Thursday, June 30, 2016

It's Big Enchilada Time!

THE BIG ENCHILADA



You lucky devils! You're about to be treated to an hour's worth of Hellfire sinful rock 'n' roll -- just as the Prince of Darkness intended it to sound. There is new music from The Sloths, Gregg Turner, New Mystery Girl, Left Lane Cruiser, The Vagoos ... and of course the latest sensation from Voodoo Rhythm, The Devils!

SUBSCRIBE TO ALL RADIO MUTATION PODCASTS |

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Echo Four-Two by Johnny Gregory & His Orchestra)
I Must Be the Devil by Glambilly
Before I Die by The Sloths
Look in the Mirror by Gregg Turner
Coitus Interuptus From a Priest by The Devils
Chevrolet by Left Lane Cruiser
I Found a Peanut by Thee Midnighters

(Background Music: Lonely Road to Damascus by Milt Rogers & His Orchestra)
Stepping on My Toes by New Mystery Girl
The Devil & Me by The Vagoos
69 by The Four
Gimme That Girl by The Devil Dogs
I Don't Want to Die Again by White Fangs
It's a Cryin' Shame by The Gentlemen
Groovy Babe by Durand Jones & The Indications

(Background Music: Forbidden Planet by David Rose & His Orchestra)
Diablo con Vestido Azul by Los Streaks
The Man Without a Head by The Pulsebeats
Will Success Spoil Me by Help Me Devil
Lobo by Davilla 666
Cult Casualty by Messkimos
She Let the Devil In by Tom Morse
(Background Music: I Lost My Baby to a Satan Cult by Stephen W. Terrell)


Play it below:


THROWBACK THURSDAY: Dick Rosemont's Originals Project


Last Sunday night (actually early Monday morning) driving home after doing Terrell's Sound World at KSFR, I tuned into the show that comes on after mine, Oil of Dog with Gary Storm. On that show Gary had Dick Rosemont, who has a Santa Fe record shop called Guy in the Groove -- as well as a cool website called the Originals Project.

What he does there is simply track original versions of popular songs. Plus, without pretending to be a completest, Dick tries to list as many subsequent versions as possible.

Hey, I like doing stuff like that! I figured correctly that I'd like his website.

That night on Oil of Dog, Dick and Gary were playing various versions of "I Fought the Law," which was a hit for The Bobby Fuller Four in 1966.

I knew that Sonny Curtis, a Buddy Holly crony from Lubbock, had written it. But until that show I don't think I'd actually heard the original version by Sonny Curtis with the (post Buddy) Crickets.

Here that is:



Rosemont writes, "Be forewarned that not everything included here will be big news to music fans!" And that's true enough. But even for a jaded old rock 'n' roll freak like myself, I found plenty of surprises just puttering around The Originals Project.

For instance, I did not know that someone had recorded "Walkin' After Midnight' -- one of my favorite stalker songs -- before Patsy Cline. But actually a lady named Lynn Howard, with a  group called The Accents did in 1956 (The same year Patsy first recorded it.)



Likewise, I always just assumed that Big Bill Broonzy was the first to record "Key to The Highway" (which like everyone else my age, I first heard by Derek & The Dominoes in the '70s.) But actually it was recorded by a piano man named Charles Segar in 1940.



Now I knew that this '80s one-hit wonder called "Taco" wasn't the first to record called "Puttin' on the Ritz." (I still have a weird fondness from this video from the heyday of MTV.)


I knew it was written by Irving Berlin but I never knew who recorded it first. Rosemont's site informs us it was a guy named Leo Reisman, with Lew Conrad on vocals. And it's a Jazz Age delight.



Still, my favorite version is this one:

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday, Gilda!

Gilda as Candy Slice
Gilda Radner would have been 70 years old yesterday. Unfortunately, she died of ovarian cancer in 1989 before she turned 43.

An original member of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players in the early years of Saturday Night Live in the mid to early '70s, she was best known for her characters  Roseanne Roseannadana, Emily Litella and Baba Wawa.

But she also did some wonderful comical music. Here are three songs to remember her by.

Let's start with a sweet, childlike ditty from her 1979 one-woman show on Broadway, “Gilda Radner: Live from New York”


Here she is paying tribute to the girl-group era as Rhonda Weiss (with The Rhondettes)



And here she is as punk-rock queen Candy Slice

Sunday, June 26, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, June 26, 2016 
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
Blow Up Your Mind by The Cramps
Circuit Breaker by The Pastels
Nogales by Gregg Turner
Here He Comes by New Mystery Girl
I Couldn't Spell !!*@!  by Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows
Radio Danger by Skull Control
Better Than You by He Who Cannot Be Named 
Listen by The Hotbeats
Bittersweet Romance Song by The Dirtbombs
Times by Andre Williams
Stinkfoot by Frank Zappa

To the Floor by Lonesome Shack
Rollin' and Tumblin' by Canned Heat
Circus by Left Lane Cruiser
Medium Size Star Bound by The Blues Against Youth
I Can Only Give You Everything by King Mud

Before I Die by The Sloths
The Decline of Western Civilization by Alien Space Kitchen
Hideous Woman by The Melvins
Lemmy by The Come n Go
Alligator Brain by The Grafters
Wild Angel by James Bond & The Agents
Quick Joey Small by Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus
European Girls by BBQ

