TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Bashing Away at the Blues

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 22, 2011

The Romweber kids are back, and they’re bursting with joyful noise.

 I’m referring to the Dex Romweber Duo — Dex and his sister Sara on drums — and their new album Is That You in the Blue?, which is scheduled for release on Tuesday, July 26. It’s a worthy follow-up to their 2009 album Ruins of Berlin.

A primer for newcomers: Dex Romweber was the frontman for an earlier dynamic duo called Flat Duo Jets. Though the group never got as big as The White Stripes or The Black Keys, FDJ is properly credited for being an important pioneer of the two-person blues-bash sound.

Is That You?, like DRD’s previous album, is a minimalist masterpiece basically consisting of Dex and Sara bashing away, subtly aided by other instruments in certain spots — an organ here, a sax there, stand-up bass here and there. Their North Carolina compatriot Rick Miller of Southern Culture on the Skids helps out on guitar on the opening cut, “Jungle Drums,” while Mary Huff of SCOTS lends some background vocals on “Midnight Sun.”

DRD is the second band I love that has released a version of Billy Boy Arnold’s “Wish You Would” this year. Dex one-ups The Fleshtones by doing two versions of the song here. The first version is the best, but it’s hard to say whether I like that one better than The Fleshtones’ cover. Both bands capture the essence of this blues classic.

“Nowhere” is one of those slow, smoky minor-key songs Dex so loves. He croons the verses and shouts on the choruses. Another one of these is “Midnight Sun,” which is even spookier than “Nowhere.” And speaking of crooning, Dex sings the living bejesus out of the song. He wrote it himself, but it sounds like some powerful pop ballad of the ’50s.

One of the highlights here is DRD’s version of “Brazil,” a song that has been covered by Frank Sinatra, The Coasters, and many in between. Dex adds a “Viva Las Vegas” riff to this jumpy little version. After the first three or four listenings, my favorite tune here is the cover of “Redemption.” This is one of the strange visionary religious songs from the first American Recordings volume. The band speeds it up, with Sara putting some voodoo in her drums.

Dex does a solo acoustic cover of “Homicide,” an obscure rockabilly tune by Myron Lee and the Caddies. It’s not bad, but it could have used a crazy sax like the original version. If that’s the most serious complaint I can find, this has to be a pretty good record. In fact, it’s a mighty fine affair.


Also recommended:

* Peyton on Patton by The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. Somewhere in the Big Cosmic Blues Afterlife, the angel Charley Patton probably has a chip on his shoulder. “How come that young upstart Robert Johnson gets so much of the credit?” he grumbles to the other blues angels. “I was playing the blues before the devil ever tuned his damned guitar!”

It’s true that Patton has never received nearly as much credit as he deserves as one of the titans of Delta blues.

He was the archetype. Patton was known as a crazy entertainer, tossing his guitar in the air, popping his bass strings like a proto Bootsy Collins, singing about jellyroll one minute and then getting all holy and shouting the gospel the next.

He recorded about 60 songs between 1929 and 1934. And while several compilations of Patton material are available, Allmusic.com gives this depressing disclaimer: “No one will never know what Patton’s Paramount masters really sounded like. When the company went out of business, the metal masters were sold off as scrap, some of it used to line chicken coops. All that’s left are recordings of scratchy 78s.”

But Josh Peyton, known professionally as “The Reverend Peyton,” is out to rescue Patton’s music from the chicken coop. His latest album, just released, is a sweet and powerful tribute to the departed bluesman.

Peyton isn’t from the Delta. He’s from Indiana. But the country blues of Patton and those who followed are the chief driving factor of Peyton’s music.

Rev. Peyton at Santa Fe Brewing Co.
Feb. 2010

Some of Patton’s greatest tunes are included here — among them “Mississippi Boweavil Blues,” “Shake It and Break It” (which was recorded by Canned Heat in the early ’70s), “A Spoonful Blues,” and “Tom Rushen Blues.” And there’s not one, not two, but three versions of Patton’s “Some of These Days I’ll Be Gone.” There’s one featuring an acoustic guitar, one with a banjo, and one with a slide guitar. The last is my favorite.

