Monday, April 28, 2014

My Spoken Word Debut



I'll be doing a spoken-word piece -- basically a tuneless medley of a couple of my old hitchhiking songs -- Tuesday night at George R.R. Martin's Jean Cocteau Cinema as a part of the Julesworks Follies 25th Edition Birthdays Bash.

It's a bitchen variety show organized by Stephen Jules Rubin. My old pal and former Angry Samoan Gregg Turner will be singing some of his songs of love and mercy, and there will be song, comedy and drama from Juleswork regulars like Tom Sibley, Leticia Cortez, Al Staggs and many many more.

It's only $7 and starts at 7 pm (coincidence?) at the Jean Cocteau, 418 Montezuma Ave. in Santa Fe.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST



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Sunday, April , 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
WE ARE back on the Air and WE ARE still STREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist below


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Friday, April 25, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

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Friday, April 25, 2014 
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

Here's my playlist below:






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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Chuck E. Weiss is Back

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
April 25, 2014

Deal the cards, roll the dice, if it ain’t that old Chuck E. Weiss.

That’s right, the craggy-faced, mop-topped hierophant of the hipster underground (and yes, kids, I’m using the original connotation of “hipster” and not the pathetic thing it’s turned into) is back with a new album called Red Beans and Weiss, and it’s full of stripped-down rock ’n’ roll, R & B, blues, laughs, post-beat cool, hard-earned wisdom, and flashes of sheer insanity.

Most people my age probably first heard of Weiss in 1979 when he popped up on the edges of the national consciousness as the unlikely romantic lead in Rickie Lee Jones’ first hit, “Chuck E.’s in Love.”

Of course, those of us who were Tom Waits fans back then had known the name for years. Waits name-checked him on the song “Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)” on the album Nighthawks at the Diner — which also contains the song “Spare Parts I: A Nocturnal Emission,” which Weiss co-wrote — and waxed nostalgically for his company in “I Wish I Was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)” on Waits’ album Small Change.

Weiss, Waits, and Jones got to be pals in the ’70s when they lived at the infamous Tropicana Motel in Hollywood. But Weiss had already established a music career. As a teenager in Denver, he used to hang out at the Ebbets Field blues club, eventually becoming the drummer for the house band.

The band backed bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins one night, and Hopkins was apparently so impressed that he hired Weiss as his tour drummer. Eventually Weiss played with some other major names in American music including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Dr. John, and former Tesuque resident Roger Miller.

Unfortunately, his recording career can only be called sporadic — and that’s being charitable. His first album, The Other Side of Town, didn’t come until 1981, two years after “Chuck E.’s in Love,” and that was a bunch of demo tapes reportedly released against his will. (I recently listened to it on Spotify, and it’s good stuff. Dr. John plays keyboards on it, and Larry “The Mole” Taylor, an original member of Canned Heat who played with Waits for years, is on bass.)

Weiss’ first proper,  official album, Extremely Cool, wasn’t unleashed until 1999. Between that and Red Beans there have only been two others, Old Souls & Wolf Tickets (2001) and 23rd & Stout (2007).

As with all his works since Extremely Cool, on Red Beans Weiss is backed by his cronies, a tough and tight band known collectively as The Goddamn Liars — which includes former Santa Fean Tony Gilkyson, who has played with X and Lone Justice, on guitar.

The album kicks off with a rowdy rocker called “Tupelo Joe,” on which Weiss alternates between a gravelly baritone and a comical mock-doo-wop voice. He milks the idea that “Tupelo Joe went to the show ... Tupelo Joe ain’t no schmo” for all it’s worth, and it sounds wonderful. The pace slows down immediately for “Shushie,” a beatnik-jazz excursion with sax and standup bass.

Chuck E. on Kimmel
This is followed by a slow-burner called “Boston Blackie.” Here, Weiss proclaims himself to be just like the old TV detective, a “friend to those who have no friends.” Weiss and band did this tune on a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. In the middle of the song, Weiss’ old friend Johnny Depp came out with a guitar.
Weiss and his Liars get funky on “That Knucklehead Stuff” (”I’m sittin’ on a stool tryin’ to be cool, tryin’ not to show any interest/Heard this snickering sound, and my body shook the ground, and I knew the stuff had no limits./The knucklehead stuff”).