The Great Nations of Europe by Randy Newman
Rogue Planet by Thee Oh Sees
1880 or So by Television
Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye by The Casinos
Poet is Priest by Julian Cope
Hard Times of Old England by Steeleye Span
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 24, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST



Friday, June 24, 2016
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
Hogtied Over You Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Candye Kane
Crazy Date by T. Tex Edwards
Killed a Chicken Last Night by Scott H. Biram
Lonesome Train by Dex Romweber
Waitress Waitress by Little Jimmie Dickens
Will Your Lawyer Talk to God for You by Norma Jean
Kitty Wells Dresses by Laura Cantrell
A Date With Your Memory by Cornell Hurd
Crackhead Lullaby by Red Eye Gravy

Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Your Time's Comin' by Dallas Wayne with Willie Nelson
Lady Cop by Cousin Jody
Band of Gold by Loretta Lynn
More of You by Chris Stapleton
Borrowed Angel by Mel Street
Gypsy Davy by Eric Hisaw
Three Diamond Rings by Trailer Radio

R.I.P. RALPH STANLEY 
All songs by Dr. Ralph except where noted
Lift Him Up, That's All
Handsome Molly
Rank Stranger
Rose Conley
Drifting Too Far from the Shore by The Stanley Brothers
Pig in the Pen by Ralph Stanley & Doug Phelps
No School Bus in Heaven
I Only Exist by Ralph Stanley & John Anderson
Keys to the Kingdom by Ralph Stanley with The Cedar Hill Refugees

Short Life of Trouble
Stone Walls and Steel Bars by Ralph Stanley & Junior Brown
Little Mathie Grove
Will You Miss Me by Ralph Stanley with Pam Tillis
I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow by The Stanley Brothers
He's Coming to Us Dead
Oh Death by Ralph Stanley & Gillian Welch
Gonna Paint the Town
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 23, 2016

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Garage Rock for Today’s Active Seniors

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
June 24, 2016


I don’t know. Am I getting too old for this stuff? I mean, what does it say when I discover a new — well, relatively new — album from an obscure garage band I like via the AARP?

Garage rock for today’s active seniors?

That’s right, the latest magazine of the AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) has a feature on The Sloths, a Los Angeles band that started out in the mid-1960s.

No, I don’t subscribe. But maybe I ought to. After all, the AARP magazine last year published the first actual Bob Dylan interview in years and sent copies of his album Shadows in the Night to 50,000 random AARP the Magazine subscribers.

But while it’s easy to see that Dylan’s collection of Frank Sinatra standards (and by the way, he recently released a similar album called Fallen Angels) would appeal to the oldsters — which I define as people maybe three or four years older than me — The Sloths, as shown by their wild new record Back from the Grave, are still loud, raw, and sometimes even snotty. They’re a rocking band, not a rocking-chair band. The Sloths are definitely not for the "early-bird special" crowd.

Some ancient history of The Sloths: The group started in 1965 out as a band of high schoolers. They started getting gigs during that riotous era at Sunset Strip clubs like Pandora’s Box, The Whiskey a Go-Go, The Sea Witch, the Hollywood Palladium, sharing stages with groups like The Animals, The Doors, and The Seeds.

The Sloths recorded only once. It was a 45 whose A-side featured a primitive, angst-ridden, hormonal, Bo Diddley-fired tune called "Makin' Love."

Never heard of it? Don’t feel bad. It never was a hit. According to the present-day Sloths, radio stations wouldn’t play it because the idea of high-school kids expressing their burning desire to “make love” was too risqué to risk. I’m not sure why the flip side, a more innocent-sounding “You Mean Everything to Me” never went anywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard it.

Soon after “Makin’ Love” flopped, The Sloths broke up. Some members formed a new band called The May Wines that included a singer named Tom McLoughlin. They didn’t last long either. But though “Makin’ Love” didn’t sell much when it first came out, it became something of a holy grail for fanatical garage-rock record collectors. The song was included on one of the influential Back from the Grave compilations of the 1990s. (And yes, that was where they got the title for their new album.)

Getting included on the compilation stirred up new attention to the band. At one point the original single of “Makin’ Love” in its original picture sleeve reportedly was selling on eBay for $6,550.

Apparently that was one of Rummans’ inspirations for re-forming The Sloths. Rummans, the only original Sloth in its 21st-century version, recruited McLoughlin — who, since his May Wines days, has worked as a film director and writer (and early on, he actually studied the art of mime) — and other past musical pals.
Father Tom McLoughlin preaching to his flock at
the 2013 Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans 

I got to see the new Sloths three years ago. They played at the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans on a bill with several other garage-rock greats including The Sonics and The Standells. Though not as crazily intense as The Sonics (who are in the same basic age range), The Sloths played a credible and fun-filled set at Ponderosa. McLoughlin’s stage presence was remarkable.

At one point he was wearing a priest’s collar, then later a Mexican flag as a cape. During the instrumental break of the song “Never Enough Girls,” (which kicks off the new album) he tried to blow up a cheap plastic sex doll, but ran out of time (or breath) before he had to start singing the next verse.

As for Back from The Grave, it’s a fine collection of good basic rock ‘n’ roll that’s almost as good as The Sloths’ live show. Songs like “Never Enough Girls,” “Lust,” “A Cutie Named Judy” and a new recording of “Makin’ Love” show how smooth a transition from horny high school kids to dirty old men can be.