My chief complaint about this album is that I miss the Big Damn Band — Breezy Peyton on washboard and Aaron “Cuz” Persinger on percussion, Though it’s not billed as such, Peyton on Patton is basically a Josh Peyton solo album. Breezy supplies strong call-and-response vocals on “Elder Greene Blues” but you barely hear Persinger. The only drumming he does is slapping a tobacco barrel like bongos with his bare hands. True, most of Patton’s recordings were done solo. But I think the full band, which itself is pretty minimalist, would have added more dimension.

I don’t think Charley would have minded.

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Moving pictures with music

TERRELL's TUNEUP: Rev. Peyton's Code of the Road

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Aug. 31 2012

You might think that a trio consisting of a crazy slide guitarist, his wife on the washboard and his cousin playing a bass drum and junkyard percussion might be little more than a fun little novelty act. But those who have enjoyed the recordings and/or the live shows of The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, know that this group from rural Indiana goes way beyond the novelty spectrum.

“Reverend” Josh Peyton’s gruff vocals and flawless slide guitar; Breezy Peyton’s impeccable washboard and soprano harmonies are a powerful combination. And Aaron Persinger is the Gene Krupa of the plastic bucket. So this tight little band packs a big damn musical punch.

And cementing the deal is the Rev’s impressive lyrical skills, highly evident in the band’s new effort Between the Ditches. He’s not “poetic” in the traditional sense. Nobody’s going to mistake him for Leonard Cohen. He’s closer to Woody Guthrie — Woody Guthrie with crazy rhythm.

Peyton’s songs can be funny, poignant, much like the country bluesmen he emulates. He’s got a knack for taking everyday observations and annoyances — like, say, bugs getting into the house when someone leaves the door open — and turning them into romping, stomping singalongs.

Ditches represents a return to form for the Big Damn Band following last year’s Peyton on Patton, a tribute to Delta blues great Charlie Patton. Although the album was credited to The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, basically it was a Josh Peyton solo album with Mrs. Peyton and Persinger making only minimal contributions. I missed them on that one. But the new record is charged up with all the thump, crunch and rumble of the full band.

This album picks off where Peyton’s last album of original material, 2010’s The Wages, left off. Like that previous effort, Ditches is full of bluesy, populist-themed songs about economic hard times and social decay.

“Shake ‘em Off Like Fleas” — the music of which sounds like “Polk Salad Annie” overdosing on gamma rays — is full of righteous rage against corrupt politicians, soulless corportations and other powers-that-be who rig the game against the rest of us. “A change is coming, a change in store / ‘cause there’s more of us than them and we’ve freed ourselves before,” Peyton sings.

The gentler “We’ll Get Through” definitely is the prettiest song on the album. The narrator of the song has been hit hard by the “tough times and tough timing,” but like Merle Haggard in the song “Someday We’ll Look Back,” he reassures his loved one that it won’t always be so bad

Some of the songs suggests images of displaced workers going down the road feeling bad, seeking better lives but finding mostly “cops and thieves and sons of bitches,” as Peyton growls in the refrain of the title song. In this song, Peyton warns, “The code of the road is take care/ The law can’t protect us out there … The code of the road is to share/ We have only each other out there.”

Meanwhile the song “Move Along Mister” — a slow song with Peyton’s slide evoking early Ry Cooder — is about a late-night confrontation between a worn-out, perhaps vagrant, traveler and an unfriendly cop. “I’m weary and hungry and I ain’t from around here, ” the singer tries to explain.

Other topical songs here include, “Don’t Grind it Down,” a protest against strip mining. In a melody similar to “Wabash cannonball,” Peyton sings, “If we lose our mountain and with it all them trees, I don’t know about you, I think I’d rather freeze.”

Then the Rev preaches against drugs on “The Money Goes” Where does the money go? “Up her nose,” of course. In a later verse he repeats the line “Looks like death” several times before adding, “Might be meth.”

