Saturday, August 08, 2009

SATURDAY AFTERNOON VIDEO BREAK

Here's a Marvel Team-Up from the '60s: Dean Martin with Roger Miller singing "You Got 2 Again." (Thanks Dean Miller for leading me to this.)

Friday, August 07, 2009

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 7, 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
Rawhide by Frankie Lane
Ragtime Cowboy Joe by Dan Hicks & His Hotlicks
The Ballad of Paladin by Johnny Western
Back in the Saddle Again by Gene Autry
Cowboy in Flames by The Waco Brothers
That Little Old Wine Drinker Me by Sleepy LaBeef
Rockabilly Blue (Texas 1955) by Johnny Cash
The Waitress Song by Ethyl & The Regulars
My Own Kind of Hat by Merle Haggard

The Creep by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Ain't It a Shame by Scott H. Biram
Play It All Night Long by Drive-By Truckers
Stoned at the Jukebox by Katy Moffatt
I've Always Been Crazy by Waylon Jennings
One Good Gal by Charlie Feathers
El Tren de la Costa by The Del Moroccos

California's Burning by Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women
Slip of the Tongue by The Blasters
Guitar Man by Junior Brown 0
Strip Me Naked by Gary Farmer & The Troublemakers
Where in the Hell Did You Go With My Toothbrush? by Rev. Horton Heat
Take Me Back Again by Amber Digby
New Patches by Leona Williams

Mama Says It's Naughty by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
Happy Hicky the Hobo by The Delmore Brothers
Blues Stay Away from Me by The Louvin Brothers Fading Memory by Eilen Jewell
One Part, Two Part by Buddy & Julie Miller with Regina & Ann McCrary
Guitars of Dead Friends by Chris Gaffney
Truly by Hundred Year Flood
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Thursday, August 06, 2009

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: THE MUD, THE MUSIC

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 7, 2009



Who can forget the unforgettable sounds of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, held in Bethel, New York, 40 years ago this month? The immortal music of Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, Quill, the Keef Hartley Band ...

In honor of (read “to cash in on”) the event, Legacy Recordings, the reissue wing of the Sony/BMG empire, recently released five double-CD sets of some of the music of other artists who performed at Woodstock: Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Sly & The Family Stone, and Johnny Winter. Each package is subtitled The Woodstock Experience.

The sets include the artists’ complete Woodstock performance, plus the album each artist had out around the time of Woodstock. Even though I don’t put much stock in phony anniversary nostalgia, I have to say that most of the live recordings on these releases are pretty darn rockin’. The majority of the Woodstock performances are previously unreleased, so it’ll be a new listening experience for those of us who didn’t brave the mud and traffic in 1969.

Besides, it’s still about four months away from the 40th anniversary of Altamont.

Here’s a look at the new Woodstock packages:

* Janis Joplin. Back in 1969, Janis faced a lot of criticism for leaving her good old psychedelic San Francisco blues band Big Brother and The Holding Company to go “solo.” Basically, she traded the hippie slop of her old group to front a much smoother pumped-up soul brigade called the Kozmic Blues Band (Sam Andrew of Big Brother stuck with her through both outfits).

Perhaps because of the backlash, Janis’ album I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again, Mama! was underrated at the time. To these ears, it still sounds vital. And the live versions of the Kozmic Blues songs sound even better. Janis kicked off her Woodstock set with a Stax rouser called “Raise Your Hand” that opens with a tasty workout of the horn section.

Heck, Janis even managed to squeeze the ever-lovin’ soul out the sappy Bee Gees tune “To Love Somebody.”

Janis threw in a few Big Brother classics — “Piece of My Heart,” “Summertime,” and of course, Big Mama Thornton’s “Ball and Chain,” on which the horns, especially the sax, add new dimensions without losing any of the intensity of her original guitar-based version.

The one slow point here is a cover of Otis Redding’s “Can’t Turn You Loose” sung by her baritone-sax man, Snooky Flowers. It’s not a bad version. Just kind of generic. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t hear the horn riff of this song without thinking of The Blues Brothers.


* Jefferson Airplane. Unfortunately for the Airplane, its 1969 studio album, Volunteers, was among the group’s weakest. Except for Jorma Kaukonen’s take on the hymn “Good Shepherd,” much of the rest of the album sounded like dated radical polemics or weak country rock (with lyrics such as “Got a revolution, got a revolution” and “We are all outlaws in the eyes of America”).