But the most interesting songs here are the ones in which The Sloths’ maturity is a major strength. There’s “One Way Out,” in which every verse is a brutal little story about a drug-addled teenaged girl, a divorcing couple, a soldier who snaps and commits an atrocity, and a suicidal kid who ends up preaching on the streets for some cult. McLoughlin tells the stories in a voice that’s sympathetic but not about to pull any punches.

And even better is “Before I Die,” in which McLoughlin turns on its head that famous youthful declaration by The Who. “I wanna be old before I die,” he sings to a chugging Yardbirds-like beat. Here the singer isn’t selfishly yearning to cram more sex, drugs, and money into his life, or to achieve some immortality. Instead he’s wanting more time to apologize to people he’s hurt, pay off his debts, and “say things I should have said long ago.”

Here’s hoping for a long second life for The Sloths.

Also recommended:

* Some of This is True by Alien Space Kitchen. Here is a tough-rocking but ultimately catchy-sounding Albuquerque trio who describe their sound as “garage-punk space-pop.” (They previously described their sound as "hot interstellar space punk for consenting adults.")

This, their second album (scheduled for release in July) is a strong follow-up to their 2012 debut, Just ASK.

In fact, the music on the new one is probably a little stronger. On Just ASK, the band basically was a duo, featuring singer-guitarist Dru Vaughter, and drummer (and singer) Noelle Graney. The new album is the first with bassist Mess Messal.

Like their first one, Some of This is True is full of songs full of inspired nonsense about spaceships and even space people.

The opening cut is called “Alien Agenda,” which starts off with a slow guitar riff that sounds like some serious Brit-folk-rock is about to be committed. Instead, the song explodes with one of the stronger rockers on the album. There are also the conspiracy-soaked “How to Fake a Lunar Landing” and “Welcome to Star 65,” which goes back and forth between funky/jazzy verses sung by Graney and a crazy punked-out response sung by Vaughter.

At the moment, my favorite songs here are the delightfully paranoid “The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization” and the raging song that follows it, “Better Daze.”

All in all, this would be a cool soundtrack for an alien abduction.

Alien Space Kitchen plays Friday, June 24, at Burt's Tiki Lounge in Albuquerque, with a lineup that includes Weedrat and The Dying Beds; music starts at 9 p.m.

Video time!

Here's a song from the Sloths set I saw at the  Ponderosa Stomp



This is the official video for "One Way Out."



And this is the original "Makin' Love."



And here are a couple from Alien Space Kitchen.

"Losing My Mind is on the new album.



This one originally was by an African psychedelic group, Witdh



And for all you AARP rockers, here's a message from Stan Ridgway ...





THROWBACK THURSDAY: She's Gone with the Gypsy Davey

A rich girl meets up with a band of Gypsies -- or sometimes just one lone Gypsy -- in the woods. Or sometimes he / they come to her house and abduct her -- or cast a magical spell on her or just charm the pants -- or at least her boots of Spanish leather -- off her. She decides to forsake her wealthy husband, her comfortable house, her goose-feather bed and -- yes -- her baby to sleep out in the woods in the arms of her new lover.

It's a song that's been known by several names -- "Johnnie Faa," "Raggle Taggle Gypsy," "Gypsy Davey," "Blackjack David" and others -- sung for centuries, first published under the name of "The Gypsy Laddie" 276 years ago and undoubtedly sung by the folks years before that.
Nick Tosches, in his book Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'N' Roll, argues the ballad has roots going back to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Writing in the Journal of American Folklore in 1980, the late Christine A. Cartwright said the song was first collected in Scotland in 1740. "The ballad's narrative tension,' Cartwright wrote, "seems to spring from a two-edged threat presented by the Gypsies: their invasion of and imposition  upon Scottish culture, with all their disturbing, foreign values and ways, as well as their potentially threatening attractiveness."

More than 100 years before "The Gypsy Laddie" appeared in print, apparently some Scottish politicians wanted to make Scotland great again. No, they didn't build a wall and make the Gypsies pay for it. But in 1609, the Scottish parliament passed a law ordering the Gypsies out of their country.  And there are records of Gypsies being sentenced to hang. No wonder someone wrote a song about these dark-skinned invaders running off with white women.

Robert Burns said the song was about the cuckolded Earl of Cassilis whose wife was said to have run away with a man named John Faa. Cartwright however argues there is no evidence this actually ever happened.

An early version of the song was called "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" Here's a version by a raggle taggle band called Planxty (done as a medley with a beautiful Irish air "Tabhair Dom Do Laimh."



Here's another clip from the '70s, The Incredible String Band singng "Black Jack Davy."



And of course the mighty British folk-rock band Steeleye Span did an excellent rocking version. Introducing the song, Maddy Prior says, "I used to think that ths next song was about the triumph of true love. But I've recently come to the conclusion that it's really about a bit of rough." (Click the link. Don't be afraid!) In an interview last year with Chris Braiotta of WBUR, Prior makes the same joke, and elaborates. And now I see [the protagonist] as a totally unsuitable young man for my daughter."



In early versions of the song, there is a confrontation between the wronged husband and the Gypsy, sometimes ending with a lynching and the runaway wife forced to return to her life of luxury. Most "Black Jack Daveys" I've heard though end up with the woman happily forsaking her old life.

Indeed, this ending has virtually disappeared in versions of the song that popped up in America. And that's not all that changed. Gone is any magic spells the Gypsies used to seduce the lady. In fact, in most American versions, there is no abduction at all. The Gypsy and the lady meet by chance in the woods and spontaneously decide to  run away together.