Then they take an inebriated detour to the barrio for “Hey Pendejo,” which I’ll nominate for the greatest pseudo-Mexican tune by gringos since The Pogues’ “Fiesta.” ( This would have made a great campaign theme last year for unsuccessful Albuquerque mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli.)

The sole cover song on the album is “Exile on Main Street Blues,” which was an outtake recorded by the Rolling Stones during their Exile on Main Street sessions. It’s full of the titles of and cheesy allusions to songs on their greatest album. But I bet the Rolling Stones wish they had done the stomping blues rocker “Dead Man’s Shoes,” which Weiss co-wrote with Gilkyson.

For sheer tomfoolery, Weiss goes for the goofy gold in “Willy’s in the Pee Pee House.” I’m assuming this refers to prison. On this crazy little New Orleans-soaked singalong, the Goddamn Liars sound like Professor Longhair’s band at the end of a three-week bender, while Weiss sings in an exaggerated Buck Owens-on-Quaaludes drawl. But it works. (And yes, that is the Rocky and Bullwinkle theme you hear on the piano at one point. I’m just not sure why.)

But for all the good-time craziness, one song on Red Beans is dead serious. That’s “Bomb the Tracks,” a crunchy rocker in which Weiss sings, “Why didn’t you bomb the tracks, Jack/Why didn’t you stop the train, James.” To be sure, the song contains some surreal imagery: FDR in Maine “doing the boogaloo chicken,” Joe Stalin drawing “futuristic pictures of Huckleberry Hound,” and whatnot.

In a recent interview on his  publicist’s website, Weiss talked about what the song means to him:

 “I’m the first generation born after the war, and one of the first things I ever learned in life was that Hitler had killed members of my family. ... When I was about 17 or 18 it occurred to me that, okay, these trains are going down the tracks to the death camps, and Russia and the U.S. and England have planes, so why didn’t we bomb those tracks? So trains couldn’t get to death camps. ... What really started to bother me as a much older person was to make a god out of Roosevelt. To the Jews, Roosevelt was God, bigger than Al Jolson, man. Know what I’m saying?”

You got to watch those finger-poppin’ daddies. Sometimes there’s some sharp insights hiding in their happy fog of jive.

Chuck's in YouTube




Monday, April 21, 2014

Something's Fishy at The Big Enchilada!!!!!!


THE BIG ENCHILADA



The catfish are jumpin' and the hillbillies are high here at the Big Enchilada. We're going down to the fishin' hole .Enjoy this new crop of musical hillbilly madness


(Background Music: Buster's Crawdad Song by The Tune Wranglers)
Catfish and Collard Greens by Junior Brown
Crackhead Lullabye by Red Eye Gravy
Get That Fiddle Fired Up by Hezekiah Goode
My Love Give Me Love by Steve Train & His Bad Habits
Everybody Loves My Baby by Dave Van Ronk & The Ragtime Jug Stompers

(Background Music: Blue Guitars by The Light Crust Doughboys)
Dixie Fried by The Howlin' Brothers
Apache Tears by Los Dugans
Prison Town by Kern Richards
I Drink to Remember by Dale Watson
I Like Drinkin' by The Beaumonts
Please Ask That Clown to Stop Crying by Neil Hamburger

(Background Music: Texas Playboy Rag by The Pine Valley Cosmonauts)
Catfish Boogie by Wayne Raney
Whisper in the Dark by The Pine Hill Haints
Soy Muriendo by Possessed by Paul James
Take Your Pony by A Pony Named Olga
Gotta Shake That Thing by Leon Redbone
(Background Music: For Lovers Only by Southern Culture on The Skids)


Play it below:



Sunday, April 20, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


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Sunday, April 20, 2014 
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

Here's the playlist below


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Friday, April 18, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Santa Fe Opry Facebook BannerFriday, April 18, 2014 
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

Check out the new high-tech playlist!


