Monday, June 29, 2015

A New Big Enchilada Hillbilly Episode!


THE BIG ENCHILADA



Welcome to the Redneck Palace, where rednecks, hillbillies, country bumpkins, hicks, white trash and trash of any color are treated like royalty. Enjoy crazy country sounds old and new, the wild sounds I play every Friday night on the Santa Fe Opry on KSFR.

This episode is dedicated to my new friend, Harley in Roger Miller's hometown Erick, Oklahoma. Harley's own Redneck Palace in Erick is pictured above.

 SUBSCRIBE TO ALL GARAGEPUNK PIRATE RADIO PODCASTS |

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Oklahoma Stomp by Spade Cooley)
Jason Fleming by Neko Case & The Sadies
Long Gone Away by Banditos
If You Take Drugs You're Gonna Die by The Beaumonts
Lovin' Ducky Daddy by Carolina Cotton
I'm a Hobo by Danny Reeves
He's Biding His Time by Danny Dill 
The Palace Roses by Tod Andrews

(Background Music: Bluegrass Concerto by Sonny Osborne)
Down by The River by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Beaten and Broken by The Mekons
I Left My Kazoo in Kalamazoo by Al Duvall
Ain't Gonna Take it No More by Whitey Morgan & The 78s
Don Houston by Slackeye Slim
That's My Pa by Sheb Wooley

(Background Music: Byrd's Boogie by Jerry Byrd & The String Dusters)
Got Just What I Want by Devil in the Woodpile
Defibulator by The Defibulators
Sadie Green (The Vamp of New Orleans) by Roy Newman & The Boys
Chocolate Jesus by Raw Death
Friendly World by The Kittens featuring Shari Elf
(Background Music: Mountain Boogie by Wally Fowler & His Georgia Clodhoppers)



Play it here:



TOM RUSSELL ON THE SANTA FE OPRY -UPDATED with Bad News!

UPDATE: July 2: Disappointing news. Tom Russell contacted me yesterday to tell me that he had to cancell Friday's SF Opry appearance because of a scheduling conflict. He did make a short recording, which I'll play on the show, but he won't be in the studio with me.





Singer-songwriter, artist-author Tom Russell, the man who wrote "Gallo de Cielo," "The Sky Above, The Mud Below," "Blue Wing," "Haley's Comet," "The Man From God Knows Where," "The Kid from Spavinaw," "When Sinatra Played Juarez" and way too many more to mention, will be appearing live in the studio on the Santa Fe Opry this Friday, July 3.

Russell, who recently moved to Santa Fe, recently released a double-CD concept album or "folk opera" or 'frontier musical" call The Rose of Roscrea

And he's got a gig on Tuesday July 14 at the Jean Cocteau Theater. (I'll be sure to ask him about those rumors I just started that he and George R.R. Martin are collaborating on a Game of Thrones episode about cockfighting in Westeros.)

So tune in Friday, 10 p.m. Mountain Time on KSFR. That's 101.1 in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico and streaming live on the web at www.ksfr.org

Below is a promo video for The Rose of Roscrea.


And here is one of my favorite Russell tunes. That's Eliza Gilkyson on background vocals. (She's on Russell's new album too)




Sunday, June 28, 2015

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Terrell's Sound World Facebook Banner

Sunday, June 28, 2015 
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
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
You Ain't Got Soul by The Routes
Demon Seed by Demented Are Go
Ashtray Heart by Captain Beefheart
Move Your Arse by A Pony Named Olga
Zombie Island by Jonny Manak & The Depressives
Tres Borrachos by Left Lane Cruiser
Outrun the Law by The Things
Ooh My Soul by Little Richard

Hola Petunia by Churchwood
Bad News Perfume by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
I Want Your Body by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Crystal Lake by J.C. Satan
I Hate to Dance by Lightning Beat-Man
Dead-End Street by The Monsters
Sweet Tooth King Khan & The Shrines
I Warned You by Motobunny

Don't Be Angry by Ros Sery Sothea
Don't Speak by Pan Ron
Better to Be Lucky Than Good by The Electric Mess
Bad Boy by Larry Williams
Steal Your Love by Jody Porter
Nest of The Cuckoo Bird by The Cramps
Tales of Old New York: The Rock Box by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Viewpoint by Negativland
A Hit Gone Wrong by Deadbolt
Facebook Drama by Northern Cree

The Saddest Story by the MSR Singers
Working for My Jesus by National Independent Gospel Singers
He Will Supply by The Gospel Wonders
I Know the Lord by His Angelic Choir with Rev. Lawrence Roberts
Guide Me by The Soul Finders
Jesus Said it by Heavenly Lights
Kneel and Pray by Cross Jordan Singers
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis


Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Mose McCormack's March Madness

Mose getting ready for his KSFR performance last March
One of New Mexico's finest country songwriters and singers Mose McCormack appeared on the Santa Fe Opry  last March, so I wanted to post it on Mixcloud back then.

However, the recording didn't show up on the KSFR computer where it was supposed to be and I didn't I didn't locate it for several weeks. (Actually I didn't locate it, KSFR's crack staff did. Thanks, guys.)


Anywho, I finally got it posted. You can play it below.

Enjoy!




Here's the first hour of the show. Mose's segment starts about 17 minutes into it.