Cartwright says, "The lady's choice, in every aspect but the adulterous, is in fact the choice that settled America. Where a land must be settled, the love of adventure and the willingness to roam become positive cultural values for women as well as for men, and the lady's decision to leave the established society for the wilderness cold no longer be seen as a choice that only a bewitched woman would make."

Below are some American takes on this classic ballad. First, The Carter Family.



Rockabilly Warren Smith, in Tosches' book, claims to have written "Black Jack David." He may well have written the "I come from a farm" verse.



Taj Mahal did a bluesy version



And The White Stripes made it rock



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



Wednesday, June 22, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Cool and Crazy Music from Around the Globe


Once again, let's go around the world in a daze with some wild and wacky tunes from foreign lands.

Let's begin with  Van Anh, a Vietnamese dan bau artist, playing "Ghost Riders in the Sky." (A dan bau player named Van Anh Vo is scheduled to play this year's Globalquerue on Sept. 24. However, Neal Copperman, one of the head honchos of this wonderful event says he thinks it's a different Van Anh.)



It's a wonderful night for a Romanian bear dance



A few years ago, my daughter, sent me this video of Kali Bahlu singing "Cosmic Telephone Call." It must be a Buddhist version of the old gospel classic "Jesus on the Mainline."



The late Jovica Petković was a revered accordion player from Sarajevo. I'm not sure why he and most of his audience are in their underwear. Must be some quaint Baltic custom.

 


Sunday, June 19, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, June 19, 2016 
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
A Cutie Named Judy by The Sloths
Baby Doll by The Del Moroccos
You'll Never Take Us Alive by The Dwarves
Minute Man by New Mystery Girl
It's You Time by The Weeds
Kremlin Dogs by Gregg Turner
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe by New Bomb Turks
All Leave Cancelled by The Fall

Better Daze by Alien Space Kitchen
Bangkok by Jello Biafra & The New Orleans Rauch and Soul All-Stars
Eviler by The Grannies
Two-Lane Blacktop by Rob Zombie
Hanged Man by Churchwood
Reelin' and Rockin' by The Frogs
Cosmic Two-Step by The Barbaraellatones 
The Lover's Curse by The A-Bones

Beer Hippie by The Melvins
Witch in the Club by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
The Pusher by Left-Lane Cruiser
Sugar Farm by Lonesome Shack
Boundless by The Blues Against Youth
She Lives in the Jungle by O Lendario Chucrobillyman 
Daddy Logg's Drive in Candy Hoppin' Car Babes by Bob Log III

'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore by David Bowie
I Wanna Go Back to Detroit City by Andre Williams
Koroborri by Cankissou 
Psychedelic Afro Shop by Orlando Julias
Poison by Susan James
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 17, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Friday, June 17, 2016
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
Hi-Billy Music by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash
Do What I Say by The Waco Brothers
Dirt Queen by Trailer Radio
Might as Well Get Stoned by Chris Stapleton
My Next Ex-Girlfriend by Old Man Kelly
Creek Between Heaven and Hell by Jesse Dayton
Three Days by Dallas Wayne
Begging to You by Marty Robbins
The End of the World by Cyndi Lauper

I Don't Know by Dex Romweber
Gunter Hotel Blues by Paul Burch
Memphis Yodel by Jimmie Rodgers
If You Could Touch Her at All by Whitey Morgan
There Must Be Another Way to Live by Amber Digby
Gone, Gone, Gone by Carl Perkins
Wrong John by Jim Stringer
Beans and Make Believe by Mose McCormack
Ida Red by Merle Haggard

True Lovin' Woman by Steve Train & His Bad Habits
Drinkin' Wine and Staring at the Phone by Dave Insley
He Ain't Right by Legendary Shack Shakers
Broken Down Gambler by The WIlders
Tall Tall Trees by Roger Miller
When Someone Wants to Leave by Dolly Parton
Yodel Sweet Molly by Ira Louvin
You Don't Get Me High by Beth Lee & The Breakups
Maria Maria by The Blasters
Coffee Baby by Alex Maryol
Lovin' Ducky Daddy by Carolina Cotton

24 Frames by Jason Isbelle
The Last Pharoah by The Dave Rawlings Machine
The Heat by Jaime Michaels
It Had to Be You by Bob Dylan
My Rosemarie by Stan Ridgway
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

Rocking in Cleveland


(I couldn't decide whether this post belongs in this blog or my politics blog, so I'm doing both)

I got a press release yesterday about the upcoming Republican National Convention. But it wasn't from the Republican National Committee or the Donald Trump campaign.

It was from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which is in Cleveland, the same city where the convention is being held next month.

The release basically was a pitch trying to get reporters who will be covering the convention (sadly, I won't be among them) to spend some time at -- and some ink on -- the Hall of Fame.

"As global attention descends upon Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, GOP leaders, journalists, convention-goers and tourists will all have one “must-see” destination on their list – The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame."

And what will they find there?

The news release said the Hall of Fame is "super-excited" about a new exhibit "Louder Than Words: Rock, Power and Politics," which "examines how music has both shaped and reflected our culture norms on eight political topics: Civil Rights, LGBT Issues, Feminism, War & Peace, Censorship, Political Campaigns, Political Causes and International Politics."

Included in that exhibit, the release said are artifacts such as:

* Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” Fender Stratocaster from Woodstock. 

* John Lennon’s acoustic guitar from the 1969 “Bed-ins for Peace.”