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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: John the Conquerer's Rockin' Trickster Blues

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
April 18, 2014


You might think that the name of the band John the Conqueror, whose new album The Good Life I've been enjoying lately, sounds familiar. 
As a matter of fact, anyone who has ever heard Muddy Waters or the endless supply of lesser mortals sing "Hoochie Coochie Man" has heard the phrase "High John the Conquerer" (or, sometimes, "Conqueroo"). 

But unless you're somewhat acquainted with the ways of the hoodoo, you might not realize what exactly that is.

So before we get into the music, let's have a little lesson in culture. 

There's a reason Muddy mentioned High John in the same breath as his black cat bone and his mojo in that song. Here's what Papa Jim, a San Antonio mail-order voodoo merchant (and, according to some of his old catalogs, "a true man of God"), has to say on his website about the "Hi John the Conqueror" root:

* The most famous of all Voodoo roots. Carry with you at all times to help remove and conquer all obstacles in your path.

* Carry in a green bag for good luck, money drawing and power over others. Anoint daily with John the Conqueror Oil.

* Attract a specific lover by carrying this root and a lock of hair from the one you desire in a Red Flannel bag anointed with Attraction Oil.

* A fantastic good luck charm when kept in your pocket while gambling.

* Carry in your pocket to offset moods of depression and confusion.
THIS HERB IS NOT SOLD FOR THERAPEUTIC, MEDICINAL, OR COSMETIC USE, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSUMED.

That last line has to be for the benefit of the Food and Drug Administration.
So who was High John, for whom this root is named? Zora Neale Hurston wrote that he was an archetypal trickster found in myth and folklore. According to an essay in Hurston's collection The Sanctified Church, John started out as "a whisper, a will to hope, a wish to find something worthy of laughter and song. " 

However, he soon became "a man in full, and had come to live and work on the plantations, and all the slave folks knew him in the flesh. ... Old Massa couldn’t know, of course, but High John de Conquer was there walking his plantation like a natural man. He was treading the sweat-flavored clods of the plantation, crushing out his drum tunes, and giving out secret laughter."

Like Jimmy Dean said, "It's hard to get the best of a man named John."

So it's a whisper, a man, a root, a magic charm, and now a Jimi Hendrix-influenced, blues-soaked rock 'n' soul band from Philadelphia, whose members are young enough to be Muddy's grandchildren and have roots in Mississippi. That's a strong claim to stake, but deep in the grooves of The Good Life, I hear some real potential — not to mention some good drum tunes and secret laughter.

The band is fronted by a singer, guitarist, and songwriter named Pierre Moore. Along with drummer Michael Gardner, he moved from Oxford, Mississippi — first to Atlanta, where they were in an " Afro-punk" group called The Slack Republic — before moving to to the City of Brotherly Love. They hooked up with bassist Ryan Lynn to form John the Conqueror. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2011.

For the new record, J the C added the bassist's brother, Steve Lynn, on keyboards on some tracks. But that's not the biggest change I hear in their basic blues-rock attack. 
Moore's songs are stronger than they were on the first album. In an interview with That Music, Moore said that every song here comes from "a personal story of ours." And just about every story is interesting.

He writes what he knows, and he seems to know a lot about drinking, drugging, sex, and being a troublesome kid. In the stories he tells, Moore often presents himself as a modern variation on the trickster/hero archetype, perhaps a contemporary Hoochie Coochie Man. He doesn’t actually tell tales of voodoo, though in his guitar you can here echoes of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile.”

On “Golden Rule” Moore sings about being an unruly kid testing the boundaries of his strict mother. “I picked up a cigarette butt and my butt got the belt,” he recalls. Mama warns, “I brought you in this world, and I’ll sho’ 'nuff take you out/if I ever see another cigarette hangin’ out your mouth.” But that’s not the only time he faces the wrath of Mama. One day she leaves work early: “She opened up my door and found a naked girl in my room,” he sings.

That’s not the only naked girl we encounter on this album. 

In “She Said,” a song about cocaine, Moore sings, “just met this girl and I not know why she’s naked lyin’ on my floor.” And on the cautionary tale “Daddy’s Little Girl,” it’s not his mama that Moore has to worry about. “When you mess with Daddy’s little girl you’re gonna see/Just how crazy that man can be.” It’s a slow-moving, minor-key song with Moore’s stinging guitar and Gardner’s drums building the tension throughout.

