whether she actually sang it. A decade or so later, The Pixies recorded a wonderful cover.

* Floating by Julee Cruise. Cruise provided the ethereal soprano voice and Badalamenti wrote the wispy, frequently foreboding melodies and arrangements on this 1989 album. Lynch wrote the deceptively innocent lyrics. “Mysteries of Love” had been used in Blue Velvet, while several of these haunting tunes ended up in Twin Peaks (the show and the subsequent movie). An instrumental version of the song “Falling” became the show’s opening theme, while Cruise sometimes appeared as a nightclub singer performing songs from this album.

* “Sycamore Trees” by Little Jimmy Scott. This song was performed by the elderly high-voiced R & B singer in the very last episode of Twin Peaks — in the Black Lodge, with the dancing dwarf, no less.

* “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak. His voice is often compared with Orbison’s, and maybe Lynch was conscious of that connection when he chose it for the Wild at Heart soundtrack. But it’s mainly the smoky, sinister, twangy guitar in the song, not the voice, that we hear in the scene in which Sailor makes a startling revelation to Lula as they drive through the night.

* “Love Letters” by Ketty Lester. This is a gospel-flavored torch song that was a hit in the early ’60s. It’s used in Blue Velvet as Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlin) discovers a grisly murder scene.

* “The Loco-Motion” by Little Eva. Somehow, a line of naked prostitutes dancing to this song in Inland Empire helped me appreciate this early ’60s hit far more than Little Eva did on her own. And unlike some scenes in that three-hour mess of a movie, this scene didn’t make me doze off.

Radio Lynch: I’ll take you on a joy ride, neighbor, and send you some love letters straight from my heart on Terrell’s Sound World this Sunday night. The show starts at 10 p.m., and I’ll do my Lynch set shortly after the 11th hour on KSFR-FM 101.1 or www.ksf.org .

Lynch Music on Spotify: Check out my World of Lynch Spotify playlist HERE

BLOG BONUS: Enjoy some new and old Lynch sights and sounds:









Monday, November 07, 2011

Ride Easy, Kell Robertson

R.I.P. Kell Robertson
Kell Robertson heard that long-promised call this morning: "Come on in, it's cool and dark inside."

He died this morning on the property where he lived for about 15 years. One friend said he'd had a peaceful night surrounded by loved ones, including his daughter Penny who flew out from San Francisco to say goodbye.

Kell, who was in his early 80s, had been hospitalized for about three weeks. (I'm not sure about the specific reasons.) He was released Saturday but told he just had a few days left.

I got to say goodbye to him yesterday. He wasn't conscious when I was there, though his friends said they believed he could hear us talking to him.

I wrote a profile about him for No Depression magazine seven years ago:

 A poet and self-described “old drunk,” Robertson has lived the life he’s written about in his songs and poems. “I’ve always thought that my biography is in my poetry and songs,” he said ...

He was born in 1930 in Codell, Kansas, the son of a saxophone player who abandoned the family when Kell was a toddler. His mother remarried a man who kicked Kell out of the house at age 13. He’s been rambling ever since.

He’s earned a living as an usher in a movie theater, a fruit picker, a dishwasher, a soldier in the Korean War, a disc jockey at country and jazz stations, a bartender, and an insurance salesman. At one point, he says, he took classes at a police academy in California before deciding against a career in law enforcement. ...

Robertson has been picking and singing and writing his songs for decades now, ever since having an epiphany as a youth when he saw Hank Williams play in Louisiana. “It turned my head around,” he remembers. “I realized that I don’t care what I do with the rest of my fucking life, I’m going to do that or try to do it. I’m going to do what he does, somehow.”

But, as I said in that story, Kell was better known as a poet. He was part of San Francisco’s North Beach scene in the 1950s and ’60s, where he published a mimeograph poetry magazine called Desperado in the ’60s. Lawrence Ferlinghetti once said, “I would say Kell Robertson is one fine cowboy-poet, worth a dozen New Yorker poetasters. Let them listen and hear the voice of the real America out there.”

I loved the old bastard and I miss him already. I'm going to miss him calling me during my radio show to request songs by Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings and himself. I'll miss him saying, "Ride easy!" instead of "goodbye." I hate the fact that he'll never appear live on The Santa Fe Opry again.

I'll close hear with the same song quote with which I concluded the No Depression piece, from his song, "I Always Loved a Waltz."

“Just write on my tombstone, Lord if I get a tombstone/Or maybe just a honky-tonk wall/That he was crazy for ladies, Lord, and guitars and babies/And a damned old fool for the waltz.”

Ride easy, Kell.