Friday, June 26, 2015

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Santa Fe Opry Facebook Banner
Friday, June 26, 2015
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 :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly (Fond of Each Other) by Willie Nelson
I'm Little But Loud by Little Jimmy Dickens
Skip a Rope by Kentucky Headhunters
I Got a Date to Cut a Cake by Deke Dickerson
Back-Eyed Susie by Marty Stuart
The Week of Living Dangerously by Steve Earle
The Lost Cause by Legendary Shack Shakers
Ode to Billy Joe by Joe Tex
Lou's Got the Flu by Roger Miller

Preachin' to the Choir by Banditos
Sure Feels Like Rain by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Bug Ya for Love by Dale Watson
Big River by Johnny Cash
A Song Called Love by Slackeye Slim
Blood on the Saddle by Tex Ritter
Jesus Met the Woman at the Well by Tom Russell with Eliza Gilkyson
To the Work by Keb Mo'
The Palace Roses by Tod Andrews

I'm Sorry by The Beaumonts
Let's Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes
Hungover Together by The Supersuckers with Kelly Deal
Sin City by Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen
Slidin' and Fightin' by Joey Delton
VD City by Woody Guthrie
That's the Way Love Goes by Lefty Frizzell
Who Put The Turtle In Myrtle's Girdle by The Western Melody Makers

Hogtied Over You by Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Candye Kane
Just Because I Can by Seasick Steve
Lonesome On'ry and Mean by Waylon Jennings & The 357s
Thunderstorm by The Western Shore
Where I Fell by Robbie Fulks
Lonely Guy by Big Sandy
Friendly World by Shari Elf & The Kittens
Wrong's What I Do Best by Louie Setzer
Broadcaster's Prayer by Carl Shook
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: BANDITOS & BEAUMONTS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
June 26, 2015

Banditos are a big, hairy, Alabama-bred, Nashville-relocated sextet that I’d never heard of until a few months ago. Except for singer Mary Beth Richardson, the band looks like the wild-eyed sons, or maybe grandsons, of Lynyrd Skynyrd. (But please note, that’s an American flag on the group’s album cover, not a Confederate flag, which Skynyrd and other old Southern rock bands liked to drape themselves in.)

But even though Banditos resemble countless other Southern rock groups that came before them, their self-titled album is, hands down, the most impressive country rock debut I’ve heard in years. They play a crazy brew of rootsy, rocksy sounds. You’ll hear strands of ZZ Top, Janis Joplin, Chuck Berry, Hank Williams, bluegrass, jug-band, honky-tonk, rockabilly, and Stax-style soul.


In spite of the fact that Banditos boast three lead singers — Richardson, guitarist Corey Parsons, and banjo man Stephen Pierce — you won’t hear those generic, cheesy, pretty-boy, Eagles-style peaceful, easy harmonies that scar so much of the alt-country, “Americana” (I still hate that term) country-rock universe. No, this is a raucous roadhouse crew that sounds like it’s more interested in rolling you for beer money than gently wooing your ears.


In interviews, Parsons has named several punk and garage groups as influences — The Stooges, The Cramps, The Minutemen, Black Flag, and The Sonics, among others. That intensity definitely is part of the mix. But in another interview, the group praised Randy Travis. Actually, I don’t hear much of either Black Flag or Travis in Banditos, so it’s probably better to just sit back and enjoy their music instead of getting hung up playing “name that influence.”


On the album, Banditos save their best for the first. That’s the loud, frantic boogie called “The Breeze,” which is reportedly a tribute to the band’s late, great 1993 Ford Econoline van, which saw them through their early tours. Another instant favorite is “Long Gone, Anyway,” which actually has crazy kazoo solos, prominent banjo and saloon-style piano, and a melody similar to Mississippi John Hurt’s “Candy Man.”

The group comes closest to country music on the twangy “Blue Mosey #2,” which owes a melodic debt to “Lost Highway,” and the fast-paced honky-tonker, “Waitin’,” sung by Richardson. But Richardson’s big moments on this record are a couple of showstoppers called “No Good” and “Old Ways,” both soul ballads into which she pours her heart. Richardson doesn’t actually sound much like Janis Joplin, but she has a throaty warble and a slow-burn attack. She has a way of mesmerizing a listener, so you barely notice when her sweet coo soars into a shout.


I’m impressed, and I want to hear more of these Banditos.


Also recommended:



* Hey Y’all, It’s The Beaumonts by The Beaumonts. When I first played the first song on this CD, I almost thought Saustex Records put the wrong disc into the case. It wasn’t the music. The Texas Tornado-flavored “San Antonio” sounded pretty much like The Beaumonts with a Mexican accordion. 

But there was something unsettling about the lyrics. There was no profanity! No raunchy sex, no blasphemy, no mention of specific body parts and, with the exception of a quick mention of “cheap weed,” no reference to drugs!


This couldn’t be The Beaumonts I know and love.


But before I could eject the disc to check the label, the very next song, “If You Take Drugs (You’re Gonna Die),” showed the band back in its inspired lowbrow splendor. The song is a bluegrassy (nice mandolin!) stomp that warns “You’ll sell your soul” (and a certain part of your anatomy) “if you take drugs.”


Despite the false start, singer Troy Wayne Delco and the band have crammed in way more of their quota of drinkin’, druggin’, and depravity into this record. There is a song called “Lubbock in the Springtime” about the group’s hometown. Somehow they don’t seem as enamored of Lubbock as they are of San Antonio. After a line about the unpleasant aroma of the place, Delco sings, “I lost my pickup at the feedlot/After drinkin’ nine shots of apple schnapps.”

Live in San Marcos

“Change My Name” is a gleeful stab at “bro-country,” those Nashville hacks who quit their modeling jobs, wear their baseball caps backward, and try to pass themselves off as outlaws. 


“I’m Sorry” is a lengthy apology for all the places where the singer has puked, while “Baby, Tonight!” is about anticipating a heavy date in which Delco hopes to impress a woman with “dinner at my mama’s” and showing her his porno collection.


But if the lyrics veer toward the sophomoric, the truly amazing thing about The Beaumonts is what a tight band they are. “Hollywood” Steve Vegas is an ace country guitarist, while steel guitarist Chip Northcutt, who undoubtedly prays at least three times a day to the late Ralph Moody, is the group’s secret weapon.


In addition to this album, a few weeks ago, Saustex re-released the group’s first album,
Get Ready for The Beaumonts. The bio sheet for the album says, “The label has spared no expense in carefully restoring the master tapes which were rescued from a ‘Bonfire of Filth’ sponsored by the Central Lubbock Baptist Church.” 

Video time!

First a couple from Banditos





And here's a classic tune from The Beaumonts




Thursday, June 25, 2015

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Woody Guthrie, Anti-VD Crusader

This machine kills The Clap
When you think about Woody Guthrie you probably think about his Dustbowl ballads, his labor songs, or maybe his best-known song, "This Land is Your Land."