But then there’s the live show. In concert, the Airplane tore it up. Grace Slick and Marty Balin’s vocals soared, and Jorma’s guitar blazed. Most of it still sounds fresh. At Woodstock, due to weird scheduling problems, the Airplane went on around sunrise. Grace, as seen in the Woodstock movie, aptly dubbed it “morning maniac music.”

The Airplane apparently played longer at Woodstock than the other acts. The live material couldn’t be contained on one CD, so it actually starts on the Volunteers disc.

You know you’re in for a treat when the musicians start off with their intense version of Fred Neil’s “The Other Side of This Life,” one of the group’s most underappreciated tunes. (It has only appeared on their live albums.) Other highlights included Balin’s “Plastic Fantastic Lover” (a song that’s a zillion times better live than on 1967’s Surrealistic Pillow), the apocalyptic “The House at Pooneil Corners,” and a fired-up take on their hit “Somebody to Love.”

The only clunkers here are some of the songs from Volunteers. The worst is “Wooden Ships,” a song Crosby, Stills and Nash also performed at Woodstock.

* Santana. It’s hard to believe that when Santana played Woodstock, the group was virtually unknown. The text on the CD cover of the live set that calls this a “career-making performance” isn’t just hype.

These days “Evil Ways,” “Jingo,” and “Soul Sacrifice” (the Santana song that was in the Woodstock movie) seem like part of our shared musical DNA — especially for those of us who grew up in Santa Fe. But imagine how it sounded to ears unaccustomed to this music back in 1969 — the seamless blend of Mexican sounds, salsa, blues, and psychedelia. It’s still pretty darn amazing.

Carlos Santana has been through countless band changes, but for me, this original one was his best. Santana’s first album (self-titled, with the lion on the cover) came out after Woodstock. Almost all the songs are the same. While the studio album was excellent, the live ones work best for me.

* Sly and The Family Stone. Even though Sly was no stranger to hit records by 1969, his Woodstock show could also be considered a “career-making performance.” Too bad that career came crashing down not long afterward.

At Woodstock, Sly came out blazing with a nearly eight-minute version of “M’Lady” and doesn’t seem to take a breath for 50 minutes or so. Mainly it’s his hits (you saw “I Want to Take You Higher” in the Woodstock movie), including several tunes from his then-current album Stand.

Sly was one of the great funk captains of human history. I still don’t completely understand why he choked.


* Johnny Winter. Being an albino, Johnny is the whitest of all the white bluesmen. But this Texan was full of fire and fury. He was raw, soulful and in fine form at Woodstock.

His live version of “Leland Mississippi Blues” is stinging, while the almost 11-minute stomper “Mean Town Blues” shows his skill on slide guitar.

There are also three tunes featuring his brother Edgar Winter, who would have a successful career in the ’70s.

WILL LOUDON STILL BE IN MISERY?



Back in 1976, Loudon Wainwright III had a song called called "California Prison Blues" in which the chorus began and ended with the line "Squeaky's in prison and I'm in misery." (I sang this tune myself at a couple of gigs back in the day.)

Well guess what, Loudon .... (CLICK HERE)

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

eMUSIC AUGUST -- BEATING THE NEW SYSTEM

Last month began the new era at eMusic -- where they got all those albums from Sony -- and, by coincidence, they claim, nearly doubled the price of subscriptions. (See my rant about that HERE.) I found a way to beat the system.

Until this month I was paying $19.99 a month for 90 tracks -- just over 22 cents a track. With eMusic's new pricing scheme, my new plan is $19.99 for 50 tracks. That's about 40 cents a track. Still a great deal compared to most other services (except the delightful Aimee Street, who I'm seeing on the side).

But, taking advantage of some new rules at eMusic, I was actually able to download 169 tracks instead of my allotted 50. That's right, more than three times my limit and 79 more tracks than my former generous limit.

The secret is the new policy regarding full-album prices. Under the new rules, most (but not all) albums cost 12-track credits, whether the albums contains 20 tracks or two. This is bad for jazz and classical fans who have been used to spending just one credit for tracks that might be 10 or 15 minutes long. (And there have been lots of complaints over at the eMusic message boards about this.)

But it's great for fans of anthologies of old-time music -- hillbilly, blues, old jazz, etc. -- which tend to have lots more tracks per album.

And it's especially great for those of us who have "picked at" big anthologies over the past few years. I found several examples of collections in which I'd already bough several tracks. As you'll see below there were several anthologies where I was able to download multiple tracks at little or no expense.