But Peyton and band know how to have good fun too without making serious socio-economic points. “Brokedown Everywhere” is an update of the country classic “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Peyton alludes to that song in the refrain: “You’ve been everywhere / I’ve been broke down there.” Like he the old song, the singer lists several geographical locations, but describing his car troubles in every one. “South of Portland lost a wheel/ New York City broke the seal/ Nevada an alternator/ Memphis a radiator … “

For those already familiar with the band, there aren’t that many musical surprises on Between the Ditches — except perhaps the sweet mandolin in “Don’t Grind it Down.” Yet somehow on their seventh album, they’re only getting better. This just might be their best work yet.

Here’s something to look forward to: The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is scheduled to play at Sol Santa Fe on Nov. 16. Mark your calendar.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP Scott H. Biram and The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
March. 24 , 2017

“I’m here to tell you about something that just might save your life..” 

Those are the first intelligible words you hear on The Bad Testament, the new album by Scott H. Biram — that dirty old one-man band from Austin — right after a few seconds of ambient radio noise and when the first song, “Set Me Free” actually begins. 

I can’t honestly say this album saved my life or will save yours. But it sure won’t hurt. The important thing is, this might be the best Biram album yet.

While it boasts the basic Biram sound — his rough-edged voice over acoustic guitar and foot-stomping — as a songwriter, Biram just keeps improving. He can still rock hard and crazy, the best examples here being “TrainWrecker” and “Hit the River,” a wild instrumental. He’s not afraid to get obscene if the spirit says so, as he proves on “Swift Driftin’.” 

And he has always had a way with good-time drinking songs like “Red Wine.” (One can easily imagine Texas honky-tonker Dale Watson singing this one.) But what Biram really has going for him is a knack for writing downright pretty blues-soaked country songs, and The Bad Testament has plenty of those.

“Still Around” is a minor-key song of a scorned lover, proud and defiant: “Go ahead and throw me down, I might be broke, I’m still around,” he sings. “I’m the weapon in your hand/I’m the stone that drags you down/I am the rock on which you stand/I am the one who hangs around.” The lyrics provide few clues as to what led to the singer’s angry words (“I have never been your friend/I’m just worn down by wind”), but the pain is audible. Plus there’s some pretty fancy near-flamenco fingerpicking in a couple of places here.

“Crippled & Crazy” could very well be autobiographical. Nearly 15 years ago Biram survived an auto accident — a head-on collision with a pickup truck — that basically broke every bone in his body. Those wounds apparently still haunt him, as do others.

 With a sad electric organ adding a little texture, Biram sings of being “crippled and crazy and out of control” as well as being “sober and stupid” and “sold down the river.” On the heart-wrenching bridge he cries, “Calling all angels, all heartaches and demons, calling all lovers that left for no reason, down through the chamber that echoed the screamin’; twisted and turnin’ I just quit believin’ in love.’’

“Righteous Ways,” with its own sweet fingerpicking, sounds as if Biram has been listening to some Mississippi John Hurt. It’s an introspective number on which he yearns for a spirituality he knows he may never achieve. “I struggle all the time in my mind and in my heart,” he sings. “There’s just never enough time for righteous ways.”

But later on the album he makes a stab at righteousness, with “True Religion,” an a cappella tune that goes back at least as far as Leadbelly (and I suspect further). Biram’s probably being tongue-in-cheek here, seeing how the song is sandwiched between crazy religious radio samples. But in light of “Righteous Ways,” I suspect there’s a grain of earnestness too. 

Biram may seem a little bit touched at times, but I think the angels are among those who touched him. 


Also recommended:

 Front Porch Sessions by The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. This “big damn band” consists of exactly three people: Josh Peyton on vocals and guitar; his wife, Breezy Peyton, on washboard and background vocals; and drummer Maxwell Senteney — three people and no more. So it might seem odd to describe this album as more stripped-down than previous albums, but that’s what it is. 

The record wasn’t really recorded on Peyton’s front porch. But it sounds as if it might have been. It could be the soundtrack of a great summer barbecue, where the music is as tasty as the ribs.