There’s even more youthful debauchery in “Mississippi Drinkin’.” Moore sings that he and his his friends were boozing it up in some field. “It seemed like a good idea until our downtown party went downhill.” One dumb kid pulls a gun out of his pocket, but luckily he doesn’t hit anyone when he shoots it. Later, Moore and cronies are drinking in some juke joints. “Well, it’s cheap enough I ended up wearing nothin’ but my boots.”

Moore wrote all the songs but one — a cool, rocking cover of Randy Newman's "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield." This might be the best Newman cover since Joe Cocker bellowed out "You Can Leave Your Hat On" all those decades ago.

I can’t guarantee that this incarnation of John the Conqueror will bring you luck in gambling or romance, but I can see how it would be a darn good soundtrack when you’re setting out to do those things. 

Video Time:

Here's J the C doing a live version of "She Said"

Sunday, April 13, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


Terrell's Sound World Facebook BannerSunday, April 13, 2014 
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
God is a Bullet by Concrete Blonde
Albuquerque Freakout by Holy Wave
Do the Vibrate by The Black Lips
Run Through the Jungle by Link Wray
Move Your Arse by A Pony Named Olga
Bomba na Parliament by Kult
Godzilla's a Punk by The 99ers

Prince Minsky's Lament by Chuck E. Weiss
I'll Be Back by Question Mark & The Mysterians 
Waking Up. To You by John the Conqueror
Contraption/Soul Desert by Thee Oh Sees
Make You Wild by Lynx Lynx
She's Lookin' Good by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack
Champagne Halloween by St. Paul & The Broken Bones
Sit with the Guru by Strawberry Alarm Clock

Joe Bonner by The Gluey Brothers
Funky Old Man by Bobby Rush
Switched to Drinkin' Gin by Mojo JuJu
Double Old Soul by Busy McCarroll
Blues from Phyllis by Flamin' Groovies
Baby I Know What It's Like to Be Alone by Dex Romweber Duo

Distant Fingers by Patti Smith
Hare Krishna Mantra by The Radha Krsna Temple
Hard Krsna by Husker Du
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing by The Persuasions 
Afflicted by Charles Brimmer 
We Belong Together by Rickie Lee Jones
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, April 11, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Santa Fe Opry Facebook BannerFriday, April 11, 2014 
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
Lone Road Home by Wayne Hancock
Love is a Battlefield by Gal Holiday
Bright Lights and Country Music by Rhonda Vincent
The Only Other Person in the Room by Brennen Leigh & Noel McKay
Hard Rain's Gonna Fall by The Waco Brothers with Paul Burch
For All That Ails You by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Hippievile by Alvie Self
One Sided Love Affair by Dex Romweber Duo
Say Darlin' Say by The Dirt Daubers

Beedle Um Bum by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks withJim Kweskin 
Cowboy's Dream #19 by Floyd Domino & Maryann Price
Diddie Wah Diddie by Leon Redbone
Richland Woman by David Johansen & The Harry Smiths
Anything Goes at a Rooster Show by The Imperial Rooster
St. James Infirmary by The Pine Hill Haints
The Band Keeps Playin' On by Buck Owens
Beautiful Blue Eyes by Red Allen & The Kentuckians
Answer the Phone by Ernest Tubb

Sleight of Hand by Country Blues Revue
Off the Grid by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks
Together Again by Jono Manson
Continental Divide Waltz by Sid Hausman & Washtub Jerry
Broken Moon by Rob Nikolewski
Hidin' Out in Espanola by Broomdust Caravan

Mrs. Hank Williams by Fred Eaglesmith
Baby Ride Easy by Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
Wilderness of This World by Terry Allen
Take These Chains From My Heart by John Doe & The Sadies
Loneliness is Eating Me Alive by Merle Haggard
Pills Beneath Her Pillow by Possessed By Paul James
Are You Sincere by Bobby Bare
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Good Crop of Local Music

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
April 11, 2014


Here’s a look at some albums by local, or pretty-close-to-local musicians I’ve been enjoying in recent weeks (and some I’ve gotten my hands on only in recent days.)