The album-price policy is not consistent. Most are 12 credits per disc, but I found one (The Delmore Brothers) where there's more than two discs worth of music for just 12 credits. (I'm betting some of these will be "fixed" before long. And there's some albums where there's no full-album price, so 20 tracks still cost 20 credits.

I won't be able to get so many bargains next month because I don't have many more incomplete compilations. But I thought this was a good way to make lemonade out of the lemon eMusic threw at us.

So enough economics. Here's my eMusic downloads for the past 30 days:


* Travel in Your Mind by The Seeds. Tommy Trusnovic had this CD a few weeks ago when he helped me out on the Terrell's Sound World Sky Saxon tribute. I was jealous, but happy to find out it was available on eMusic.

This is a collection of rarities and outtakes, including a rehearsal of their biggest hit "Pushin' Too Hard," which as Tom pointed out, is remarkably similar to the final product we all know and love (which also is included here.)

There's a 10-minute version of the smoky psychedelic classic "900 Million People Daily" and other journeys to the center of the mind such as "Chocolate River," the near 8-minute "Fallin'" (featuring a harpist) and of course the raga-rock title track.

On "Daisy Mae" Sky sounds almost rockabilly. Likewise "Pretty Girl" conjures Chuck Berry. But most surprising is "Fallin' Off the Edge," which features what sounds like a pedal steel, anticipates The New Riders of the Purple Sage and other country rockers.


* Elementary Doctor Watson by Doc & Merle Watson. This album, released in 1972, is the very first Doc Watson album I ever owned. Just about every track is filled with happy memories -- "Freight Train Boogie" (one of my favorite Delmore Brothers tunes), "More Pretty Girls Than One," "Worried Blues" captures just about everything I love about hillbilly music. My favorite line in "Three Times Seven" -- "I'm wild and woolly and full of fleas, I'm a no-good son of a gun" pretty much summed up my self image back in those days.

When Willie Nelson sang "I Couldn't Believe it Was True" on Red Headed Stranger a few years later, I already was familiar with the song, thanks to Doc. And when I think of "Going Down The Road Feeling Bad," I hear Doc Watson, not The Grateful Dead (or even Woody Guthrie!)

Indeed, to wax corny, the title of the last track, the lovely "Treasures Untold" sums up how I feel about this record.


* Hillbilly Boogie Best by The Delmore Brothers. As I mentioned in the intro to this post, this album represents one of the greatest eMusic bargains -- 60 tracks for the price of 12.

Alabama brothers Alton and Rabon Delmore started recording in the early 1930s and stayed active until the 1950s.

The title of this album is a little misleading. On several tunes -- "Honey I'm Rambling Away," "Old Mountain Dew," "I Got the Railroad Blues" to name a few examples -- you can hear how they were heading for the boogie, but basically this is an acoustic duo with sweet hillbilly harmonies.

Unfortunately this collection doesn't include "Freight Train Boogie" (it's on this collection). But they do have one of my favorite Delmore train tunes, "Don't You See That Train," though I still like the version by The Delta Sisters best.

Sociologically speaking, the most interesting song here is "Lorena the Slave," a song about a plantation slave who loved a "yellow girl" who also was a slave there. But after seven years, the master sells her, and though the singer prays they'll meet again, she dies before any reunion.

I'm also fond of "That Yodelin' Gal Miss Julie" a song about a 300-pound banjo-plucking charmer.


Psychobilly Box
(Disc 2)
by various artists Here was another good bargain. I got 22 tracks for just two credits. A few months ago I downloaded the first disc. That was 22 tracks, so I just needed to spend two more for the entire second disc.

It was worth soending two track credits, but to be honest, Disc 2 just isn't all that great. As The AllMusic Guide points out, it's pretty obvious that the producers don't really know what psychobilly is. There's some "real" psychobilly here -- The Tallboys, The Meteors, The Frantic Flintstones, The Guana Bats, etc. One of the coolest of these is "Norman Bates," the last song on the album, by The Tailgators.

And some real rockabilly Wanda Jackson doing a decent version of "Blue Moon of Kentucky." There's an interesting live recording of a 19-year-old Elvis singing "That's Alright, Mama" on the old Louisiana Hayride radio show. And a so-so Bill Halley re-recording of "Rock Around The Clock."

But my problem isn't "authenticity." It's some of the weird techno-seance products on this disc that almost seem like desecrations of national treasures. Did the band 13 Cats (featuring ex-Stray Cat Slim Jim Phantom) really believe they could improve on Gene Vincent's "Be Bop a Lula" by adding juiced up drums and an irritating horn section ?