Chances are you don't immediate think of Woody's songs about venereal disease.

Yes, Woody Guthrie wrote songs about syphilis and gonorrhea with lines like:

"It's a holiday for some folks / it's a day to dance and sing / It's a wedding day for sweethearts / But it's a VD day for me"

and

Once young and once healthy and happy / Now a whirlpool of raving insane / Lost here in this wild V.D. city / Where nobody knows you by name.

and

“With syphilis my cargo, I’ll dock in your harbor no more.”

In 1949 Alan Lomax, the great folk-song field collector, got Woody a job with  the U.S. Public Health Service writing such songs for an anti-VD radio campaign.

Basically Woody took the "scared straight approach" singing about horrible effects of these diseases.

On one tune "VD Gunman's Blues," the singer fantasizes about shooting the woman who gave him the dose -- and her landlady too. I'll never understand why that one never became a hit.

Lots of politicians play "This Land is Your Land" at campaign rallies. But I promise to vote for the first one who uses Woody's "VD Avenue" in a campaign ad.

Several of these songs are included in the 2013 box  Woody Guthrie American Radical Patriot -- which also includes a 78 rpm record of Bob Dylan singing "VD City," which he recorded in the middle '60s.

When introducing "VD Guman's Blues," Woody remarks that if all the songs on the jukebox were about veneral disease, there wouldn't be so many cases of it.

Now don't go catching no bugs.

Update: 10-10-15  Bad news. All of Woody's anti-VD songs have been pulled off Spotify, so that playlist that was embedded here is no more. Not sure of reason, but I assume it had something to do with copyright issues. (Have I told you lately how much I hate the music industry?) If just one person catches the clap because of these songs getting yanked, I'm blaming you, Spotify!

Anywho as a consolation prize, here's a version of Woody's "VD City" as performed by New Multitudes (Will Johnson, Jay Farrar, Yim Yames and Anders Parker)




Wednesday, June 24, 2015

WACKY WEDNESDAY: I Like My Elf




I get zillions of emails from musicians, but this recent one brought a big smile to my face.

It started out.:

Hello my good friend Steve!


I'm so glad you like yourself, Steve! 


And the email ended:


p.s. something good is gonna happen to Steve Terrell today!

It was from an iconoclastic musician, songwriter and artist from California I met a few years ago named Shari Elf. And no it wasn't really a personal email. It was a notice for her new album and video. But it was so Shari Elf, it brought a smile to an otherwise stressful day,

Did I mention a video?



Yes!

I met Shari Elf back in November, 2009 at a private party at Burt's Tiki Lounge in Albuquerque. Stan Ridgway, The Handsome Family and Jill Sobule were doing one of those "Roots on the Rails" gigs in which a bunch of musicians travel by train with a group of paying fans. This group was traveling between Albuquerque and Los Angeles. The night before they left all the musicians did a private gig at Burt's.

I struck up a conversation with tall blonde woman sitting next to me, who turned out to be Shari. She was a passenger on this ride. She went because she's a huge fan of The Handsome Family..

Unrelated fact: Sitting next to me on the other side was none other than Julia Sweeney, formerly of Saturday night live. She's a friend of Sobule and flew to Albuquerque for the show. It was a night of celebrities!

Shari lives near Joshua Tree, Calif. where she operates the Art Queen gallery and studio -- which looks like a center of what some call "outsider' art as well as The World Famous Crochet Museum. It's housed in a former Photo Quick building (you use to see them in shopping center parking lots all the time back in the '70s), and is a showcase for Shari's vast, colorful garage-sale crochet collection,

Shari's sweet, childlike songs are a universe unto themselves. They remind me a lot of Daniel Johnston, who she's listed as a major influence.

Here is one of my favorites from the new album by Shari with her band, The Kittens.




But she's also good at what she calls "sharioke." Or should it be "Cherioke"?



Somethng good is gonna happen to you on Wacky Wednesday, Shari.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Terrell's Sound World Facebook Banner

UPDATED with a Mixcloud player for the first hour

Sunday, June 21, 2015
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
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Slow Boy by Kim Gordon & J Mascis
Castin' My Spell by Daddy Longlegs
The Bag I'm In by Ty Segall
Steal Your Love / Do it Again by Jody Porter
Interview with Jody Porter
Throw It Back by Jody Porter

Party World by Carbon/Silicon
Shoot the Freak by LoveStruck
Walking Down Lonely Street by Ty Wagner
Violent Shiver by Benjamin Booker
Mad Love by The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies
Bury You Alive by Batusis
Satan's Bride by Gregg Turner
Stab from the Past by Firesign Theatre
Bein' a Dad by Loudon Wainwright III

Who Stole the Kiska by The Polkaholics
So Far Away by Social Distortion
Fly Like a Rat by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
Elephant Stomp by Left Lane Cruiser
Ritalin by Sonic Reverends
Clip from The Further Adventures of Nick Danger by Firesign Theatre

Burying Grounds by The Sensational Nightingales
My Wonderful Councelor by The Famous Davis Sisters
Dying Under a Woman's Sword by Yol Auralong & Ros Sery Sothea
Everybody Knows by Concrete Blonde
I'm Your Man by Nick Cave
Field Commander Cohen by Leonard Cohen
Still I Dream of It by Brian Wilson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Listen to the first hour below


Tonight on Sound World: Jody Porter


Terrell's Sound World is back on KSFR tonight with a live interview with Jody Porter, guitar slinger for the band Fountains of Wayne.

Through the magic of telephone technology, we'll talk about Jody's new solo album, Month of Mondays, which I've been playing on the show in recent weeks.

So tune in tonight, 10 pm Mountain Time at 101.1 FM, if you're in Santa Fe or Northern New Mexico or at www.ksfr.org if you're anywhere else on the planet.