There are not as many hard-chugging songs as on most of the albums by this Indiana trio. In some ways, Front Porch resembles the 2011 album Peyton on Patton, which was a solo album in which the Reverend played songs by blues pioneer Charley Patton. 

The new album has several covers of blues greats as well: Furry Lewis’ “When My Baby Left Me,” Blind Willie Johnson’s gospel stomper “Let Your Light Shine,” and “When You Lose Your Money,” which is based on Lewis’ version of the classic bad-man ballad “Billy Lyons & Stack O’ Lee.”

Peyton’s originals are worthy as well. The sweet opening cut, “We Deserve a Happy Ending,” sung with Breezy, is a moderate tempo blues, accented by the Reverend’s slide, about marital joy. “Even when we’re losing, it feels like we are winning,” the couple sing. 

The mood shifts with “What You Did to the Boy Ain’t Right,” on which the singer scolds, “I don’t want to fight, but what you did to the boy ain’t right.” It’s never spelled out what exactly was done to whom. We just know the Reverend don’t like it. 

Then there is the slow “One Bad Shoe,” which works an existential metaphor about traveling unprepared, knowing there’s a good chance you won’t make it to your destination.

In the tradition of previous Reverend Peyton food songs — like “Pot Roast and Kisses,” “Born Bred Corn Fed,” and “Mama’s Fried Potatoes” — the final track on Front Porch Sessions is “Cornbread and Butterbeans.” Here Peyton celebrates “eatin’ beans and makin’ love as long as I am able.” It’s a well-deserved feast.


Let's see some videos

First, a couple from The Bad Testament




And now, Rev. Peyton

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 13, 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
Back in the Saddle by Gene Autry
Lost in the Ozone by Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen
Rainy Day Woman by Waylon Jennings
Georgia on a Fast Train by Billy Joe Shaver

Heartaches by the Number by Ray Price, Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard

Hogs on the Highway by Bad Livers

Take You Down by Texas Martha & The House of Twang

Long Road by Alice Wallace

Trucker Country by Erich McMann

White Dress by Anthony Leon & The Chain

The Ballad of the Alamo by Marty Robbins

Don't Remember Me by The Misery Jackals

Cheap Motels by Southern Culture on the Skids

Stuck in the Mud by Deano Waco & The Meat Purveyors 

Too Hot to Handle by Bryan Deere

Banshee by Ed Sanders

For Every Glass That's Empty by Pine Hill Haints

Hot Dog Baby by Hasil Adkins

I Love to Yodel by Carolina Cotton

Small Ya'll by George Jones

Poor Joe by Audrey Auld

Be a Little Quieter by Porter Wagoner

Naked Light of Day by Butch Hancock 

Truck Stop by the Liquor Store by the Highway by Kevin Deal

Santa Fe by Augie Meyers

Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town by Jason & The Scorchers

The Day Bartender by Al Duval

My Old Man Boogie by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

Not a Song by Jim White vs The Packway Handle Band

The Western Lands by Slackeye Slim

Knoxville Girl by The Louvin Brothers

Highway Cafe by Tom Waits

A Preacher and a Girl of the Night by Jimmy Patton

CLOSING THEME Comin' Down by the Meat Puppets


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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, July 21, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Daddy Was a Preacher & Mamma Was a Go-Go Girl by Miss DeLois & the Music Men
Too Much Pork For Just One Fork by Southern Culture On The Skids
Drop the Charges by The Gourds
Skid Row Girl by Wanda Allred
Rubber Doll by The Lone X
Deep Fried Gators by Sloppy Joe
Swamp Water by Mama Rosin with Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
Feed the Family by Possessed by Paul James
Move to Alabama by Charley Patton
Some of These Days I'll Be Gone by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band

Honky Tonk Devil by Andy Vaughan & The Driveline
Pussy Pussy Pussy (1938) by The Light Crust Doughboys
12 Pack Morning by Arty Hill
The Sun by The Imperial Rooster
Aces and Eights by Jimbo Mathus
Devil Woman by Marty Robbins
Vengeance Gonna Be My Name by Slackeye Slim

