Wednesday, March 31, 2010

LET IT ALL HANG OUT


Here's a cool little feature on what for the past 14 years or so has been the opening theme song of my Sunday night radio show Terrell's Sound World on KSFR -- Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres. (Thanks, and a tip of the hat to T. Tex Edwards.)

CLICK HERE

I'd never realized before that Huey Meux, the infamous Crazy Cajun who also produced The Sir Douglas Quintet, was involved with The Hombres' greatest (and only) hit.

Some more Hombres trivia from the AllMusic Guide: "Hang Out" co-writer and Hombres organist B.B. Cunningham was the brother of Bill Cunningham, who was in The Box Tops with Alex Chilton.

And before they became The Hombres, they were the touring band for Ronnie & The Daytonas ("Little GTO")

Inspiration for"Let it All Hang Out"? "Cunningham admitted in a Goldmine interview that their original inspiration for the song had been Dylan's `Subterranean Homesick Blues,' which they regarded as a goof masquerading as something profound

This gives me an excuse to reprint Chuck Eddy's thoughts on this song:

"In 1967, The Hombres, a Memphis garage-frat foursome with blood-alcohol levels too high to drive, had a one-shot rap hit with "Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)." It opens with what almost sounds like a digital sample, namely a preacher railing against, "John Barleycorn, nicotine, and the temptations of Eve." Then somebody farts, then a guitar riff taken from the Shadow of Knights' "Gloria" kicks in, and is repeated hip-hop style through the entire song. The singer anticipates what Beck would sound like in the distant future by drawling a ridiculous Dylan parody that compares Galileo with an Eagle Scout and warns against parking near sewer signs. ..."

Chuck Eddy from The Accidental Evolution of Rock 'n' Roll, (1997)


Here's a live 2009 version by B.B. Cunningham:

Monday, March 29, 2010

TOO SWEET TO DIE!

Here's a video of The Waco Brothers performing "Too Sweet to Die" at the recent Twangfest party at Jovitas during South by Southwest. (Thanks and a tip of the hat to Jason Baldwin.)

Wish I'd have been there, even though the last time I was at Jovita's (to see The Waco Brothers at the 2008 Twangfest party) we got cussed out by the manager because my friend Chuck dared to complain about the food arriving an hour and a half after we ordered it.


Sunday, March 28, 2010

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 28, 2010
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
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart by J.C. Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Too Light to Fight by Andre Williams
I Want You Back by The Plimsouls
Primitive Rock by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
Cheap Thrills by Ruben & The Jets
Found a Peanut by Thee Midnighters
Little Girl by John & Jackie
Wolf Call by The Dots
Mysterious Teenage by The Vels
Filhino Do Papei by Brazilian Bittles
Don't Mess With My Mind by The Stomachmouths

Buried Alive by Pearced Arrows
Last Time I Saw Cole by Deadbolt
Slow Dry by The Laundronauts
Bankrupt City by The Ultimatemost High
Sally Sensation by The Molting Vultures
When I Arrive by Los Peyotes
Come Back Bird by Manby's Head
Born to Be Wild by Petty Booka

Princess by The Del-Lords
Penny Instead by Charlie Pickett
Do the Wurst by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Boogie by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
King of the Jungle by King Khan & The Shrines
Diddley Bow by Seasick Steve
Mama Didn't Raise No Fool by Primus

Goodbye Sweet Dreams by Roky Erikson & Okerville River
Campesino by Pinata Protest
Cuca's Blues by Latin Playboys
In the Groove by Howlin' Wolf
Big Legged Woman by Jerry Lee Lewis
Standing in My Doorway Crying by Jessie Mae Hemphill
Love Enchanted by Daniel Johnston
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE LATEST BIG ENCHILADA PODCAST!

THE BIG ENCHILADA

PODCAST 21: SOME ENCHANTED JUNGLE

This month, after a rowdy free-form set, The Big Enchilada takes a rockin' musical trip to the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico -- and then a boat ride into the heart of the Rock 'n' Roll Jungle. So I call this episode Some Enchanted Jungle.