Friday, June 19, 2015

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Santa Fe Opry Facebook Banner
Friday, June 12, 2015
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:
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Long Gone Anyway by The Banditos
Dusty Bibles and Silver Spoons by The Bloodhounds
Don't You Rock Me Daddy-o by Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan & Chris Barber
Old Joe Clark by The Dustbowl Revival
She's My Neighbor by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
I Want it So Bad by The Gourds
Life of a Poor Boy by Stonewall Jackson
Monterey by Paul Burch
No Longer a Sweetheart of Mine by Southern Culture on the Skids
Ronnie and Neil by Drive-by Truckers

Old Cracked Looking Glass by Tony Gilkyson
Long Black Veil by Mike Ness
Down in the Bayou by The Watzloves
18 Wheeler Fever by Scott H. Biram
A Girl Don't Have To Drink To Have Fun by The Stumbleweeds
Twenty Cigarettes by Ray Phillips
Blood Bank Blues Al Duvall

Save My Tears by Palomino Shakedown
Where's the Devil When You Need Him? by Legendary Shack Shakers
Change My Name by The Beaumonts
Memphis by Carl Newman
Goin' Down Rockin' by Whitey Morgan & The 78s
Pool Cue by Two Tons of Steel
Whiskey Drinkin' Women by Cornell Hurd
When Sinatra Played Juarez by Tom Russell

Shortnin' Bread by Guy Davis
Chocolate Jesus by Raw Death
Send Me Poppa's Fiddle by Louie Setzer
On the Banks of the Old Ponchartrain Possessed by Paul James
Dink's Song by Dave Van Ronk
Take it Down by John Hiatt
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Thursday, June 18, 2015

THROWBACK THURSDAY: An All-You-Can-Eat Buffet of Shortnin' Bread

Did a happy, snappy American standard start out as a song about malnutrition among rural African Americans?

I'm talking about "Shortnin' Bread," that favorite of Mammy's little baby, about a tasty treat with strange medicinal power that can heal the sick and the half dead. This tune has been sung and recorded by some of the country's best known musicians, black and white, representing a number of styles and genres.

In her blog Pancocojams, dedicated to "the music, dances, and customs of African Americans and of other people of Black descent throughout the world," Azizi Powell writes.

Although "Shortnin Bread" is now considered a light hearted children's folk song, its beginning verses reflect the fact that Black Americans often lacked adequate food.

In contemporary versions of this song, the first verse is given as "two little boys/laying in bed/one was sick/and the other almost dead". The reason why the boys were in those conditions was because they were suffering from malnutrition because of the inadequate food rations that enslaved families were given. 

In this song, the doctor was called to examine the children. His prescription was that the children be given some food. However, in actuality, enslaved Black people rarely saw any doctors. Also, shortnin bread and coffee were rare treats for enslaved Black people. 

James Whitcomb Riley
Even so, throughout the song's history, "Shortnin' Bread" has been played as a happy good-time tune -- often as a children's song. That's a frequent thread in blues, hillbilly music and other types of songs sung by poor people in this country -- finding humor and ultimately hope in terrible situations.

Some argue that "Shortnin' Bread" is a true folk song, coming from slaves on southern plantations or their immediate descendants. But some say it could have come from the minstrel shows, in which white performers parodied blacks. (Check out this discussion over at Mudcat.org)

Apparently the first known written version of the song was a poem, published in 1900, by James Whitcomb Riley, written in black dialect.

The chorus goes:

Fotch dat dough fum the kitchin-shed—
Rake de coals out hot an' red—
Putt on de oven an' putt on de led,—
Mammy's gwineter cook som short'nin' bread

Nowhere in the poem is anything about those two little children lyin' in bed, or the doctor who prescribes shortnin' bread for them. While Riley took credit for the poem, it's possible that he based the various (seemingly unrelated) verses on songs or stories he heard from folk sources (i.e. plantation workers and the descendants of slaves).

Powell points out that several folklorists, beginning in the 1920s, documented versions of "Shortnin' Bread" -- who do have the familiar elements of the ailing children and the doctor.

In 1924 country singer Henry Whitter recorded a harmonica-led instrumental medley of "Hop Out Ladies & Shortenin' Bread." Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers recorded it -- including lyrics -- a couple of years later. Both J.E. Mainer, a proto-bluegrass artist, and Sonny Terry did versions in which the Jew's harp was prominent.

Mississippi John Hurt didn't actually record it until the early '60s, but his timeless style sounds like it could have been recorded decades before.



The song made it's way into the city. Paul Robeson lent his baritone to it in 1933.  Nelson Eddy sang it in the 1937 film Maytime. 

And Fats Waller had a lot of fun with it in 1941. (Powell points out that Waller sang about two "Senegambians" lyin' in bed. That's a reference to a region in West Africa, though Waller seems to be using the word to describe African Americans in general.)



The Andrews Sisters also sang it in the '40s.



The song found new life in the 1950s. Dave Brubeck did a drum-heavy jazz version called "Short'nin' Bread Gone With The Wind" in 1959. And there was a new audience in R&B and rock 'n' roll. The song mutated into "Shortnin' Bread Rock," which sounds heavily influenced by Big Joe Turner.  Etta James did a rocking version, as did Tony Crombie & His Rockets, who recorded it in 1956. But it's tough to match the crazy energy of The Collins kids, who sang it on this TV appearance, introduced by country great Tex Ritter.



Several early '60s "garage" bands recording the song in the early '60s. Paul Chaplain & The Emeralds recorded it in 1960. There also were fine rocking renditions by The Bell Notes, Johnny & The Uncalled Four. But my favorite of this style was the ferocious version by The Readymen. Their wild arrangement appears to have inspired the cover by The Cramps on their Stay Sick album.



There was a do-wop version in 1962 by a group called The Blisters.



And a tasty '60s soul version by Lee Dorsey



And in the early '90s The Residents found every ounce of weirdness in the tune and, as they love to do, turned it into something bizarre and nearly unrecognizable.





For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Music to Drive Your Neighbors Nuts

Last week a Facebook friend of mine posted the following on her page:

Anyone have a superloud playlist of jams for me to drown out this fucking ASSHOLE doing his homework loudly on Facetime?

I'm not sure where she was where a jerk using Facetime would bother her like that. But everybody can relate to the being bugged so much by some noisy fool you just want to BLAST THEM OUT!