UPDATE: 11-8-11 Kell's full obituary in today's New Mexican is HERE

KELL ROBERTSON

Sunday, November 06, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 6, 2011
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(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Boogie Til You Puke by Root Boy Slim & His Sex Change Band
Something Else by The Headcat
Who Do You Love? by The Doors
Love Miner by O Lendario Chucobillyman
Run Through The Jungle by Gun Club
Ce Soir by The Monsters
(Hot Pastrami With) Mashed Potatoes by Joey Dee & The Starliters

Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell by Iggy & The Stooges
Joan Dark by The Bassholes
Homunculus by Manby's Head
South Texas by Cold Sun
This Crushing Thing by The Blood Drained Cows
You're Gonna Miss Me by The Frontier Circus
Officer Touchy by The Scrams
North Wind by Houston Wells & The Marksmen

Raised Right Men/Talking at the Same Time by Tom Waits
Snatch It Back And Hold It/Mustang Ranch by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Whiskey Wagon by Barrence Whitfield & the Savages
I Got High by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Burnin' Inside by King Khan & The Shrines
Blue Moon by The Marcels

Noah's Ark by David Lynch
Werewolf Dynamite by Kim Fowley
Melody by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
The Other Side Of This Life by Jefferson Airplane
 CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Saturday, November 05, 2011

BLACK JOE LEWIS in SF on TUESDAY


My very favorite of the new breed of retro-soul or punk-soul or whatever kinda sol you wanna call it bands, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears is coming to Santa Fe Sol Tuesday, Nov. 8.

They will glaze your ham!

Tickets are a mere $13 bucks. Info HERE

I've reviewed a couple of young Black Joe's albums. You can find those words of wisdom HERE and HERE

Better yet, enjoy a couple of his tunes below. See you there Tuesday.



Friday, November 04, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Halden is a Hell-Raisin' Town by Rick Brousard & Two Hoots and a Holler
Wake Up Sinners by The Dirt Daubers
I Want My Mojo Back by Scott H. Biram
Ding Dong Mama From Tennessee by Jimmy Myers
Skid Row Girl by Wanda Allred
Roll Truck Roll by Bill Kirchen
Move It by T. Tex Edwards & The Saddletramps
Drive, Drive, Drive by Dale Watson
Big Joe & The Phantom 309 by Red Sovine
Guns, Guitars and Women by Kell Robertson

Let's Go Through Menopause Together by Jim Terr (as "Buddy")
Jesus Car by The Yawpers
I'm So Happy I Found You by Lucinda Williams
The Way It Goes by Gillian Welch
Rita's Breakdown by Mama Rosin
Clap Hands by C.J. Chenier
The Devil's Gotta' Earn by Brett Detar

Nails in the Pine by Poor Boy's Soul
My Gal Sal Medley by Howard Armstrong
Where Should I Lay My Head, Lord? by O Lendario Churcrobillyman
Texas Rose by Possessed by Paul James
Learn to Say No by Lydia Loveless
Sweet Kind of Love by Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Johnson To Jones by The Milo Twins
Cool and Dark Inside by Kell Robertson

The Ghost and Honest Joe by Pee Wee King
Uncle Sam by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Perfect Far Away by The Bottle Rockets
Fallen Angel by Jimbo Mathus
I Pity The Poor Immigrant by Richie Havens
I'll Walk Around Heaven With You by Kell Robertson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Thursday, November 03, 2011

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Bellowing Like the Immortals

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Nov. 4, 2011


Here’s a cheesy blurb for Tom Waits’ new album: Bad as Me is as good as it gets.

I can’t help it. It’s true.

In these difficult economic and political times, hearing music this excellent from an old master who is well along the road to senior citizenship is a sweet and welcome beacon in the fog — even when much of the music is dark and threatening. It’s reassuring that Waits is awake and creating, making music that still matters, growling with the alley cats and bellowing like an immortal.

It’s his first album of new material since 2004’s Real Gone, and definitely his most powerful album of new material since 1999’s Mule Variations.

His output since the beginning of this century has been sparse and uneven. In 2002 he had the dual releases of Alice and Blood Money — both soundtracks from theatrical productions, each of which have some good songs but neither of which really seems like a Waits album. Real Gone is a strange album with lots of experimental human-beat-box effects, lots of anti-war lyrics, and not a trace of Waits’ trademark piano. (Rereading my review of it, I think now I was too generous at the time.) Two years later came his excellent but probably too long three-disc rarities compilation, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, followed in 2009 by Glitter and Doom Live.

