Thursday, April 30, 2009

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: LOCAL SOUNDS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 1, 2009



Here's a roundup of some worthy CDs by locals, former locals, and semi-locals.

* The Como Sessions Vol. 1 by Goshen. Goshen honcho Grant Hayunga is a local, all right. Although he came here from Kentucky, he has been performing around these parts for nearly two decades and, for most of that time, has been part of the venerable Frogville stable.

But this latest disc — a six-song EP — was recorded in Mississippi late last year at Delta Recording Service in the town of Como. There, Hayunga partnered with Jimbo Mathus, late of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, who produced the sessions and played guitar, mandolin, keyboards, and percussion on these tracks.

But fear not, longtime Goshen followers. Despite the different setting and different backup musicians, this is definitely a Goshen album. The essence of Hayunga's frantic slide-guitar rockers and his slower, darker meditations are very much intact.

The opening cut, "Belladonna" is rousing, with traces of funk. Corey Jenkins' drums sound like re influenced by the fife-and-drum (R.I.P. Otha Turner) sound of the Mississippi hill country. Things slow down for the next track, "Clouds of Swallows." The slide-guitar riffs in this song — as well as in the ominous "She Sets Fires" — sound like spooks in the night.

The dreamy "In the Rushes" and the sweet acoustic "Slow Burner" are the closest Goshen has come to country music in a while. But my favorite Goshen tunes are always the breakneck crazy barn-burners. Hayunga and his pals reach that level in "God Wanted to Be a Man."

A heads-up: Goshen appears at Frogfest on May 30 at Santa Fe Brewing Company. Tickets are $10.

* All Dressed Up ... and Nowhere to Go by Billy Miles Brook. Here's another local who went south to record a record. In recent months, Billy has been playing bass with The Dirty Novels in Albuquerque, a group that has kind of a garage/punk sound.

But this album is unabashedly '70s boogie with Chuck Berry/Keith Richards-style guitar and rollicking Nicky Hopkins-style keyboards. I hear the Faces, Mott the Hoople, maybe a little New York Dolls, or is it Stillwater from Almost Famous?

I can almost smell the lines of blow on the bare breasts of backstage groupies. (Note to younger readers, if there are any: This is bad and sends the wrong message to the youth. Please disregard.)

There are some slow ballads here — "The Raging Light of Dawn" and "Midnight Rain" for instance.

But my favorites are the rippers like "Moonlight Boogie" and "Tearin' Up the Town."

* Honky Tonk Breakdown: Live at the Sagebrush by Kim & The Caballeros. This album was recorded live in Taos last year by Kim Anne Treiber-Thompson and her band, which includes her singer/songwriter/guitar-picker beau Chipper Thompson. It's a good mix of original tunes by both Kim and Chipper and some covers.

The best originals are Kim's "Ghost of Her" (featuring some irresistible steel guitar by Leonard Kasza) and Chipper's "Loudmouth Cowgirls," a funny tune that reminds me of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Trashy Women." Also tasty is the slow, gospel-tinged "Nobody to Find," written by Chipper and sung soulfully by Kim.

As for the covers, the free world probably didn't need another version of "Folsom Prison Blues." A much better choice is Allison Moorer's "Dying Breed." This is a tune that has a minor-key melody similar to that of Hank Williams' "Rambling Man" and deals with hereditary addictions.

"I take a red and blue one from my mama's purse/I wash 'em down with homemade wine/To see which kicks in first. ... No one grows old in this household/We are a dying breed."
For the record, the only cover of this song I know of was by Lonesome Bob, who hasn't been heard from since his excellent Things Change in 2002. Come back, Lonesome Bob!

* Up for Air by John Egenes. This might sound corny, but it's a true story: The other day I was listening to this CD while rushing to work. I was stressed as usual, cursing people driving slower than me as "morons" and those driving faster as "maniacs." Then the title song of truck me.

"But I think I'll take it easy, stop and take my breath/There ain't no need to work myself to death." Egenes sure isn't the only one to write songs with this theme. But "Up for Air" was right there when I needed it. Thanks, John.

A former Santa Fe music stalwart who, for the last few years, has lived in New Zealand, Egenes has packed his latest album with plenty of good acoustic country/folk tunes. I think my favorite one here is "Lookin' for a Ride," a song about a mysterious hobo.

Also strong is "One More Down," which deals with an angry, homeless war veteran ("I came back home with a pocket full of hate in the place my leg used to be.") He's pushing a broom and imagining he's "cleanin' up the mess that my country made."