Now this lady is in the music biz, so lots of her music nut friends, including me, began suggesting loud and obnoxious songs The thread took on a life of its own.

So I decided to put a list together including some suggestions from the thread. And thus my latest Spotify list: Music to Drive Your Neighbors Nuts.

Metal Machine Music was one of the first suggestions there. Someone else suggested some Tuvan throat singing (I chose something by Huun-huur-Tu).

Another contributor offered Shooby Taylor's weird version of "Stout-Hearted Men," I know that one from Irwin Chusid's Songs in the Key of Z Vol. 2. I couldn't resist adding another classic from that album, "Cousin Mosquito" by Liberian Congresswoman Malinda Jackson Parker.

Added some Skinny Puppy, Butthole Surfers, Zappa, Residents, a song with T. Valentine being T. Valentine, some Smile-era weirdness from The Beach Boys, a sinister little Charlie Manson tune and some supreme tackiness from David Hasselhoff that will make you want to commit unspeakable crimes.

You can use this to harass your neighbors, force ousted dictators out of their sanctuaries, torture prisoners ... lots of possibilities. Hey and since it's Spotify, chances are a couple of those obnoxious ads they run will pop up. These will fit right in.

For the record, I like my neighbors. I hope I didn't play this too loud when compiling this list.

Have fun ...


Monday, June 15, 2015

Make Music Santa Fe!

 

Big show coming to Santa Fe this Sunday. And it's free.

The Santa Fe Music Alliance is presenting Make Music Santa Fe 2015 at Santa Fe Railyard Plaza, featuring a boatload -- or maybe a trainload -- of Santa Fe musicians.

On the bill are a couple of siblings -- Tony Gilkyson and Eliza Gilkyson -- who lived and played here years ago but moved on to bigger towns and bigger things. Eliza has had a successful career as a singer-songwriter, while Tony has been a guitarist for Lone Justice, X, and Chuck E. Weiss' G-d Damn Liars. He's great as a solo artist too. His solo album Goodbye Guitar was near the top of my Best of 2006 list.

The show starts at 2:30 pm Sunday and goes on until 10 p.

For the complete schedule check out the Make Music Santa Fe website.

(Full disclosure: I recently became an advisory member of the Santa Fe Musical Alliance, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering creativity and community by supporting a sustainable and vital environment for music of all genres in Santa Fe, N.M.)

 

Friday, June 12, 2015

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Santa Fe Opry Facebook Banner

Friday, June 12, 2015

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:

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

Who Do You Love by Ronnie Hawkins & The Band

Hot Dog by Rosie Flores

Crazy Heart by Augie Meyers

Wanted Man by Billy Barton

The Creeper by Al Duvall

Lampshade On by The Dustbowl Revival

Travelin' Mood by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Eggs of Your Chickens by The Flatlanders

I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water by George Thorogood & The Destroyers

He's Biding His Time by Danny Dill

 

Lubbock in the Springtime by The Beaumonts

Too Sweet to Die by The Waco Brothers

The Old Man from the Mountain by Merle Haggard

Cold Comfort by Ed Pettersen

Kitty Cat Scratch by Suzette & The Neon Angels

Down By The Gallows Philip Bradatsch

Sam Hall by Tex Ritter

 

Back Street Affair by John Prine & Patty Lovelace

Beautiful Blue Eyes by Red Allen & The Kentuckians

High on a Mountain Top by Loretta Lynn

Thunder on the Mountain by Wanda Jackson

I Won't Go and He Won't Stay by Paula Rhae McDonald

Rescue Me by Amy Helm

Tall Tall Trees by Roger Miller

It Keeps Right. On a Hurtin' by Louie Setzer

The Crazy, Laughing Blues by Yodelin' Shorty

 

I Know You Are There by The Handsome Family

My Blue Tears by Dolly Parton

Storms Never Last by Waylon Jennings & Jessie Colter

I Wanna Go Home by Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan & Chris Barber

Never Going Back by The Lovin' Spoonful

Going Home by Slackeye Slim

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

 


Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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

 

Thursday, June 11, 2015

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Cambodia's Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
June 12, 2015

For about a decade after the nation’s independence from France in the early 1950s, there was a great cultural bloom in Cambodia. The country was relatively prosperous. Phnom Penh, its capital, was alive and thriving. The ancient culture was strong — in fact, strong enough not to be threatened by encroaching modern Western culture. 

During this time, before the war in neighboring Vietnam spilled over and eventually engulfed the land, Cambodians joyfully welcomed the outside world: motorcycles, miniskirts, and long hair. They didn’t miss out on the ’60s in Cambodia. They loved the cha cha cha from Cuba. They loved soul music and rock ’n’ roll from the U.S.A. — and from France, England, and wherever else it drifted in from.


As shown in the new documentary Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll, by John Pirozzi, this was a sweet dream that ended brutally. Communist rebels known as the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975. Led by a shadowy figure named Pol Pot, the new leaders forced mass evacuations from Phnom Pehn and other cities, and for the next four years, in their effort to build a socialist paradise, they basically turned the whole nation into a big agricultural prison camp. With grim vehemence the Khmer Rouge targeted intellectuals, professionals, artists, and, yes, musicians. They almost destroyed a nation, including its music.


Another terrible truth: Some of the biggest stars of Cambodian pop and rock — including Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran (sometimes spelled Pan Ron), and Yol Aularong — apparently ended up in unmarked graves in the killing fields during the Khmer Rouge years. Nobody, not even their surviving family members, knows exactly when or where they died. 


Although Pirozzi certainly doesn’t pull any punches about the Khmer Rouge, fortunately the documentary is not just about slaughter, repression, and horror. The first part of the film deals with the good times, the crazy music, and the amazing musicians who made it.

My name is Prince ...