And even weirder -- and further away from rockabilly -- is the mash-up of Marilyn Monroe (!) and a band called The Swing Cats on Marilyn's song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." With its production that reminds me of "Stars on 45," this is so tacky I almost like it.

* Man Alive It's The Jumping Jive by Louis Jordan. Best deal yet! Twenty three tracks for FREE! Years ago I downloaded 28 tracks from this album. I visited the album's page on eMusic and saw that I could download the remaining tracks for zero credits.

I already had several of these tracks on an old CD. ("Five Guys Named Moe," "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" and others) But you can't argue with free.

Talk about national treasures, it's hard to get enough of sax-man/shouter Jordan. He spanned so many genres -- jazz, blues, R&B. Jordan even took a stab at calypso with "Run, Joe." And I'm not sure if he was influenced by western swing or he influenced it. Probably both. (He was just three years younger than Bob Wills. Both men died in 1975.)

He made a name for himself in a big city (Philadelphia). Like Cab Calloway, his songs were filled with hipster jive talk. He Like Cab Calloway, his songs were filled with hipster jive talk. He was comfortable dueting with Bing Crosby ("My Baby Said Yes") is on this collection.

But Jordan started out as a country boy, born in Arkansa. You can hear those roots in songs like "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and "Barnyard Boogie" (which features a tasty little steel guitar solo). He even played in a traveling minstrel show. Jordan in many ways was the embodiment of American music

William Henry Harrison
* Presidential Campaign Songs, 1789-1996 by Oscar Brand. Another great deal. Twenty eight tracks for free. Same story as the Louis Jordan collection. Last year I nabbed 15 tracks. Now eMusiclet me have the remaining tracks for free.

I wasn't exactly craving more of these songs. But who knows, some day I'll need "Get on a Raft with Taft" or "Marching With McKinley" for some radio show or podcast.

Actually some of the tunes from especially bitter elections are nice and nasty. This version "Rockabye Baby," rewritten as a campaign song for Martin Van Buren basically accuses his opponent William Henry Harrison as a hopeless drunk who "sits in his cabin drinking bad rum." Meanwhile Harrison's song brags about "log cabin and hard cider."

This album was released during the Clinton administration, so Clinton's the last president to have a song here. Unfortunately it's "Don;t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." It sounds just as wretched by Oscar Brand as it did by Fleetwood Mac.

Plus :

* "Put Your Cat Clothes On" by Carl Perkins. Perkins was just so cool ...

* The tracks I didn't get last month from How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Sunday, August 02, 2009

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August 2, 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
Johnny Jack by Thee Headcoatees
Sorrow's Forecast by Dead Moon
Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White by The Standells
Psilocybic Mind by Marshmallow Overcoat
Miniskirt Blues by The Cramps with Iggy Pop
Tobacco Road by The Blues Magoos
Cause I Sez So/Personality Crisis by The New York Dolls

I'm a Lonely Man by Nathaniel Mayer
Kitchen Sink Boogie by Hound Dog Taylor
Put Your Cat Clothes On by Carl Perkins
Stray Cat Strut by The Stray Cats
Plastic Fantastic Lover by Jefferson Airplane
Chocolate River by The Seeds

BILLY LEE RILEY TRIBUTE
All songs by BLR except where noted
Trouble Bound
Hillbilly Monster by James Richard Oliver
Betty and Dupree
Red Hot by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Pearly Lee
Riley's Got a Woman by Dr. Ruth & The Pleasure Seekers
Real Cool Ride by The Hillbilly Hellcats
Wouldn't You Know
Billy Lee Riley and the Little Green Men by Ebo & The Tomcats
Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll

Alabama's Doomed by Wizzard Sleeve
Feedback Rock by The Stillettos
Stop and Think It Over by Mary Weiss
Gossip, Gossip, Gossip by The A-Bones
Ball and Chain by Janis Joplin

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

R.I.P.BILLY LEE RILEY



He's on a flying saucer to Heaven now.

American music has lost another major one: Rockabilly wildman Billy Lee Riley, who died in a Jonesboro, Ark. after a battle with colon cancer. He was 75.

Riley was best known for his hits "Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll" and "Red Hot."

His obit in the Memphis Commercial Appeal is HERE.

I'll pay proper tribute to Billy tonight on Terrell's Sound World, 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR, 101.1 FM in Santa Fe and www.ksfr.org on the Web. The show starts at 10 p.m. Mountain Time. We'll commemorate Billy Lee right after the 11th hour.

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...