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

MENACING SOUNDS FROM THE JUNK DRAWER

I had fun last night yacking with Gabe Gomez on his radio show The Junk Drawer on Project 101.5.

In case you missed it, you can can listen to Gabe's podcast of it HERE.

Hear my golden voice as well as music by Goshen, The Dirt Bombs (with Troy Greggory), King Khan & The Shrines, The Cramps, Gogol Bordello, Angry Johnny & The Killbillies, The Molting Vultures and some Potatohead guy.

GABE AT THE JUNKDRAWER

Monday, April 27, 2009

I'M ON (IN?) THE JUNK DRAWER

I'll be appearing Tuesday night on Gabe Gomez's radio show The Junk Drawer.

That's 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM on 101.5 FM .

Give it a listen.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 26, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Dum Du by Butthole Surfers
Mummy Shakes by The Molting Vultures
Lonlely Weekend by The Remains
Spiderman by The Ramones
Rat's Revenge Part 1 by The Rats
Hit Me by The Fleshtones
Yesterday's Trash by The Hentchmen
Archive From 59 by The Buff Medways
Girl of Matches by Thee Headcoats
Minority Report by Los Straightjackets
Mystery Meat by Man or Astroman?

God Wanted to Be a Man by Goshen
Country Blues by The Tarbox Ramblers
The River Is Laughing by Stinky Lou & The Goon Mat
What The Hell by The Black Smokers
Mean and Evil by Juke Joint Pimps
Dreamin' About Flyin' by The Moaners
Train Song No. 35 by Edison Rocket Train
Debra Lee by BBQ

Short Fat Fannie by Larry Williams
Pappa Shotgun by Billy Stafford
Justine by The Righteous Brothers
Thunderbird by William "Thunderbird" Williams
Jungle Hop by Don & Dewy
Take a Bath by Charles Simms
Vendetta by Impala
Wine Head by Johnny Wright
My Baby's Comin' by Stud Cole
One Cup of Coffee and a Cigarette by Glenn Glenn
Primitive by The Cramps

Jesus Shootin' Heroin by The Flaming Lips
Greasy Heart by The Jefferson Airplane
Bass Strings by Country Joe & The Fish
World's End State Park by Giant Sand
True Love by Tiny Tim & Miss Sue
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE BLOOD OF THE KILLER

Thanks to Jim Terr for forwarding me this notice of a Nashville piano auction.

It's a Steinway model B grand pianoin ebony finish that was manufactured in Steinway’s New York factory on December 15, 1969, and sold to Claude P. Street Piano Co. in Nashville.

I don't even know how to play "Chopsticks," but hell, I'd love to own a piano that was used in recording by both Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Jimmy Swaggart.

My favorite part of the ad is this:

Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis both used this piano to record albums. A recording engineer on a particularly raucous Jerry Lee Lewis session remembers wiping The Killer’s blood off the keys after he had finished playing.

Check it out HERE:

Saturday, April 25, 2009

LIPS, COMMIES TRIUMP IN SOONER STATE

Here's a strange little political battle that brought back memories, mainly bad, of my home state.
Cussing Teletubbies
Seems like the Oklahoma State Legislature was just about name "Do You Realize" by The Flaming Lips as the official state rock song.

But then, Lips bassist Michael Ivins showed up at some ceremonial deal at the state Capitol wearing a bright red hammer & sickle T-shirt.

Oh boy ...

Politicians were aghast. Commies! Traitors! What kind of message does this send to the children?

Read about it HERE in the good old Daily Oklahoman.

A majority of the state House of Representatives passed a resolution for the song. But it didn't get the 51 votes needed to pass it.
We will bury you
But Gov. Brad Henry stepped in and used an executive order to declare "Do You Realize" the official Oklahoma State rock song. Henry said the Lips have made "creative, fun and provocative rock music" for more than 20 years. There's some kind of official ceremony in OKC on Tuesday.

Of course not all Okies agree. Some commenter on the Oklahoman site called them a "cussing tele-tubby band." Sounds like a cool new sub-genre to me.

Speaking of bad memories, this reminds me of the time when Okemah, Okla. was in the planning stages of erecting the statue of its most famous native son, Woody Guthrie. The Oklahoman was beside itself. A statue of a known communist? What next, the paper asked, a statue of his hippie son Arlo?

But politics aside, is "Do You Realize" the best choice?

I would have preferred "Jesus Shootin' Heroin."