During that heady golden age, Cambodia was ruled by a prince named Norodom Sihanouk. He might be the closest thing to a benevolent dictator the world has seen in modern times. You might say he governed with a velvet fist. Not only was he the man in charge, Sihanouk was an artist, a poet, a filmmaker — and a musician. He sang, and he played sax. He was a prince, and he was funky! Sihanouk composed music, including a patriotic anthem called “Phnom Penh,” which appears in the documentary and on its excellent soundtrack album, performed by members of the Royal University of Fine Arts. (The song originally appeared in Sihanouk’s mid-’60s movie, The Enchanted Forest.) Sihanouk ordered government departments to start their own orchestras. His regime sponsored singing contests around the country. The national radio station moved away from focusing on dull government propaganda to blasting cool music.


It is true Sihanouk didn’t put up with much dissent. As the film points out, he cracked down hard on Commie insurgents from the rural areas. Watching the movie, it seems Sihanouk considered these rebels not only to be traitors but party poopers as well. He adopted a policy of neutrality during the Cold War. That became harder as the fighting in Vietnam escalated next door. The drums of war would eventually drown out even the loudest Cambodian rock bands and spell doom for Cambodia’s cultural oasis, but in the meantime, the kids there rocked out to those wild American sounds brought there by tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming.


Sihanouk was overthrown by a right-wing, U.S.-backed coup in 1970. He later joined forces with the very Communist insurgents he’d once repressed. But as soon as the Khmer Rouge took power, Sihanouk basically ended up under house arrest.


I’ve been listening to Cambodian rockers like Sisamouth (who Pirozzi has described as the Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley of Cambodia) and Sothea for nearly a decade, ever since I became a fan of Dengue Fever, a California band that was sparked by Cambodian rock from this era. But until watching Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten, I didn’t know anything about their lives — except that they probably were killed by Pol Pot’s bully boys.


Despite facing some obvious limitations, Pirozzi brings these artists to life. Unfortunately, not much footage of the musicians survived the great destruction. However, the filmmaker found tons of great photos, including an amazing colorful gallery of record covers. He tracked down surviving family members — Sothea’s sister and Sisamouth’s son, Sin Chanchhaya (who died earlier this year shortly after winning the legal rights to more than 70 of his dad’s songs).


He also found some musicians who survived the Pol Pot years. There is Mol Kagnol of the band Baksey Cham Krong — the group could play surf music as well as what sounds like a twangy country ballad (the song “Full Moon”). 


There is also an interview with a female singer named Sieng Vannthy, who recalls Nancy Sinatra in miniskirt and go-go boots in her star years. Vannthy, who died in 2009, tells how she avoided probable execution by lying and telling the Khmer Rouge soldiers that she was a banana vendor, not a singer.


I once wrote that Dengue Fever, by turning so many people on to long-forgotten Cambodian rock, represented “a sweet, symbolic triumph of freedom over totalitarianism; of rock ’n’ roll over the killing fields; of sex, joy, fast cars, and loud guitars over the forces of gloom and repression.” That goes triple for Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten. This story needs to be told, and this music needs to be heard. 


The film opens on Friday, June 12, at The Screen.


Here's the trailer:





And here's some Cambodian rock strating with Sinn Sisamouth doing the monkey

 Ros Sereysothea rocks!



On this next one by Yol Aularong, try not to think of "Pagan Baby" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

THOWBACK THURSDAY: The John B Sails Again

Reviewing the movie Love and Mercy last week sent me on Beach Boys kick. One of my favorite songs of theirs for decades has been "Sloop John B," the tale of a miserable sea voyage that started in the Bahamas.

Released first as a single in March 1966, then included a few months later on Pet Sounds, the John B story told goes way beyond cruising to the hamburger stand in your daddy's car:

We come on the sloop John B
My grandfather and me
Around Nassau town we did roam
Drinking all night
Got into a fight
Well I feel so broke up
I want to go home

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home. 
Let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home

The first mate he got drunk
And broke in the Cap'n's trunk
The constable had to come and take him away
Sheriff John Stone
Why don't you leave me alone, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up I wanna go home

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home,
I wanna go home
Why don't you let me go home
I feel so broke up I wanna go home
Let me go home

The poor cook he caught the fits
And threw away all my grits
And then he took and he ate up all of my corn
Let me go home
Why don't they let me go home
This is the worst trip I've ever been on

No, Brian Wilson didn't write this song. It was brought to him by Al Jardine, the Beach Boys' resident folkie, Jardine had picked it up from a version, titled "Wreck of the John B," by The Kingston trio.

Take a listen:



The Trio was not the only folk group that did this song. Cisco Houston recorded a version, as did The Weavers in the '50s.  Country singer Johnny Cash, who also moved around folk music circles, included it under the title "I Wanna Go Home" on his 1959 album Songs From Our Soil.

 

But the song goes back much further. It came from the Bahamas. It was transcribed by British author Richard Le Gallienne in a 1916 issue of Harper's Monthly in an travel piece called “Coral Islands and Mangrove-Trees” We should thank Le Gallienne for introducing the song -- under the title "The John B. Sails" --  to mainstream culture. And we should try not to puke at his condescending, racist tone:

 These negro songs of Nassau, though crude as to words, have a very haunting, barbaric melody, said to come straight from the African jungle, full of hypnotizing repetitions and absurd choruses,  which, though they may not attract you much at first, end by getting into your blood, so that you often find yourself humming them unawares.

Thank you, great white father.

Poet Carl Sandburg collected it a decade later in his 1927 book of folk songs  American Songbag

Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, who recorded his own version a few years ago, did a little research on the song. (Click that link. McGuinn has a nice, free MP3 for you.) On his website, he quotes Sandburg:

'John T. McCutcheon, cartoonist and kindly philosopher, and his wife Eveleyn Shaw McCutcheon, mother and poet, learned to sing this song on their Treasure Island in the West Indies. They tell of it, 'Time and usage have given this song almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau. The weathered ribs of the historic craft lie embedded in the sand at Governor's Harbour, when an expedition, especially set up for the purpose in 1926, extracted a knee of horseflesh and a ring-bolt. These relics are now preserved and built into the Watch Tower, designed by Mr. Howard Shaw and built on our southern coast a couple of points east by north of the star Canopus.'