You'll hear a new tune by the Del-Lords, plus amazing sounds by Pinata Protest, The Stomachmouths, Organs, Si Si Si ... and a whole combination plate of New Mexico bands -- Manby's Head, The Scrams, The Dirty Novels, Monkeyshines and Hundred Year Flood.

And then .... The Jungle!

You can play it here:




DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE


The official Big Enchilada Web Site with my podcast jukebox and all the shows is HERE

Here's the play list:

(Background Music: Daktari Ooh Ah by Chaos, Inc.)
She's the One Who's Got It by Alex Chilton
Just Ain't It by Organs
Wild Trip by The Stomachmouths
Ghost Town by Si Si Si
Cantina by Pinata Protest
Me and The Lord Blues by The Del-Lords
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart by J.C. Brooks & The Uptown Sound

(Background Music: Jungle King by Chris Calloway)
NEW MEXICO SET
Licking the Frog by Manby's Head
Audience Reaction by The Dirty Novels
Dram Shopper by The Scrams
Tremblin' White by Hundred Year Flood
Girl in the Miniskirt by Era of Sound
Battle Cry by Monkeyshines

(Background Music: Jungle by The Night Cats)
JUNGLE SET
The Jungle by Diablito
Jungle Hop by Don & Dewey
Jungle Hop by The Cramps
Jungle Fever by Charlie Feathers
Jungle Stomp by Johnny Clark & The Four Playboys
Jungle Talk (I Want Some of That) by Shane Kai Ray
Jungle Music by Simon Stokes



Friday, March 26, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March x, 2010
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
The Moon is High by Roger Miller
She Took a Lot of Pills and Died by Robbie Fulks
Highway Patrol by Junior Brown
Oil in My Lamp by The Byrds
Rub a Dub Dub by Hank Thompson
Broken Engagement by Webb Pierce
Shake a Leg by Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars
Whistle Bait by Larry Collins
Let's Elope by Janis Martin
Move Along Train by Levon Helm
Old Corn Likker by The Carolina Chocolate Drops

T-Model Theme Song by T-Model Ford
Picture of You by Dex Romweber Duo
Diddey Wah-Diddey by Taj Mahall
This Ain't a Good Time by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
Blood on the Saddle by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
High Noon by Tex Ritter
Take Me Back by Billy Kaundart
Country Boy by Little Jimmy Dickens
Night Spots of the Town by Roy Acuff

The Wig He Made Her Wear/Get Downtown by Drive-By Truckers
Rebel by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Pour Hank on the Pain by Mike Cullison
My Bucket's Got a Hole in It by Hank Williams
When Sin Stops by Waylon Jennings & Buddy Holly
Mud Flap Boogie by The World Famous Blue Jays
Your Squaw is on the Warpath by Loretta Lynn
Star Motel Blues by Kell Robertson

Wade in the Water by Asylum Street Spankers
The Ballad of Jack Dolan by Moloney, Keane & O'Donnell
Bad Man Napper by Lee Green
Ballad of Hell's Half Acre by The Bootleg Prophets
Don't Go by Hundred Year Flood
That's When It Hits Me by Nancy Apple
Pie in the Sky by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Thursday, March 25, 2010

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: TRUCKING TO GLORY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 26, 2010


With The Big To-Do, The Drive-By Truckers continue their run as probably the most consistently strong, consistently good band working today.

They sound as tough as ever, with three fine singers and loud guitars. They tell riveting stories and are not afraid to be funny or get sentimental when it’s called for. They’ve even stuck with artist Wes Freed, whose colorful, magical mystery Southern Gothic style makes him my favorite album-cover artist working today.

In the liner notes, Trucker Patterson Hood says that unlike other Trucker albums, there wasn’t supposed to be an overall theme or story line on this record. “Yet as we sit down to sequence, it somehow seems to imply otherwise.” (I love a band that’s not afraid to honestly comment on its own work.)