Redemption by Dex Romweber Duo
The Fal by Fifth on the Floor
The Cave by Johnny Paycheck
The Killers by Ed Love
Long Legged Girl (With the Short Dress On) by Elvis Presley
Gamblin' Wheels by Country Blues Revue
The Squid Jiggin' Ground by Peter Stampfel & The Bottle Caps
The Golden Rocket by Hank Snow
Dude Cowboy by The Hoosier Hot Shots

Drinkin' Whiskey Tonight by Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three
Boodle-Am Shake by The Dixieland Jug Blowers
Southern Family Anthem by Shooter Jennings
Burn Down That House by Poor Boy's Soul
Religions (They Really Worry Me) by Gary Heffern
Song for Woody by Stan Ridgway
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, July 29, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Over the Cliff by Jon Langford
The Death of Me by Dex Romweber Duo
Working in Tennessee by Merle Haggard
So Long Honeybee, Goodbye by Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three
Cumberland Gap on a Buckin' Mule by Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers
Old Moon by Bloodshot Bill
I Couldn't Believe It Was True by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
Sunshine by The Meat Purveyors
Tennessee Rooster Fight by Howington Brothers
Korhn Sirrup Sundae by The Imperial Rooster

Ready for the Times to Get Better by Paula Rhea McDonald
High by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
The Cat Never Sleeps by Mama Rosin with Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
Dump Road Yodel by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
Lookout Mountain by Drive-by Truckers
A Song Called Love by Slackeye Slim
Ghost on the Highway by Trailer Bride
I Like to Sleep late in the Morning by David Bromberg
A Rejected Television Theme Song by Shooter Jennings

Funny Feeling by Country Blues Revue
Shake Sugaree by Elizabeth Cotton (vocals by Brenda Evans)
Mississippi Boweavil Blues by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
When Your Ways Get Dark by Charlie Patton
Write Me A Few Of Your Lines by Mississippi Fred McDowell
Searching the Desert for the Blues by Blind Willie McTell
Baby Please Don't Go by Eddie "One String" Jones
Stranger in My Hometown by Tracy Nelson

Albuquerque Annie by The 99ers
Albuquerque by Eric Hisaw
Oh! You Pretty Woman by Willie Nelson & Asleep At The Wheel
Chunky by Terry Diers
Hard Scratch Pride by Whitey Morgan
Wasp's Nest by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Be My Love by NRBQ
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Oct. 20, 2017
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
Til the Well Runs Dry by Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones
Big Time Annie's Square by Merle Haggard
How Cold Hearted Can You Get by Hank Thompson
Mama's Fried Potatoes by Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Okie's in the Pokie by Jimmy Patton
5 Minutes to Live by Joecephus & The George Jones Massacre
I Swear to God by Tyler Childers
Vandalism Spree by Hellbound Glory
Gamblin' Barroom Blues by Steve  Forbert
Cadillacin' by Paul Burch

Back Side of Dallas by Jeannie C. Riley
Shandy by Kris Kristofferson
The Taker by Ryan Bingham
Good Luck by Margo Price
Bellville County Line by Beth Lee & The Breakups
Sing a Worried Song by Legendary Shack Shakers
Such is the World We Live In by Chris Hillman
DYGKD by The Ghost Wolves

Bonaparte's Retreat by Pee Wee King
Bonaparte's Retreat by John Hartford
Flowers on the Wall by The Statler Brothers
You Broke My Heart by Steve Earle
Prayer by Ray Wylie Hubbard
You've Been a Good Old Wagon by David Bromberg
Aunt Peg's New Old Man by Robbie Fulks
Blues for Pilgrum by The Imperial Rooster
In the Boxcar by Joe West
You're Not My Same Sweet Baby by Chuck Prophet
Old Devil Time by Pete Seeger
Papa by Cynthia Becker
Nothing in This World for Me by Howard Armstrong
Happy Hour by Ted Hawkins
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list