Nassau singer Blake Alphonso Higgs, who went by the name "Blind Blake" (but was not the American bluesman!) did a calypso version in the early 50s. Another Bahamian, guitar picker Joseph Spence recorded it in his own peculiar way, on his 1972 Arhoolie album Good Morning Mr. Walker.



Van Morrison teamed up with skiffle king Lonnie Donegan at the turn of the century to do this mighty keen rendition. Donegan had recorded a lush version of it in 1960 under the title "I Wanna Go Home." I especially like his verse about the captain being a "wicked man.'



With all the drinking, fighting and other mayhem in this songs it's a wonder that there aren't more punk rock versions. But this Italian band, Devasted, had the right idea





For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Let Al Duvall Creep into Your World

Al Duvall's latest single
This is a musician I stumbled across several years ago when messing around on the still wonderful Free Music Archive

I'll admit, what first drew me to Al Duvall was the fact that he'd actually teamed up with one of my other FMA discoveries, the lovely Singing Sadie.(Whatever happened to her? Someone lemme know!)

But soon I was lured to Duvall's own strange compositions like "Stuck on a Hat Check Girl" and "When Dorey's Behind the Door" (I find myself singing the refrain to this at the strangest moments.)

Usually accompanying himself on banjo, sometimes doubling on kazoo, Duvall seems like some medicine-show performer from some past century come to life. Vaudeville for the criminally insane. His pun-heavy lyrics are dark and wicked, in a Tom Lehrer sort of way. Not hard to imagine Lehrer and Duvall sitting on a park bench together poisoning the pigeons.

Not much is known about Duvall. There are a couple of interesting bios online. This one appears on his FMA page:

Born June 31, 1877 in Pahrump, West Virginia, Algernon Otmer Duvall began his musical career on the vaudeville stage as end-man in Lew Dockstader's Minstrels. He fought in a bicycle squadron in Ypres during World War I, where he received a crippling dose of the Hun's mustard. Returning home, he made ends meet working at a sausage factory in Harrington Delaware from 1921 until 1989. He took up the banjo in 1991 as physical therapy for his pleurisy. He went on to master the alto kazoo at the age of 118. "Al" Duvall attributes his remarkable longevity to a daily dram of Hamlin's Quinsy Balsam.

A slightly different version of the Duvall biography can be found at his Reverb Nation site.

Al Duvall, a grandchild of the Great Depression, was one of many unemployed musicians in 1932 who was sent via time machine into the future to find work, as part of the WPA program. His timing couldn't have been better, for IN TIMES LIKE THESE (SM) we could all use an entertainer whose charm and musicianship once made the Great Depression so great. Hopefully, Al will bring a little bit of Depression to you with his cloud-scattering mirth.

I don't know which one to believe.

Actually, I understand he lives in Brooklyn and might not really be over 100.

Here is a tune called "Bareknuckle Ballerina" There's a classic Duvall line in this one: "I still cherish that night in Paris / When you were in St. Paul ..."

 

Apparently Duvall found religion. In fact he's been washed in the "Blood of the Hog." (Warning: This melody might remind you of a Lovin' Spoonful song.)



Below is Duvall's most recent album, Insomnibus available at Bandcamp. You can listen to it for free. But if you like it, buy the darn thing. I just did.



Sunday, June 07, 2015

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Terrell's Sound World Facebook Banner

Sunday, June 7, 2015 
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

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Love is Like A Blob by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
Fire in the Western World by Dead Moon
Lesson of Crime by YVY
Sugar Buzz by The Ruiners
It's Gravity by T. Tex Edwards
Marijuana Hell by The Rockin' Guys
Spy Boy by Graceland
Blame it on Mom by Johnny Thunders
J'vais m'en j'ter un derrière by Tony Truant & The Fleshtones

Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Bowlegged Woman, Knock-Kneed Man by Bobby Rush
I'm Not a Sicko, There's a Plate in My Head by The Oblivians
Black Snake by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Backstreet Girl by Social Distortion
Heroes and Villains/ Melt Away/Surfs Up by Brian Wilson

Cambodian Rock Set
Phnom Penh by The Royal University of the Arts
Under the Sound of the Rain by Sinn Sisamouth
Dondung Goan Gay by Meas Samoun
What Girl is Better Than Me? by Ros Serey Sothea
B.E.K. by Baksey Cham Krong
Dance Soul Soul by Liev Tuk
Taxi Dancer by Dengue Fever
Cyclo by Yol Aularong

Pedestrian Blues by Jody Porter
Please Judge by Roky Erikson
The House Where Nobody Lives by King Ernest
Hang Down Your Head by Petty Booka
I Wish I Was in New Orleans by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE


Friday, June 05, 2015

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Santa Fe Opry Facebook Banner


Friday, June 5 , 2015
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:

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

Long Hauls and Close Calls by Hank 3

Harm's Way by The Waco Brothers

Bad on Fords by Ray Wylie Hubbard

West Nashville Boogie by Steve Earle

Name Game by D.M. Bob & The Deficits

Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue by Whitey Morgan & The 78s

The Old Man From the Mountain by Bryan & The Haggards with Eugene Chadbourne

Closing Time by The Pleasure Barons

Coffee Grindin' Blues by Asylum Street Spankers

 

Don't Touch My Horse by Slackeye Slim

Here Lies a Good Old Boy by James Hand

Truck Driver's Queen by Louie Setzer

Honky Tonk Queen by Moe and Joe

Diggy Liggy Lo by Commander Cody & His Last Planet Airmen

I'm a Nut by Leroy Pullens

Hiram Hubbard by Jean Ritchie with Doc Watson

It's All Going to Pot by Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard with Jamey Johnson

 

Love and Mercy on Wilco

My Blood is Too Red by Ronny Elliott

The Devil, My Conscious and I by Billy Barton

Hell's Angels by Johnny Bond

Banjo Lovin' Hound Dog by Johnny Banjo

Rubber Doll by The Lone X

Shot Four Times and Dyin' by Bill Carter

Back Street Affair by Webb Pierce

Ragged But Right by George Jones

What Made Milwaukee Famous by Johnny Bush

 

I Can Talk to Crows by Chipper Thompson

Roll on Colorado by Fred Shumate

Whiskey and Cocaine by Stevie Tombstone

Sleep with Open Windows by Chip Taylor with Lucinda Williams

Suzie Ana Riverstone by The Imperial Rooster

Angel of Sunrise by Earnest Lovers

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

 

Thursday, June 04, 2015

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Love & Mercy, The Movie

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
June 5, 2015

“A choke of grief heart hardened I/Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry.”