The first tune that grabbed me was “Drag the Lake, Charlie.” It’s a loose and funky upbeat song sung from the perspective of a small-town law enforcement officer (think Andy or Barney in Mayberry). The song is funny at first, with the narrator worried about the wrath of Wanda, the wife of philandering ne’er-do-well Lester, who’s missing. “Better keep your fingers crossed and hope we find him drowned/Wanda’s gonna come and kill us all if he shows up in town.”

But as the song progresses, so does the darkness. “Remember what happened last time Lester went on the make?/I heard it took the cleaning crew two weeks to clean the bar/They never found that teenage girl/They never found the car.”

The Truckers have always excelled at crime songs, and it’s a real double punch when “Drag the Lake” is followed by “The Wig He Made Her Wear.” This one is ripped straight from the headlines; it’s the story of Mary Winkler, who was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for killing her husband, the Rev. Matthew Winkler, in 2006. As reported by the Associated Press, “Jurors were shown a pair of tall platform shoes and a black wig Winkler said that she was pressured to wear during sex.”

Hood sings:

“Said that he berated about everything/Make her do things that made her feel so ashamed/Nobody at church would ever suspect/Made her dress up slutty before they had sex ... She’s already out of jail/And it was them high-heeled shoes and that wig he made her wear.”

Mike Cooley is responsible for “Birthday Boy,” the tale of a world-weary small-town stripper/hooker. “You got a girlfriend, don’t you, boy?/Nervous hands can’t lie/Married men don’t ask how much, single ones ain’t buying.”

“Get Downtown” is a funny rocker that starts off, “Kim said ‘Jimmy you better get yourself up off of that raggedy couch/I’m too pretty to work and I’m tired of you uglying up my house.’ ” The crunchy, fuzzy production adds to the pleasure.

Probably the most sonically stunning track on To-Do is Shonna Tucker’s “You Got Another.” The subject matter is hardly original — “You got another and you’ll go to her” — but Tucker sings with an ache and rage that makes it sound as if she’s the world’s first victim of sexual infidelity (which of course is just how it feels if it happens to you). The songs starts off slow and spare, with Tucker singing over piano and Hood coming in for harmony in the refrain.

At first, it reminded me of Lucinda Williams’ “Broken Butterflies,” sad and somewhat otherworldly. But then the rest of the band comes in and the music builds — the sob of the opening verse becomes a growl and then a roar. And Tucker’s voice remains the most powerful element of this song.

And, by golly, there’s even a song called “Santa Fe,” (hey, I live there!) which Hood says he wrote here (“before and after sound check”) while in town for a show in June 2008.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really say anything about Santa Fe: “You said that you’d be waiting for me here in Santa Fe.” It could be about any town with three syllables for its name. In fact, if I had to pick the weakest song on the record, I’d have to set aside hometown pride — though John Neff deserves some credit for a tasty steel-guitar solo.

“Our album begins with a song about a little boy missing his dad and ends with a father missing his children,” Hood writes in the liner notes, referring to his song “Daddy Learned to Fly” and Cooley’s “Eyes Like Glue” — a sweet and sad one.

But the true climax of the album is “The Flying Wallendas.” Yes, it’s the story of the famous circus family of acrobats, who provide a classic symbol for showbiz. The Wallendas were amazing performers, but sadly they’re probably best known for the tragic incident of Jan. 30, 1962, when two members of the act were killed and another paralyzed after they fell while performing in Detroit.

“And they fell to the ground with the greatest of ease/And three didn’t get up from the blood in the breeze,” Hood sings. And yet the Wallendas kept going. They performed the very next night. I saw them as a child a few months later. Patriarch Karl Wallenda kept performing until 1978, when he fell to his death from a high wire in Puerto Rico at the age of 73. “They never would stop and they never surrendered/And they lived like they died, The Flying Wallendas,” Hood sings.