* Might Crash! by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks. I’ll get right to the point: this is the best Boris album in years. Maybe even his best yet, though I’ve still got a real fondness for Cactusman Versus The Blue Demon from 2005.

McCutcheon is a decent singer but an even better songwriter, and some of the tunes on Might Crash! immediately knocked me in the head. I’m talking about “Booze Farm,” a drunken, bluegrassy fantasy featuring Salt Lick Brett Davis on banjo. “Come on girl, let’s start a booze farm,” he sings. McCutcheon’s bio says he has made a living as a farmer, but it doesn’t say whether or not he’s been a booze farmer.

The title song flirts with rockabilly as well as Roger Miller. “How do you know when you might crash? Do you get that look in your eye? Do you start getting ugly with your kids? Do you start hatin’ your life?”

“This Town Is Dead,” co-written with McCutcheon’s Frogville Records crony Bill Palmer (who co-produced Might Crash!) is a slow, pretty country lament about stagnation. “Dirty needles floatin’ down the ditch/I’m stuck in limbo with a traveling itch,” McCutcheon moans. “This casino sucks, I want my money back.”

But the real showstopper on this record is a near-five-minute foreboding dirge called “Off the Grid.” It’s a portrait of some Northern New Mexico residents who live “up the mountains, over the cliff and off the grid” among “shattered panels and some old golf-cart batteries from the '70s.” McCutcheon sings as if he’s stumbled upon some post-apocalyptic world: “They’re all hiding up here, they’re all hoping the world will end.” The singer doesn’t exactly condemn what he sees, but he doesn’t romanticize it, either.

* Live Frogville Sessions by Country Blues Revue. Like the title says, this album, the second by this group led by singer/guitarist Marc Malin and harp tooter “Harmonica” Mike Handler was recorded live
before a studio audience at Frogville Studios in Santa Fe. I was planning on attending one of the two nights it was recorded last December, but something came up and I didn’t. I suspected this would happen, and indeed it did: listening to the CD makes me regret missing this party even more than I already did. The album is full of foot-stomping, good-time American music, predominantly blues but with lots of New Orleans-style R & B, some Dixieland, and, yes, a little country mixed in.

Though it normally operates as a quartet, for the Frogville session the CBR grew into a small army, with a horn section, Brant Leeper on piano, David Barclay Gomez (of Felix y Los Gatos) on accordion, and Dave Devlin on steel guitar. On a few tunes there are some out-of-town guests: Roberta Donnay and Daria, The Lickettes in the most recent incarnation of Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks. They’re at their Lickettiest on the songs “I Can’t Give Up on You” and “The Writing Is on the Wall.”

At this writing, my favorite tune is “Sleight of Hand,” a primitive blues that features a guitar hook similar to Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” and a slightly muffled sound that suggests it’s coming from an old AM car radio on some dark and lonesome backwoods road.

* Angels From the Other Side by Jono Manson. For the last 20-plus years he’s been in Santa Fe, Manson’s basic music attack has not changed much, and that’s definitely not a bad thing. With a Jono album, you always can count on listenable, frequently catchy tunes — some of which stick in your brain for hours at a time — sturdy blues rockers, sweet, soulful ballads, and maybe a little country. This album is no exception.

Listening to Angels in my car on a long drive recently, it occurred to me that, unlike so much of the other music I like, there is little if any darkness on this album. And while it’s certainly not devoid of humor, there is not much at all in the way of underlying irony or sarcasm. The lyrics are pretty much all straightforward and sincere. And most of it is outright happy. It was pretty refreshing, actually.

That being said, one of my favorite songs here is the saddest one on the album. “The Frame” is about some kind of family tragedy, the details of which are left to the listener’s imagination. It starts out with the narrator looking at an old photo of a happy young couple with a little girl. “No one was to blame, but everything was changin’/I guess you wouldn’t know, because the picture doesn’t show what’s just outside the frame."