Those lines, from Brian Wilson’s greatest song, “Surf’s Up,” sum up a good portion of the new biopic Love and Mercy. I don’t know whether Wilson’s lyricist Van Dyke Parks was consciously describing Wilson’s emotional state when he was collaborating with him on the songs for the album Smile in the mid-’60s, but the words fit.

And indeed, it’s a broken man at the center of Love and Mercy. Wilson, portrayed by Paul Dano (’60s Brian) and John Cusack (’80s Brian) is psychologically shattered despite his popularity, wealth, and accomplishments.

In the two main periods covered by this movie, Wilson is seen as the victim of loathsome bullies. First, there his father, Murray, who physically beat and psychologically abused him (“It’s not a love song, it’s a suicide note,” he growls when Brian plays him an early version of “God Only Knows.”).

And then there’s Wilson’s cousin and bandmate Mike Love, one of the most annoying jerks in the history of rock ’n’ roll, who fought, criticized, and humiliated Wilson at every turn during his most creative period, the Pet Sounds and Smile years. “It’s not Beach Boys fun!” he snaps at Wilson during the Pet Sounds sessions. “Even the happy songs are sad.”

But the most intense and fearsome bully in Wilson’s life is Dr. Eugene Landy (played magnificently by Paul Giamatti). He was hired as a psychotherapist to help Wilson overcome his addictions, but turned into a virtual captor who overmedicated him and ripped him off financially. “I have it under control,” he says to Wilson’s girlfriend Melinda. “I am the control.”
A fun family barbecue with Dr. Landy

With all these villains here, there has to be a hero, and that’s Melinda Ledbetter, played by Elizabeth Banks. A former model who meets Wilson when she’s working as a Cadillac saleswoman, Melinda is not a fraction as forceful as Landy. And as hard as she tries, she’s unable to make Wilson stand up for himself.

But her compassion and her determination eventually succeed. (In real life, she and Wilson married in 1995, several years after Landy was vanquished.)

Speaking of real life, I’m not sure how close the movie is to actual events. The film was made with the cooperation of Wilson. (He appears in the closing credits, singing the title song.) So it’s bound to be the version of events that he wants to tell – even though he doesn’t come out looking so gallant. I don’t think anyone would deny that Wilson was as helpless and befuddled as he appears in the film.

But was Landy really as deplorable as Giamatti makes him? Was Ledbetter really as angelic?

Paul Dano as Brian Wilson in the studio
For a 50-plus-year Beach Boys fan like myself, the best scenes are the ones in which Wilson is in the studio recording tracks for Pet Sounds and the ill-fated original Smile with that tight-knit gaggle of studio cats nicknamed the Wrecking Crew. Dano portrays Wilson as wide-eyed and on fire with crazy ideas, much of which worked.

You see the infamous scene in which Wilson makes all the studio musicians wear firemen’s helmets while recording a track about fire. You see Wilson putting bobby pins on piano strings to get a crazy sound. And there are Wilson’s dogs in the studio barking for the final fade-out of “Caroline No.” (“Hey Chuck, do you think we could get a horse in here?” Wilson asks an engineer.)

One of my favorite elements of this movie are the lush, eerie sound collages representing the music, and sometimes the demons, in Brian’s head. Recognizable snippets of Wilson/Beach Boys music rise and fall back into the swirling vortex of sound. I had to check the credits to make sure it wasn’t Animal Collective on the soundtrack, a Wilson-influenced group if ever there was one.

It’s not. The man responsible is Atticus Ross, who has won awards including an Oscar and a Grammy for his soundtracks for The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, respectively. These strange sonic montages – sometimes sweet and heavenly, sometimes dark and tormenting – are essential to the story. The nonstop crazy symphony in Wilson’s head seems to be the source of his greatest works, though it often sounds like a direct and terrifying reflection of his inner turmoil.

I’m not sure how much Love and Mercy will appeal to those who don’t know or don’t care about Wilson’s music. (And believe it or not, there are people like that who walk the Earth.) But for those of us who have known and loved the Brian Wilson songbook, it’s a must-see.

The real Brian Wilson and
The real Dr. Landy
New Mexico side trip: They aren’t mentioned in Love and Mercy, but there are a couple of obscure New Mexico connections in the Wilson/Landy saga.

In August 1994, Beach Boy Al Jardine and two companies representing the band — Brother Records and Brother Tours, Inc. — filed a lawsuit in Santa Fe, accusing Wilson, Landy, and HarperCollins publishers of defaming the Beach Boys with the now discredited 1991 Wilson “autobiography” Wouldn’t It Be Nice.

That book painted an ugly portrait of the other band members and made Landy look as heroic as he appears villainous in Love and Mercy. (Wilson has since said he skimmed a draft of that book and did none of the writing.)

The plaintiffs also filed a virtually identical suit in New Hampshire. Wilson’s court-appointed conservator at the time, Jerome S. Billet, told me in 1994 that those were the only states that allowed suits to be filed three years after the alleged defamation.

But no Beach Boy ever had to appear in a Santa Fe courtroom. According to court records, a year later, Wilson was quietly dismissed as a defendant. The case was dismissed in early 1999.

After Landy lost his license to practice psychology in California, he still retained his license in two states: Hawaii and – you guessed it – New Mexico.

I don’t know how active he was here, but state records show he was licensed here between 1981 and his death in 2006. He’d had his license renewed in the state the year before. There are no violations or discipline reports on his record here.

Here is the official trailer:



Here is a frightening profile on ABC's Prime Time Live in 1991 when Wilson was still being "treated" by Landy.


And here is one of the most moving versions of the title song I've ever heard.

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...