Let’s hope the Drive-By Truckers keep flying too.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March, 2010
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
Get it On by Grinderman
The Beat Goes On by The Pretty Things
Around the World by Delaney Davidson
Cigarettes and My Old Lady by Andre Williams
I Need Somebody by Manby's Head
Box-o-Wine by Dirtbag Surfers
'Sup by The Fuzzy Set
Action Packed by The Del Moroccos
Dig That Grave by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers

JUNGLE SET
Jungle Hop by Don & Dewey
Jungle King by Cab Calloway
Jane in the Jungle by The 5.6.7.8s
Jungle Rock by The Fall
Jungle by The Nite Cats
Stranded in the Jungle by Frank Zappa
Tiger Man (King of the Jungle) by Rufus Thomas
Guitarzan by Ray Stevens

ALEX CHILTON TRIBUTE
The Letter by The Box Tops
Like Flies on Sherbert by Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton's Guitar by The Rockin' Guys
September Gurls by Big Star
The Mad Daddy by The Cramps
Baron of Love Part II by Ross Johnson & Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton by The Replacements
Rock Hard by Alex Chilton

Murder in My Heart for the Judge by Moby Grape
Death Cab For Cutie by Bonzo Dog Band
Snow Blind Friend by Steppenwolf
Peg and Pete and Me by Stan Ridgway
Deathletter in the Mail by Bernadette Seacrest & Her Provocateurs
Zero Hour by The Plimsouls
Rambling Rose by The Persuasions
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Friday, March 19, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 19, 2010
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
Drag the Lake, Charlie by Drive-By Truckers
I've Done Everything I Could Do Wrong by Reckless Kelly
Black Wings by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Family Man by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Even If It's Wrong by BR549
Married Man Blues by The Nite Owls
My Baby's Gone by Marti Brom
In the Pines by Delaney Davidson
World Renown by The Riptones

Paper Crosses by Philip Gibbs
Lulu's Back in Town by Dan Hicks
He Calls That Religion by Maria Muldaur
By and By by Asylum Street Spankers
If Yous a Viper by Jim Kweskin Jug Band
Cancion Mixteca by The Chieftains by Los Tigres del Norte

Johnny Gimble Set
(All songs by Johnny Gimble or from songs on which JG played)
Hey Mr. Cowboy by Johnny Gimble with Jesse Dayton
Ida Red by Merle Haggard
You Win Again by Mother Earth
Divorce Me C.O.D. by Don Walser
I Needed You by Johnny Gimble with Dale Watson
(How Will I Know) I'm Falling in Love Again by Willie Nelson
Going Away Party by Asleep at the Wheel & The Manhatten Transfer & Willie Nelson
Sweet Georgia Brown by Johnny Gimble with Merle Haggard

Waltz Across Texas by Alex Chilton
A Satisfied Mind by Marty Stuart
Murder in My Mind by Holly Golighty & The Brokeoffs
Sneaky Pete by Sonny Fisher
Mamma's Fried Potatoes by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Bloody Bill Anderson by South Memphis String Band
Go Ring the Bells by Johnny Paycheck
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

ALEX CHILTON TRIBUTE SET ON SOUND WORLD SUNDAY

Please tune in Sunday on KSFR. The show starts at 10 p.m. Mountain Time. I'll probably do the Chilton segment about 11 p.m.

Meanwhile, here's some videos. Some folks on YouTube say the first one is NOT from 120 Minutes, but an older show that was called The Cutting Edge. That's Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones introducing him.






Thursday, March 18, 2010

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: NIMBLE AS GIMBLE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 19, 2010


He fiddled with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. He fiddled with Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Dolly Parton, and Merle Haggard — and also on TV with Hee Haw’s Million Dollar Band. His fiddling won him a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in 1994, presented to him by then first lady Hillary Clinton. And he fiddled on the campaign trail for Louisiana Gov. Jimmie Davis. (Oops! He actually played banjo for the singing governor.)

Johnny Gimble turns 84 in a couple of months, and he’s still fiddling. He has a new album out, Celebrating With Friends, on which he’s joined by friends like Nelson, Haggard, Ray Benson from Asleep at the Wheel, Vince Gill, Jesse Dayton, and Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor. And the album’s cover art is by Mekon/Waco Brother/western-swing lover Jon Langford.