It takes The Village People to raise a child
* Original handwritten lyrics from Bob Dylan’s "The Times They Are a-Changin'," Chuck Berry’s "School Day," Neil Young’s “Ohio,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A” and Green Day’s “American Idiot.”

* Original Village People stage costumes.

* Artifacts related to the Vietnam War, the May 4, 1970 shooting at Kent State, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Bed-ins for Peace! Black Lives Matter! Tin soldiers and Nixon coming! Village People!

I just have one question for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:

You guys do realize this is a Republican convention, right?

Thursday, June 16, 2016

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Firing on All Four Cylinders


Any time any of my music friends start preaching the Gospel of Vinyl -- how it's so rich and pure and the only way to listen to music, blah blah blah -- I say "humbug!" Why stop at vinyl records? Let's go all the way and bring back the wax, or even the tin cylinder!

Actually cylinder recordings, popularized by some guy named Thomas Edison, don't always ound that great. But the good folks at the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive have done a great job of collecting and in some cases, cleaning up the sound on these ancient recordings, though a few still are marred by scratches that sound like an Army marching over a field of potato chips.

Here's some history of the medium:

From the first recordings made on tinfoil in 1877 to the last produced on celluloid in 1929, cylinders spanned a half-century of technological development in sound recording. As documents of American cultural history and musical style, cylinders serve as an audible witness to the sounds and songs through which typical audiences first encountered the recorded human voice. And for those living at the turn of the 20th century, the most likely source of recorded sound on cylinders would have been Thomas Alva Edison's crowning achievement, the phonograph. Edison wasn't the only one in the sound recording business in the first decades of the 20th century; several companies with a great number of recording artists, in addition to the purveyors of the burgeoning disc format, all competed in the nascent musical marketplace. Still, more than any other figure of his time, Edison and the phonograph became synonymous with the cylinder medium. ... Nonetheless, Edison's story is heavily dependent on the stories of numerous musical figures and sound recording technological developments emblematic of the period, and it is our hope that we have fairly represented them here. 

This site has hundreds, if not thousands of digital recordings of cylinders from all over the world. Below is a small sample of four songs I like recorded between 1906 and 1920.

For reasons unknown to me, the UCSB folks won't let you embed their songs, so I found versions that are on good old YouTube. But click the links to find out more about these songs, and by all means explore this site.

Let's start with one chosen by the site as "Cylinder of the Day," a comical baseball song called "The Umpire is a Most Unhappy Man' by Edward M. Favor (1906)


"Who Do You Love" by Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan 1908



"Afghanistan" by Lopez and Hamilton's Kings of Harmony Orchestra 1920



"Nearer My God to Thee" by The Knickerbocker Quartet 1912

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Slim Whitman, Earth's Mightiest Hero

Ottis Dewey "Slim" Whitman Jr.
1923-2013



This coming Sunday, June 19, will mark the third anniversary of the death of Slim Whitman, a man some think of merely as a third or fourth tier country/pop  singer, best known for pioneering the "As-Seen-on-TV" record ads that filled up the late-night television commercialscape in the '70s and '80s. Slim and Boxcar Willie had to have been the Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf of this bizarre little universe.

Here's a classic. As The Firesign Theatre's Don G. Ovanni would say, "If you asked for this in a store, they'd think you were CRAZY!"

 

But it's not that aspect of the man from Tampa's brilliant career for which I want to honor him today.  It's for his indispensable role in stopping the great Martian attack of 1996.

This scene from a documentary I found on YouTube tells the story.



So thank you Slim Whitman for defeating the Martian menace. The Earth will never forget!

We'll remember you!


(from Rob Zombie's  House of 1000 Corpses

UPDATE 2024: I just stumbled upon a video of one of my favorite country singers, Nick Shoulders singing a song to keep the Martians away!



Sunday, June 12, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, June 12, 2016 
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
Look in the Mirror by Gregg Turner
Rock a Go-Go by Alien Space Kitchen
Don't Stop to Dance by Reverend Beat-Man
Crawl Through Your Hair by New Mystery Girl
Never Enough Girls by The Sloths
Radio Danger by Skull Control
Not Going Home by He Who Cannot Be Named
Problems by Sex Pistols
Fire Spirit by The Gun Club

Shut Up by The Monks
Taxi Driver by The Rodeo Carburettor
Budokan Tape Try (Set Tapes High) by The Boredoms 
Drowning Sex Hogs II
TV Party Tonight by Black Flag
I Couldn't Spell !!*@! By Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows 
Morning After Blues by Andre Williams
New York City by The Fleshtones
Dirty Traveler by Lonesome Shack
 
Work by Lou Reed & John Cale
Mr. Soul by The Pierced Arrows
Sold by Sulphur City
Oh Honey Baby Doll by Bloodshot Bill
No Confidence by Simon Stokes
I Got Your Number by The Sonics
Summertime Blues by Horror Deluxe 
Right/Wrong by Night Beats
Strangers by San Antonio Kid
Don't Be Taken In by Miriam

Conjure Child by Tony Joe White
Hiawatha by Laurie Anderson
Love & Mercy by Brian Wilson
Evil Will Prevail / Bad Days by Flaming Lips
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 10, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST



Friday, June 10, 2016
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
Trucks, Tractors and Trains by The Dirt Daubers
Closing Time by The Pleasure Barons
Jibber Jabber by The Supersuckers
Granny's Got the Baby ('cause Mama's Doing Time) by Trailer Radio
Slipknot by Al Scorch
I Will Never Change, So Why Don't You? By Howard Kalish
Too Much Fun by Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen
Word to the Wise by Bill Kirchen with Dan Hicks
My Rifle, My Pony and Me by Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson

Begging to You by Cyndi Lauper
Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson & The Cramps
I Never Will Marry by Loretta Lynn 
Old Chunk of Coal by Billy Joe Shaver
A Dime at a Time by Dallas Wayne
Let's Invite Them Over by Southern Culture on the Skids
Plastic Love by The Riptones
All Around You by Sturgill Simpson
Why Don't You Love Me Like You  Used to Do by Tom Jones

Sam's Place by Buck  Owens
Cool Rockin' Loretta by Joe Ely
Get It On Down the Road by Danny Barnes
The Golden Triangle by The Austin Lounge Lizards
South of The River by Ray Wylie Hubbard 
Barely Legal by Jim Stringer
I Wanna Be Momma'd by Robbie Fulks 

Sinner's Blues by Alex Maryol
Raise a Ruckus by Josh White
I Wish I Was Back in Vegas by Stevie Tombstone
Painted Horse River by Kell Robertson
Hard Livin' (Comes Easy to Me) by Red Eye Gravy
World of Fools by David Bromberg
The Virginian by Neko Case
Crazy for Me by Jaime Michaels
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 09, 2016

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Country Girls Just Want to Have Fun

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
June 10, 2016


I’ve always had a soft spot for Cyndi Lauper.

I was intrigued that a year after it was released, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was still a top selection for Juárez strippers (or so I’ve been told). I dug the fact that she got pro-wrestling great Captain Lou Albano to play her dad in the video for that song. I thought it was cool that she got the title for her hit album She’s So Unusual from a song by Helen Kane (who many believe inspired the voice of Betty Boop) and that she sang, uncredited, the theme song of Pee-wee’s Playhouse in Kane’s Boopish style.

And I’ve long forgiven her for the demon-haunted nightmares I endured for months after hearing her dance remix of “She Bop” on speakers bigger than my car in an Amarillo disco while in an enhanced state of consciousness.

But beyond all that wacky stuff, Lauper has one amazing voice. I probably didn’t realize that until I saw her perform an incredible version of her hit “Time After Time” on TV back in the mid-1980s on a Patti LaBelle television special.

Lauper starts off singing on top of a piano. But by the second verse LaBelle comes in to harmonize and embellish. The two play with the chorus, harmonize, shout the lyrics at each other, and end about five minutes later on a whisper. I saw this again on YouTube last week for the first time since it aired. It’s even better than I remembered.

But I have to admit, I lost track of Cyndi Lauper. Every so often I heard about her latest attempted comeback, but I didn’t hear anything all that enticing. In fact I hadn’t sat down and listened to an entire Lauper album since her heyday.

Until recently.

Just a few weeks ago she released a country album called Detour. Yes, there’s our Cyndi Lauper in a prim, black, long-sleeved dress in a motorcycle sidecar, clutching her hat in one hand and an old suitcase in another. She looks like a 1880s schoolmarm heading out west where John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart can fight over her.

And yes, this is real, steel-and-fiddle, hard-core-honky-tonk music with crackerjack Nashville cats and guest stars including Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, and Willie Nelson.

She romps through C & W chestnuts like “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart”; “Heartaches by the Number”; Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn’s “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly” (sung here with Gill); and the Wanda Jackson hit “Funnel of Love” (though my favorite version of this song is the one Jackson recorded with The Cramps a few years ago).

And, to her credit, Lauper doesn’t adopt any fake hick drawl. You still can hear the Noo Yawk in her.

There are a couple of tunes here on which she really shines. She nails the sadness of Skeeter Davis’ early ’60s hit “The End of the World.” (Web of Synchronicity: Davis was married to Joey Spampinato, formerly of NRBQ, a band that did a song about Captain Lou Albano! Coincidence?)

And even better is a little-known Marty Robbins song called “Begging to You.” If I had a beer, there would be a tear in it after this one. No, this isn’t essential country music, and it’s probably just a crazy little detour in her career. But it’s great to listen to Lauper again.

Lauper is scheduled to perform in Albuquerque at the Sandia Resort and Casino Amphitheater on Sept. 17.

Also recommended

* Full Circle by Loretta Lynn. This album, Lynn’s first in a dozen years, is a bittersweet triumph. She’s in her early eighties now, and we’ve lost way too many country giants of her generation in recent years, most recently Merle Haggard.

The first time I played this record all the way through, a morbid thought crossed my mind. Is this Lynn’s last one? Maybe that had something to do with the final song, the slow, acoustic “Lay Me Down,” which she sings with fellow octogenarian Willie Nelson. The refrain is “I’ll be at peace when they lay me down.”

I almost wanted to scream, “Nooooooooo!!!”

The good news: Her voice sounds as strong, clear, and spunky as ever. Could it be Pro Tools or some other studio trick? Who knows? I’m going to choose to believe not. If any of you cynics out there know anything different, do us all a favor and keep your yap shut.

Speaking of modern studio tricks, unlike her previous album, the Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose, there’s little in the way of fancy recording wizardry on Full Circle. The producers — Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and Johnny Cash’s son John Carter Cash — wisely keep the emphasis on Lynn’s voice and the songs.