“Angelica” is a strange ode to a singer’s guardian angel/muse, “a tired angel behind these eyes,” while “Honky Tonk in My Mind,” despite its title, isn’t really a country song. It’s an upbeat bar-band rocker on which Manson laments, "I can’t forget you but I bet you never would have left me if only you had met me in the honky tonk in my mind.” But if it’s “country” you want, there’s “Together Again” – no, not the Buck Owens hit. It’s a song about a family reunion with some tasty mandolin by former Santa Fe resident John Egenes. And unlike so many songs of this ilk, this family isn’t dysfunctional.

* Blue Horizon by Sid Hausman & Washtub Jerry. I’ve been a fan of Hausman’s music for more decades than either of us would want me to say. Hausman is a poet and a picker (who in recent years has become a strong partisan for the tenor ukulele as well as the guitar and banjo) with a fondness for Western swing and songs from singing-cowboy cinema.

Indeed, if Hollywood still made such movies, Hausman could be a singing-cowboy star. He’s got the look, and the music comes natural to him. In fact, some of the best songs on this new album have cowboy-movie roots. “Ridin’ Down the Canyon” was written in 1934 by Smiley Burnette (“Gene Autry’s sidekick,” the liner notes explain), while “Grand Canyon Trail” and “Night Time in Nevada” are from Roy Rogers movies. My favorite song here, however, is a Hausman original called “Only in Texas.” Hausman sings, “Now only in Texas, rattlesnakes have highway exits." Ace fiddler Ollie O’Shea, who plays on several songs on the album, really shines on this one.

One slight quibble: “The New Ragtime Cowboy Joe” basically is the same as the old “Ragtime Cowboy Joe,” except that the “son of a gun from Arizona” has been transformed into a “buckaroo from New Mexico.” Come on Sid, you’re messing with sacred scripture here!

Hear this music on the radio: I’ll be playing selections from the albums by Boris McCutcheon, Country Blues Revue, Sid Hausman & Washtub Jerry, and Jono Manson on The Santa Fe Opry, which starts at 10 p.m. Friday on Santa Fe public-radio station 101.1 KSFR-FM and streaming at www.ksfr.org.

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Big Al Plays the Gig Saturday

Big Al Anderson, who played guitar with NRBQ, is playing at The Gig Performance Space, 1808 Second Street, Saturday April 12. 

Anderson lives part time in Santa Fe, or at least he did when I interviewed him a few years ago.

However, I've never known him to play in public here before.

 Should be fun.

The show starts at 7:30 pm and tickets are $20.

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Chuck E.'s Back!

I was privately grieving David Letterman's announcement of his pending retirement a few nights ago when I suddenly realized: Hey I haven't actually watched Letterman's show, except for a few stray Youtube clips, in years!

In fact, that goes for Leno even more, as well as just about every late-night gab show. I still haven't seen the new Jimmy Falon (I stopped watching SNL because I hated the way he always giggled at his own jokes) or Seth Meyers shows. Come to think of it, I basically agree with this recent article in Slate. So wipe away those crocodile tears!

However, last night I sat through the entire Jimmy Kimmel show. Not for Johnny Depp or the lady from Mad Men, but for Chuck E. Weiss. That's right, Chuck E. was on national TV! He's got a new album called Reds Beans and Weiss his first since 2006, coming out next week.

Anyway, I loved his new song "Boston Blackie" from that album. Maybe you will too. And that's former Santa Fe resident and former member of X and Lone Justice) Tony Gilkyson on guitar. Check it out below.

(UPDATE: This video can no longer be embedded. But you can watch it HERE)

Sunday, April 06, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


Terrell's Sound World Facebook BannerSunday, April 6, 2014 
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
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle by The Sex Pistols
Bad Blood by Sons of Hercules
Hipster Heaven by The Fleshtones
The Girl With the Exploding Dress by The Electric Mess
Out of My Means by J.J. & The Real Jerks
Go in' Ape by The Texreys
Scratch That Itch by The Go Wows
Troglodyte Girl by The 99ers
Rock Lobster by The B-52s

The Ain't Round It's Square by The Orange Rooftops
Hey Seniorita by Beatpack
Scratch My Back by The Flamin' Groovies
Wonder Why by John & Sylvia Embry
Can Your Pussy Do the Dog by The Cramps
Make You Mine by Black Lips
Lick My Decals Off Baby by Captain Beefheart
Hard Working Man by Jonah Gold & His Silver Apples