Personal digression: Despite his lengthy western-swing/country music résumé, I didn’t become aware of Johnny Gimble until the late 1960s. It was on a record called Make a Joyful Noise by a wild tribe of hippies called Mother Earth, led by a rich-throated blues belter named Tracy Nelson and a warbling poet named R.P. St. John.

Gimble was one of several country-music veterans to appear on this record. There was also another veteran fiddler — Grover C. “Shorty” Lavender — as well as steel-guitar master Pete Drake. One of the best moments on Joyful Noise was Gimble’s jaw-dropping solo on Hank Williams’ “You Win Again.” Shamefully, this album was out of print for decades until it was reissued on the Wounded Bird label about six years ago.

Back to the present: Celebrating With Friends almost seems like a tribute album. Indeed, on a couple of tunes Gimble doesn’t actually play. A younger fiddler, Jason Roberts, an impressive musician who is part of the house band that forms the backbone of the record, fills in for the master on the Gimble-penned instrumental “Gardenia Waltz.” He also plays and recites the lyrics of Gimble’s “Fiddlin’ Around.”

And then there’s the final track, “Owed to Johnny Gimble,” which is from a 1994 Prairie Home Companion show recorded shortly after Gimble won the NEA award. This is an actual tribute song by Keillor, who sings, “There was a fiddler named Gimble/Whose fingers were nimble.” (Keillor also rhymes “Darling Nelly” with Stephane Grapelli, but at least he doesn’t end any line with “Nantucket.”)

But the best tributes here are the classy jams featuring Gimble, who plays electric mandolin on some tracks and even sings a few songs. He swaps verses with Gill on “Somewhere South of San Antone,” showing that time has been kind to his vocal chords. Gimble’s granddaughter Emily Gimble sings “If I Had You” while grandpa proudly plays in the background.

Jesse Dayton takes time off his duties as Rob Zombie’s resident country singer to do a fun little number called “Hey Mr. Cowboy.” It’s nice to hear Dayton, whose last album was the Zombie-produced Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures, sing a song that has nothing to do with flesh-eating ghouls or demonic forces.

Of course, I’m partial to Willie and Merle. Nelson’s “Lady Be Good” is a snazzy, jazzy take on this Gershwin number, with a standout piano solo by Danny Levin. But I think my favorite tune on this album is Haggard’s spot, a hot version of “Sweet Georgia Brown.” It’s so good I can make it almost all the way through without thinking of the Harlem Globetrotters.

If you’re a fan at all of western swing, there’s no way Celebrating With Friends isn’t going to make you smile.

Also recommended:

* Somewhere in Time by Reckless Kelly. This is an album that Reckless Kelly has been threatening to make for years.

It’s a collection of songs written by the band’s country-music mentor, one Pinto Bennett. Never heard of Pinto Bennett? Neither had I before this album. Apparently he’s a honky-tonk hero up in Idaho, where he led a band called the Famous Motel Cowboys during the Outlaw Era of the ’70s.

Bennett was friends with the father of Cody and Willie Braun, the brothers at the core of Reckless Kelly, who grew up in Idaho before moving to Austin, Texas. Pinto, a burly bearded guy who looks like a healthier version of Blaze Foley, is not well-known outside of the potato capital, but judging from this album, he’s a heck of a songwriter.

And this sounds as if it were a fun album to make. Texas luminaries like Joe Ely, Lloyd Maines, Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson’s harp man), and Bukka Allen (Terry and Jo Harvey’s boy) show up. And so does Pinto Bennett. The old Idaho Cowboy himself is here to sing lead on “Thelma,” a sad waltz about a doomed love.

While RK is known for its powerful roots-rock — and there’s plenty of that here, such as in the opening track, “Little Blossom” — my favorite songs are the more traditional honky-tonkers like “I’ve Done Everything I Could Do Wrong,” “You Cared Enough to Lie,” and “I’ll Hold the Bottle, You Hold the Wheel.” I can imagine Ray Price singing that one.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

  Sunday, March 24, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell E...