And it’s a splendid selection of tunes. There are re-recordings of Loretta Lynn songs, including the proto-feminist “Fist City,” one of her late-’60s hits, and “Whispering Sea,” a country waltz that’s not one of her best-known numbers but is the first song she ever wrote.

A couple are countrified pop tunes, like “Band of Gold” and Doris Day’s “Secret Love”; some are Carter Family classics (“I Never Will Marry” and “Black Jack David,” which traces its roots to a traditional Scottish folk song); and there’s a bluegrassy take on “In the Pines.”

My favorite on this album is “Everything It Takes,” an “other woman” song that might have been a country hit 50 years ago, except Lynn wrote it fairly recently with Todd Snider. Elvis Costello sings harmonies.

And besides that devastating closing number, there are a couple of other meditations on Smiling Sgt. Death. These are “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven” and “Who’s Gonna Miss Me?”

Stop torturing us, Loretta!


Video time!

Here's Cyndi Lauper performing a live version of an old Ray Price hit:



If only The Cramps could join her ...



Here is that duet of "Time After Time " on the 1985 Patti LaBelle TV special



Loretta and Willie:



And here's Loretta recording "Whispering Sea."




THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday, Dino!


Tuesday June 7 marked what would have been the 99th birthday of Dino Paul Crocetti, better known to the world as Dean Martin.

Do I really have to tell you who he was? Martin & Lewis. The Rat Pack. The weekly TV show in the '60s. The comedy roasts he hosted ...

Elvis Presley idolized him and I loved him too. When I was a kid, Dino and his devilish grin made me suspect that my parents' generation might not be as square as they'd have you believe.

Martin died in 1995

In honor of of man from Steubenville, Ohio, let's have some music, Here he is with Frank Sinatra having more fun that you or I had that night.




Here he is crooning and jiving through one of his hits, "Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On." The introduction, with Dino playing up his drunk persona, is nearly as good as the song.



Oh yeah, Dino was a singing cowboy too. Here he is with Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan in the John Wayne movie Rio Bravo.


And here's a song he recorded with The Easy Riders, a folk group that included longtime Santa Fe resident Terry Gilkyson.



Thanks, Dino. Memories are still made of this.

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: A Mickey Mouse Pow Wow

The Black Lodge Singers
I don't profess to be an expert on pow wow music or actually any form of Native American music. I just know that I like a lot of pow wow songs and several of the groups that perform them.

Pow wow music typical consists of several drummers, often pounding on a single large drum. The drummers usually sing though some groups have singers standing behind the drummers. As a casual listener and a certified pale-face, a good pow wow song can seem almost hypnotic, even meditative.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica:

 Pow wow songs often reflect the style of music from the Plains area; the singers accompany themselves on a large bass drum, and the ensemble as a whole is known as a Drum. Each Drum includes three or more singers. Like many other aspects of 21st-century Native American life, pow wows generally promote indigenous culture, spirituality, and social unity. 

But, as Eugene Chadbourne writes in the AllMusic Guide, "there are pow wow songs about getting drunk, eating pizza, how pretty a girl looks, and a myriad of other subjects."

Remember, pow wows are not religious ceremonies, they are social events. And despite that old stereotype of the somber, stoic red man, (do people still believe that weird old crap?) some of the songs are downright funny.

The Black Lodge Singers, led by Blackfeet tribe member Kenny Scabby Robe, have been the Rolling Stones of funny pow wow songs since they released their 1996 album Kid's Pow-Wow Songs. In reviewing that record 20 years ago, I described the first time I heard them play this song below

At first, you think you are listening to regular pow wow music the deep, steady beating, the jangle of bells, the unison chanting with occasional individual yelps and cries. But then you start discerning words in English: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto too! They're all movie stars at Disneyland ...



And the Black Lodge Singers sing another mouse song. One thing for sure, you don't have to be a kid to love these songs. (This one's for you, Melissa!)


Here is a more recent song from a group called Northern Cree from Alberta, Canada. The group founders are from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation but other group includes members from other Treaty 6 area nations. And despite this next song, Northern Cree does have a Facebook page.



Unfortunately many of the following songs are not on YouTube, so I created this Spotify playlist including pow wow songs about the 3 Stooges, Pink Floyd, Oscar the Grouch, re-imagined versions of American classic like "Earth Angel" and "Who Let the Dogs Out" and one bitchen tune about riding in your boogie van.



Two of the three videos here are all from Walter B. Shepherd's Heap Plenty Funny YouTube channel. Many, if not most of the songs on the Spotify List are from Canyon Records.

And if you need even more pow wow music in your life, check out Pow Wow Radio, an old-fashioned internet radio station that plays non-stop, 24/7.

Sunday, June 05, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, June 5, 2016 
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
Bloody Mary by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
JuJu Hand by Handsome Dick Manitoba
Jack Pepsi by TAD
The Witch by Los Peyotes
Hall of Fame by Andre Williams
Ugly by SA90
High School Girls by The Gears
I'm a Trash Man by Deke Dickerson & The Trashmen
A House is Not a Motel by Marshmallow Overcoat
Shadows of Night by Dead Moon
Frankenstein by Pierced Arrows

Hey Mr. Rain by The Velvet Underground
The Boner by Geil & The Pimps
How to Fake as Lunar Landing by Alien Space Kitchen

Long Distance Call by The Super Super Blues Band
Back it Up by King Mud
Stop Breakin' Down by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears 
Thank You Sir, by Reverend John Wilkins
The Snake by Reverend Tom Frost