SURF SET
Cha Wow Wow by The Hillbilly Soul Surfers
Tequila by The Surfaris
Espionage by. Los Straitjackets
2,000 Pound Bee by Satan's Cheerleaders
Jack the Ripper by Link Wray
The Get Smart a Theme by The Ventures
Dangerdog by The Wipeouters
Torquay by The Fieballs
Mermaid Love by Man or Astroman?
Fish Taco by Dick Dale

Warm Berr Cold Women by Tom Waits
Circus by Pray For Brain
I Scare Myself by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, April 04, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Santa Fe Opry Facebook BannerFriday, April 4, 2014 
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
Prison Town by Kern Richards
Why Don't You Love Me by Steve Train & His Bad Habbits
Playboy by Buck Owens
She's a Killer by Gal Holiday
Late Bloomer by Karen Hudson
I Deserve a Drink by. The Beaumonts
Charleston Chew by The Howlin' Brothers
Mayberry by I Can Lick Any SonofaBitch in the House
Tall Tall Trees by Roger Miller
Nitty Gritty by Southern Culture on the Skids

Beatin' on the Bars by The Travelin' Texans
Halfway Through by The Dinosaur Truckers
I'll Be There If Ever You Want Me by John Fogerty
Dirty Thoughts and Busted Hearts by Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders
The White Trash Song by Shooter Jennings with Scott H. Biram
When I Die by Scott H. Biram 
How Can I Still Be Patriotic (When They've Taken Away My Right to Cry) by Neil Hamburger

One Helluva Weekend by T. Tex Edwards
The Lovin' Machine by Johnny Paycheck
Raise a Glass by Michael O'Neill 
To Love Somebody by Lydia Loveless
We'll Be Together Again by Dex Romweber Duo
A Girl Don't Have to Drink to Have Fun by The Stumbleweeds
Booze Farm by Boris McCutcheon & The Saltlicks
The Gypsy by Cornell Hurd

Doghouse Blues by Wayne Hancock
Apache Tears by Los Dugans
Poor Black Mattie by Rest^rant
See You Later Alligator by Flaco Jimenez y Max Baca
Get That Fiddle Fired Up by Hezekiah Goode
Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Ronny Elliott
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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TERRELL'S TUNEUP: New Sounds from Dex Romeweber Duo plus Kern Richards

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
April 4, 2014

The Dex Romweber Duo — singer/guitarist Dex and his sister Sara on drums — are back with another rocking album, blending all the musical elements that make up Dex Romweber’s vision — rockabilly, country, surf music, blues, avant-garde spook-show soundtracks, jazz, and show-stopping sleazo-profundo ballads.

Like the North Carolina natives’ previous albums on Bloodshot Records, Images 13 is a minimalist affair. For the most part it’s just Dex and Sara, though some tunes are augmented by guests, including a couple of North Carolina musicians: Mary Huff of Southern Culture on the Skids and Melissa Swingle, late of Trailer Bride and The Moaners.

Though I believe he’s done some of his best work during the past few years with the Duo, Dex probably is best known as the frontman for Flat Duo Jets — another rockabilly-fueled two-person band that was active in the '80s and '90s. The current Duo probably isn’t as frantic as the Jets were. But that wild spirit still remains. Dex said in a recent interview that his sister is the best drummer he’s ever worked with. And I believe him. She’s getting more impressive with each album.

The album starts out with a metal-edged rocker called “Roll On.” That’s followed by “Long Battle Coming,” a hopped-up, doom-laden, minor-key stomper. Then comes “Baby I Know What It’s Like to Be Alone,” a pensive tale of a loner who sounds as if he’s about to crack and roams the street at night. A listener isn’t quite sure whether the singer is stalking the woman he’s singing about. The lyrics are vague but more than a little creepy: “The tombstone mind watching the street sign/I hope to find you there/At night in my neighborhood I stroll around/the snow fallin’ on the ground.”

"So Sad About Us" is an obscure song by The Who, but the Romwebers perform it as an uptempo, jangly folk-rocker that wouldn't have been out of place on an album by The Byrds or The Beau Brummels. That’s Huff singing background harmonies here.