Friday, April 24, 2009

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 24, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Tall Tall Trees by Roger Miller
I Still Miss Someone by John Doe & The Sadies
Dying is Easy by The Sadies with Kelly Hogan
Belladona by Goshen
Sweet Young Thing by The Monkees
Country Playboy Special by The Pine Leaf Boys
Driving My Young Life Away by Wayne Hancock
Crazed Country Rebel by Hank Williams III
Crawking Eye by Deano Waco & The Meat Purveyors
Made For the Blues by George Jones
Mama's Gonna Shorten Your Days by Butterbeans & Susie

Why Do I Feel Like Running by Big Al Anderson
Already Gone by The Tarbox Ramblers
Don't Buy a Skinned Rabbit by Blind Boy Grunt
Cajun Joe (The Bully of The Bayou) by Doug Kershaw
Tears and Wine by Billy Miles Brooks
Lookin' for a Ride by John Egenes
East Side Boys by Martin Zellar
Haul Off and Love Me by Jean Shepard

Dan Hicks Set
All Song by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks except where noted
The Diplomat
Where's the Money?
The Buzzard Was Their Friend
Ragtime Cowboy Joe
Walkin' One and Lonely by Maria Muldaur
I'll Tell You Why That Is by Dan Hicks with Tom Waits
It's Not My Time to Go

18 Wheels of Love by Drive-By Truckers
Murdering Oscar by Patterson Hood
Soldiers Get Strange by Jason Isbell
Drink Me by The Dolly Ranchers
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: DAN'S THE MAN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 24, 2009


UPDATE: This just in from FanMan: Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks Saturday, June 27 Santa Fe Brewing Co. Patio


Here's the short version of this review: Tangled Tales, the new album by Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, is Hicks' best album since he began his big comeback at the turn of the century — which means it's his best since his heyday in the early 1970s. Not bad for a cranky old codger rapidly approaching the big 7-0.

A little history of Hicksville for the newcomers: Hicks, in the mid- to late-'60s, was the drummer for a seminal San Francisco psychedelic outfit called The Charlatans (not to be confused with The Charlatans U.K., who came much later). Even back in his Charlatan days, Hicks had a genuine love for Western swing, traditional jazz, vaudeville, jug-band blues, country, and other American roots sounds. So he started a crazy little side project — Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks — that featured acoustic instruments and two female singers he dubbed The Lickettes.

Soon the side project would become his top priority. He left The Charlatans and recorded an album. Original Recordings was an admirable effort, with a couple of tunes that would become Hicks staples through the years —"I Scare Myself" and "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away." But it wasn't until the next album, Where's the Money? — featuring a new pair of Lickettes — that the Hot Licks reached its stride. The group recorded two more albums, Striking It Rich (featuring the definitive version of "I Scare Myself") and Last Train to Hicksville (its subtitle, The Home of Happy Feet, provided a name for my favorite program on KUNM-FM 89.9).

And then in 1973, at the height of their popularity, Hicks and the Hot Licks broke up. Usual rock 'n' roll bummers, I suppose. After that, Hicks seemed to blow away. There was one album in 1978, It Happened One Bite, with Hicks and several of his old band mates. (It was recorded a few years earlier for a Ralph Bakshi cartoon feature that was shelved until the '80s.)

Hicks basically sat out the '80s and early '90s, at least as far as recording goes. His next album wouldn't come until 1994 — a live set called Shootin' Straight with a band called the Acoustic Warriors. Despite the discouraging lack of Lickettes, it was a decent album with some fine songs — which are reappearing slowly on Hicks' recent albums. (Five, yes five, of those songs appear on Tangled Tales.)

In 2000, Hicks returned, as did the Hot Licks name, with Beatin' the Heat. Since then, he released another studio album, 2004's Selected Shorts, plus two live albums.

Tangling the tale: The first difference a Hicks fan might notice between Tangled Tales and his two previous studio records is that the new one doesn't have a bunch of guest vocalists. Heat featured Hicks with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Ricki Lee Jones, and Bette Midler. Shorts had Hicks singing with Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, and Gibby Haynes. While one has to admire the perversity of any album featuring Jimmy Buffet and one of the Butthole Surfers, such pairings sometimes seem to be based more on marketing than artistic considerations.

But on Tangled, the only guest stars are instrumentalists — harmonica giant Charlie Musselwhite, mandolin man David Grisman, and blues guitarist Roy Rogers. In each case, these aces enhance Hicks' sound without overwhelming it.