Waits is such a monster that he attracts a whole boatload of star performers as sidemen, and yet you never once forget that Bad As Me is a Tom Waits album, not a guest-star extravaganza.

He has Marc Ribot and Keith Richards playing guitar (Richards joins on harmony vocals on some tracks), David Hidalgo of Los Lobos on a whole bunch of instruments, Augie Meyers on keyboards, Les Claypool, Flea, and longtime Waits compadre Larry “The Mole” Taylor (formerly of Canned Heat) on bass and guitar, and blues great Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica. Lesser artists would have these names plastered all over the album cover.

The album starts off with a bunch of Waits blues songs — blues from Pluto (more the god than the ex-planet). “Chicago” is charged with Balkan-like horns (has Waits been listening to Beirut?). The rhythm is tense and foreboding. Musselwhite blows his harp like a train whistle. It’s about a desperate family pulling up stakes and moving to another city. The song is new, but Bo Diddley, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and countless others had it in their hearts during the migration from the South in the past century. (The theme is repeated later in the album with the starker, wearier-sounding “Face to the Highway.”)

“Raised Right Men” is outright spooky, with its staccato guitar and Meyers’ creepy organ fill. The song is about domestic discord. A guy quarrels with his woman, who finally gets fed up enough to knock out a tooth. And now “He’s that lonely man on the turnpike in the toll-takers booth.”

Things slow down a little with “Talking at the Same Time,” in which Waits sings, “Well, we bailed out all the millionaires/They’ve got the fruit/We’ve got the rind/And everybody’s talking at the same time,” in his greasy falsetto over a sinister, atmospheric Twin Peaks- style guitar twang.

This is followed by “Get Lost,” some mutant rockabilly with Ribot and Hidalgo dueling on guitar.

“Hell Broke Luce,” more than any other track on this album, will remind listeners of Real Gone — except it’s better than anything on that album. This is a horrifying tale of war in which Waits is mostly backed by crazy tape-loop percussion and frantic, disjointed guitar riffage by Ribot and Richards, and, at one point, a dreamlike horn section that sounds like a Salvation Army band.

Like many of the songs on that album, this is a topical song, dealing with a wounded veteran of the war in Iraq — or is it Afghanistan? Waits starts out with a soldier’s marching rhyme: “I had a good home, but I left. I had a good home, but I left, right ...” T-Model Ford fans will instantly recall the elder blues hound’s “To the Left, to the Right.” But Waits’ song is far more pointed. His lyrics sink into rants against military brass, the tedium of military life, and the ravages of war (“That big fucking bomb made me deaf ... My face was scorched, scorched ... Kelly Presutto got his thumbs blown off/Sergio’s developing a real bad cough ... Left, right, left”).

Then there’s “Satisfied,” a hard-edged blues (with a strange shout-out to Mr. Jagger and Mr. Richards) with an underlying gospel fervor. And don’t forget the title song, in which the singer tells a lover, “You’re the letter from Jesus on the bathroom wall/You’re mother superior with only a bra. ... You’re the same kind of bad as me.”

If these are brawlers, there are also plenty of bawlers on this album.

“Pay Me,” with accordion by Meyers and fiddle by Hidalgo, has a back-street Parisian feel. “Back in the Crowd,” with an acoustic Spanish guitar, could be a lost Gene Pitney song. “Kiss Me” is a slow, smoky, tune with jazz guitar played by Waits himself. It sounds like the little brother of Waits’ old tune “Blue Valentines.” And “Last Leaf,” featuring Richards on wino harmonies, should remind Waits fans of their classic duet “That Feel” from almost 20 years ago.

There are two versions of Bad as Me — the regular and the “deluxe edition,” which has three extra songs. (I saved a little money, but not much, by buying the regular CD and downloading the bonus tracks from eMusic.) It’s worth picking these up. “After You Die” is a banjo-based hobo meditation on the afterlife. “She Stole the Blush” is more junkyard blues. “Tell Me” is a pretty tune that’s close to radio ready — you can almost imagine Glen Campbell doing this one. It will appeal to those who might be scared off by some of the darker, crazier tracks on Bad as Me.

The disc ends with “New Year’s Eve,” a bittersweet waltz featuring Hidalgo’s accordion. Waits sings of moving on, as well as drunken bonding. “I ran out on Sheila and everything’s in storage./Calvin’s right, I should go back to driving a truck.”

This song should be played in every household in America at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31.

Every year.

Forever.

Blog Bonus: Check this out for laffs

BUTCH CROUCH MEMORIAL


I just received this from Alan Ackoff. The memorial is 3-5pm Sunday Nov. 13 at El Farol. The cover charge is "a story about Butch."

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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