Dex shows his country/rockabilly chops with "Beyond the Moonlight," in which the only percussion is snappy handclaps. Another country-sounding tune is "One Sided Love Affair." That’s a Johnny Burnette song — though I had to check the credits, because I could have sworn that it was something Nick Lowe had written. On this version, the duo actually is just Dex and his acoustic guitar.

But the Romweber songs I love the most are the slow, intense ones. The best one of these here is "I Don't Want to Listen," a slow dance that sounds like it came from a sock hop in hell. That's also the case with the soulful "We'll Be Together Again." Dex’s crooning is especially powerful on this song, which was co-written by Jackie DeShannon and Sharon Sheeley for Sheeley’s boyfriend, rockabilly great Eddie Cochrane, who died in a car crash in 1960.

The album includes four instrumentals, which is probably too many (I'd rather just hear Dex's voice more), though each one is enjoyable. "Prelude in G Minor" is a noirish little number, on which Sarah proves her worth on the drums. It's followed by "Blackout!," which sounds like a close cousin of the Peter Gunn theme. Here the duo is joined by a horn section. "Blue Surf" is a fast, furious surf tune. And then there's the aptly-titled "Weird (Aurora Borealis)," which features Swingle on musical saw. It’s from the soundtrack of the supernatural TV drama One Step Beyond from the late '50s and early '60s.

While digital versions of Images 13 can be found wherever music downloads are sold, there’s one nifty surprise that makes it worth opting for the CD version. That’s a piece of art inside the CD package, a reprint of an album cover from one of those campy teen-hop compilation album covers — the kind you find these days at Goodwill. This one is Hits A’ Poppin’: Radio and TV Favorites. (You can find a used copy of this 1957 record on Amazon for $10.) What makes this relevant to Dex and Sara Romweber is that the young dark-haired woman holding a bunch of LPs on that cover is their mom, whose is also named Sara Romweber. It seems rock 'n’ roll is in the Romweber blood.

Check out a podcast with Dex Romweber playing some of the music that’s influenced him, with songs by Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochran, and Tav Falco, and more obscure sounds, including some bizarre pipe-organ music. 

Also recommended:

* Anywhere But Home by Kern Richards. This is a collection of tough-minded roots-rock tunes by a singer-songwriter from southern California with a deep, ragged, world-weary voice who sings from the gut and writes from dark regions of his soul. He’s a former Orange County punk rocker who was in a band called Pig Children. His sound is softer now, but it still hits hard.

The first song that grabbed me by the throat here is “Prison Town.” With an arrangement and a guitar hook that reminds me of Steve Earle’s “Guitar Town,” Kern sings about living in a place where the main industry is the corrections system and “the air’s so thick I thought I’d drown.” In this town, everyone seems like some sort of inmate. “Saw prisoner’s kin with broken lives/where guards all braggin’ they beat their wives/It’s only pain that makes us sound/There ain’t no love in a prison town,” Richards growls.

The ravages of liquor is a theme that pops up in various tracks. The title song starts out with the line “Monday drunk in Barstow, Tuesday couldn’t care/Wednesday night, sick with fright and headin’ for nowhere.” And “Alcohol Dreams” starts off, “Woke up standing against a bar somewhere, time was standing still.” And, of course, it gets worse: “If the bartender could read my mind, man he’d call the police/They’d put me in a straitjacket, nobody here would sign my release.”

Richards shows a glimpse of dark humor on the blues-rocker “Down on Blues,” which starts out, “I got a job, I hate my job. I got a girl, she hates me.” Later he complains, “I’ve got swine flu, I’ve got jungle rot/Ain’t no disease exist that I don’t got.”

Richards is backed by a highly capable band that includes former Santa Fe resident Tony Gilkyson, (who’s picked his guitar with Lone Justice, X, Chuck E. Weiss and others) and John Bazz of The Blasters. The album is on a label run by Stevie Tombstone, who knows a thing or two about dark, mournful roots sounds. All in all, it’s an impressive solo debut album by an artist who deserves a wider audience.

Here's some video:




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