Golden Surf II by Pere Ubu
Ironclad by Sleater-Kinney
Burning Song by Jonah Gold & His Silver Apples
Feast of the Mau Mau by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
County Fool by The Showmen
Teddy Bear by Bette Stuy
Our Sacred Hate by He Who Cannot Be Named
Which End is Up by Miriam
Bad as Me by Tom Jones
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Friday, June 03, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 3, 2016
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
Wanted Man by The Waco Brothers
Baker's Half Dozen by Jim Stringer
Walkin' After Midnight by Cyndi Lauper
Company's Comin' by Porter Wagoner
Right Time by Nikki Lane
Country Girls Ain't Cheap by Trailer Radio
Winning the War on Drugs by Asylum Street Spankers
The Marriage Song by The Stumbleweeds
A Married Man's a Fool by Butterbeans & Susie

Travelin' Shoes by Tom Jones
Devil's in the Bottle by Dallas Wayne
Truck Drivin' Man by The Twang Bangers
Brace for Impact by Sturgil Simpson
I'm the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised by Johnny Paycheck
Aunt Peg's New Old Man by Robbie Fulks
Mommy for a Day by Rhonda Vincent
I Got Mine by Frank Stokes

Brand New Cadillac by Wayne Hancock
Wreck of the Old 97 by Hank Williams III
Drive Drive Drive by Dale Watson
All the Way Back Home by The Dinosaur Truckers
Run Rosie, Run by Trailer Bride
Better Call Saul by Junior Brown
Mental Cruelty by Buck Owens & Rose Maddox
Open Pit Mine by George Jones
Just Like a Monkey by South Memphis String Band
My 45 by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

Beautiful Losers by Beth Lee & The Breakups
Mama was a Trainwreck by Karen Hudson
Secret Love by Loretta Lynn
Naked Light of Day by Butch Hancock 
The Angels Rejoiced Last Night by The Louvin Brothers
Desperadoes Waitin' for a Train by The Highwaymen
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 02, 2016

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Songs for Lizzie

Yesterday, June 1, marked the 89th anniversary of the death of Lizzie Borden, who died at the age of 66 in her hometown of Fall River, Mass. -- 34 years after a jury acquitted her in the ax murders of her father and stepmother.

I won't go into all the (literally) gory details of the double homicide that took place Thursday, August 4, 1892 at the Borden household. You can get the basic details HERE. I just want to honor Lizzy's musical legacy. It's richer than you might think.

The most familiar Lizzie Borden song is that famous children's rope-skipping song that goes

Lizzie Borden took an axe
Gave her mother 40 whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father 41.

What children actually sang this song, Wednesday and Pugsley Addams?

But that's not the only music to come out of the murders.

Premiering in 1948 was a Lizzie ballet, The Fall River Legend by American choreographer Agnes de Mille. The score was composed by Morton Gould. It opened at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. Who knew Lizzie was so graceful? Here's a video clip of a later production.



And speaking of high culture, there also was a Lizzie Borden opera. This was composed by Jack Beeson in 1965 and was performed that by the New York City Opera, conducted by Anton Coppola. This clip features several scenes from the opera.



The 1960s folk group called The Chad Mitchell Trio took the black humor route.



Fast forward to the 80s where an Arizona thrash band called Flotsam and Jetsam embraced the darkness of the Lizzie legend.



And in 2003 The Dresden Dolls used the Borden murders as a launch pad for this depressing ditty. They got the number of whacks wrong, but so did the famous kiddie song. Abby Borden only suffered 19 blows while Andrew Borden got 11.



There are other songs about young women committing unspeakable murders that had to have been influenced by Lizzie Borden. Tom Lehrer's "The Irish Ballad" is one. And so is Nick Cave's "The Curse of Milhaven," whose murderous narrator Loretta might be a younger version of our Lizzie.




Wednesday, June 01, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: On the Road Again



It's June, which means summer is virtually here, which means millions of Americans will be on the road again!

A couple of days ago on Facebook my friend Tommy C dropped some obscure lyrics from an under-appreciated Bob Dylan song, something about "brown rice, seaweed and a dirty hot dog." This sounded distantly familiar, but I couldn't remember the title of the song. So with the help of Mr. Google, I learned it was "On the Road Again," which originally appeared on the first Dylan album I ever owned, Bringing it All Back Home.

I got yer dirty hot dog RIGHT HERE:




Very few entertainers have used images of seaweed, dirty hot dogs etc and started off songs with "Well, I wake up in the morning / There's frogs inside my socks ..." But lots of songwriters have used the title "On the Road Again." Though it's not very original, most of the ones I've heard I like.

Below is a collection of those. This would make a fine play list for any road trip in the summer of 2016.

I first heard the folloong song done by The Lovin' Spoonful and later by The Grateful Dead, But The Memphis Jug Band did it first back in the late 1920s.



I wasn't familiar until recently with this electric, Howlin' Wolf influenced blues by Floyd Jones

 

Likewise, I'm a newcomer to this rocking little tune by Tom Rush, from his 1966 Take a Little Walk With Me.



But I've been a fan of this Canned Heat tune for 45 years or more. They had a hit single with this song, but I'm posting their Woodstock performance of the song.

 

I bet the best-known "On the Road Again" is Willie Nelson's



And I just discovered a rap tune called "On the Road Again," released in 2005 by Sheek Louch.



May you have a safe but eventful road trip or two this summer.

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...