As noted above, nearly half of this album consists of songs from the long-out-of-print Shootin' Straight. Considering four others are cover tunes, that probably indicates that Hicks' songwriting is slowing down. You can't hold that against him, though. Heck, what has Willie Nelson written lately? Truth is, the new versions of "Who Are You?" (featuring some fine harp from Musselwhite), "Savin' My Lovin'," "13-D," "The Rounder," and "A Magician" are superior to the 1994 live versions. Maybe it's the addition of the Lickettes (who these days are Roberta Donnay and Daria).

Hicks' choice of covers hits the target, too. The song "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" was written especially for Dan Hicks (decades before his birth). I can't believe he's never recorded it before. Also a natural choice is "The Blues My Naughty Baby Gave to Me." A far less obvious choice though is Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues." But, aided by Rogers' slide guitar and those lovely Lickettes, this somehow evolves into a Dan Hicks song before your very ears.

Even more surprising is Hicks' inclusion of "Song for My Father," written by jazzman Horace Silver. It's slow and smoky, almost a bosa nova. It might remind old Hicks fans of "I Scare Myself." But what's unlike the Hicks we thought we knew is the raw sentimentality of the lyrics, a sweet tribute to the narrator's father. In the past when Hicks has done sentimental — I'm thinking of songs like "My Old Timey Baby" — it has usually been campy. That's not the case here. And it works just fine.

One of my favorites is "The Diplomat," a jaunty little tune. It contains weird lines that haunts a listener through the whole album: "I go in to cash a check so I can buy a fern/The bank is out of money and besides it's not my turn." I'm not sure why the image of Hicks buying a fern — and standing in line at the bank to accomplish that — seems so funny. But it is.

And then there's the title song, which is a fast-paced bopper featuring Hicks and the ladies scat-singing. It's an impressive display. That comes right before the album ender, "Let It Simmer," which slows things down as Hicks advises listeners to slow down and take it easy. As the song winds down, a male chorus sings in the background "Where's the money? Where's the money?," which hearkens back to the early days of Hicks' career.

Hicks knows by now that there ain't no money in the music biz for the likes of him. Thankfully, he still does it for the love.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 19, 2009
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@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Tubby by Los Straightjackets
In My Brain by Pierced Arrows
It's Not Real by Ravin' Blue
Butthole Surfer by The Butthole Surfers
Big Black Baby Jesus of Today by The Black Lips
Don't Tease Me by Question Mark & The Mysterians
Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend by Nekromantix
Down on Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Everyone in Town Wants You Dead by Singing Sadie

You Must Fight to Live on The Planet of the Apes by The Mummies
Planet of the Apes by Frankenstein Drag Queen
Down in the Beast by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
We Do, Wie Du by The Monks
Pretty Lightning by The New Bomb Turks
Ghost Rider by Alan Vega
Crack Head Joe by Little Freddie King
The Happy Wanderer by The Polkaholics

Chet Boghassa by Tinariwen
Brimful of Asha by Cornershop
Dum Maro Dum by Asha Bhonsle
And You Are Becoming an Indian by Kazik
Mr. Orange by Dengue Fever
Consulat by Cheba Nouria
Start Wearing Purple by Gogol Bordello
Cler Archel by Tinariwen

Walk on Water by Otis Taylor
Got a Thing on My Mind by Sharon Jones
You Messed Up My Mind by James Carr
Let Me Down Easy by Bettye Lavette
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

TINARIWEN AT BREWING CO.

Tinariwen

Tinariwen
Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Tinariwen, a bunch of Tuareg tribesmen with traditional garb and electric guitars from Saharan Mali. Their only drum is a conga-like derbouka. But believe me, they rock -- in a hypnotic kinda way.

Four of the six members (excluding the electric bassist the derbouka man) and take turn singing and playing guitars, so there's lots of variety. I don't know his name, but the guy in the gold robe, (pictured above with turquoise-colored guitar) was a crazy guitarists. His tunes were the best.

Of course, I didn't understand a word they sang. But according to the All Music Guide, Tinariwen's music has been banned in Mali and Algeria, so they must be saying something important.

One disappointing thing was that the group's leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabid wasn't there. I understand he wasn't there last time the group was in town. Is Ibrahim the Brian Wilson of Tinariwen?

No matter, this band was super.Tinariwen

And hey, I just learned that all three of their albums are on eMusic, including the one I didn't have! CLICK HERE


TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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