eMUSIC APRIL

* Like Flies on Sherbert by Alex Chilton. I downloaded this the night after Alex died. I'm still coping with the concept of losing Jim Dickinson and Alex Chilton within a few months of each other. What a loss for Memphis music -- though I'm sure Memphis not only will endure but prevail.

I was a fan of the Box Tops -- "The Letter" was a hit when I was in junior high and somehow memories of the Oklahoma State Fair are tied up in that song for me. And I was a fan of lots of the bands Alex produced -- The Replacements, The Cramps, etc.

But I wasn't that huge of a Big Star fan. Their sound always seemed just a little too pretty for me.

If you agree with me on that -- and please spare me the hate mail if your don't-- this album, recorded in the late '70s, is a twisted treat. It's roots rock for the criminally insane -- mutant blues and inspirational slop. True AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called this "a front-runner for the worst album ever made." I don't care. I like it.

Chilton obviously foresaw the rise of punk-blues here. Jon Spencer, Bob Logg and half the bands on Voodoo Rhythm probably owe him a debt of gratitude. I love the lazy boogie shuffle of "My Rival" colored by Ubu-like electro-noise and "Hey! Little Child" which almost sounds like he hired The Shaggs' drummer Helen Wiggin to sit in.

The title song sounds like some Electric Light Orchestra tune being torn apart by wild dogs.

He also does a cowpunk assault on country music on songs like "Waltz Across Texas," "No More The Moon Shines On Lorena," (an old Carter Family song about slaves I suspect has roots in minstrelry) and "Alligator Man," in which Chilton sounds more like Alfred E. Neuman than Jimmie C. Newman.

But my favorite here is "Baron of Love Part II" feature a crazed Ross Johnson, Tav Falco's drummer, on a stoned rant. (This song also is available on Johnson's own compilation Make It Stop!: The Most of Ross Johnson.)

R.I.P. Alex. You rarely failed to surprise.

* His Guitar, His Sons And The Congregation Of St. Luke's Powerhouse Church Of God In Christ by Rev. Louis Overstreet. Here's some raw, rocking gospel from Arizona (!) recorded in the early '60s by Arhoolie Records' Chris Strachwitz.

Before he settled in Phoenix, Overstreet, a Louisiana native traveled throughout the South and West as a street preacher and musical evangelist. He sang playing electric guitar and bass drum, backed up by a joyful vocal group made up of his four sons . In 1961, he became pastor of the St. Luke's Powerhouse Church of God in Christ. (I don't think that particular congregation exists anymore. I found 10 other Churches of God in Christ in Phoenix, but no St. Luke's Powerhouse.)

"Powerhouse" was a fitting name. Overstreet bellowed his praises of the Lord. It's no exaggeration to say that you can hear the spirit at work, especially in the lengthy and frenzied "Holiness Dances."

This version of the album includes the original 1962 recordings, but some additional recording by Strachwitz, including several recorded at Overstreet's home in which the preacher plays acoustic guitar.

* Born Losers by The Stomachmouth. Before there was The Hives, The Stomachmouths were your favorite band --at least for garage rock fans in Sweden in the 1980s.

This is a compilation of Stomachmoth hits, plus a couple of tunes from frontman Stefan Kery's post-Stomachmouths bands, The Mongrels and The Toneblenders. (Thus the "various Artists" tag by eMusic.)

The music is good basic Fuzz & Farisa very Seedsy, very Standellish, with proper nods to The Yardbirds and "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone." My favorite tune has to be the appropriately titled "Wild Trip."

For a history of The Stomachmouths CLICK HERE

* Showtime by Ry Cooder. Here's one I remember from the mid '70s. Following his wonderful Chickenskin Music album, in which he introduced Flaco Jimenenz and Hawaiian giants Gabby Pahinui and Atta Isaacs, Cooder took to the road with The Chicken Skin Revue, a band that included Flaco and soul singers Terry Evans, Bobby King, and Eldridge King.

There's a sad, slow version of Blind Alfred Reed's "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Time and Live?" I still like The Del-Lords' stomping version the best, but this version hits from another direction. Also worthy is "Dark End of the Street" featuring Evans and Bobby King on vocals and Ry's slide guitar. And you can't go wrong with "Jesus on the Main Line," a longtime Cooder favorite.

But the reason I downloaded this is because of the ones in which Flaco and his magic accordion are spotlighted -- "Volver, Volver" (almost as good as the version by the late Chris Gaffney with Billy Bacon) and the medley of a polka called "Viva Seguin" and Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi." Woody surely would have appreciated his Okie migration classic being slyly transformed into an anthem for a new group of California-bound migrants also lacking in the Do-Re-Mi.

PLUS:

* Two songs featuring the team-up of The Dubliners & The Pogues. I picked up "The Rare Auld Montain Dew" and "Irish Rover," which I played on my Irish music special on Terrell's Sound World a couple of weeks ago.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE REALLY STARTING TO GET OLD ...

When you discover that you're a Collector's Item.

When fooling around Amazon.com a few minutes ago, I discovered they're not only selling digital copies of songs from my CD Picnic Time For Potatoheads And Best Loved Songs from Pandemonium Jukebox), but some stray copies of the CD as well.

What really surprised me was that some outfit down in Florida has a copy going for $69.24!

Yikes!

And yes, that's the CD from the '90s, not the 1981 LP, which I guess might be considered a collector's item.

Another seller, offering the Potatoheads CD for a mere $29.98, has a note saying that the CD is "out of print" and that it's a "Canada Import." Neither is true. I still have an embarrassing number of CDs here at home, so it's still "in print.". As for the other claim, the company I used to manufacture the CD was from Canada, so there's a "Made in Canada" sticker.

I''m flattered to know that anyone would think Potatoheads is worth $69.24. But if you really want the darn thing, you can find it for a lot cheaper over at CD Baby .

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 4, 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
Peter Cottontail Take 4 by The Bubbadinos
Don't Bring Me Down by The Pretty Things
Trash Talkin' Woman by The Electric Mess
Can't Hardly Stand It by The Cramps
She's Kind of Evil by Thee Fine Lines
Sea of Blasphemy by The Black Lips
Silk of the Snow by Tight White Jeans
Let Me Know by The Saints
Pie-Ella by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers
Pokin' Around by Mudhoney

Kat by The Vonz
Visitation by Manby's Head
Stink Bug by The Dirtbag Surfers
Pretty Conservative by Cyco Sanchez Supergroup
Get Your Kicks by The Deadly Vibes
16 Tons by Bo Diddley
Love Taco by Pinata Protest
What You Lack in Brains by Batusis
Cannibal Girls by The Hydes
My Wig Fell Off by Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band
Hey Rat Fink by Mr. Gasser & The Weirdos

John Lawman by Roky Erikson with Okkerville River
Not to Touch the Earth by The Doors
Hallucination Generation by The Fuzztones
Nitro by Dick Dale
Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man by Concrete Blonde
Stack-O-Lee by Samuel L. Jackson
There Ain't No Such Thing as Good Dope by Andre Williams

New York is Killing Me by Gil-Scott-Heron
Some Unholy War by Amy Winehouse
Get It Together by J.C. Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Worm Mountain by The Flaming Lips
Never Go West by Seasick Sick
Your Mind is on Vacation by Mose Allison
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 2, 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
Someone Bring Me a Flower, I'm a Robot by The Gourds
I'm Fed Up Drinking Here by The Starline Rhythm Boys
Racing The Train by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
It Makes No Difference Now by Gov. Jimmie Davis
Wild Wild Young Men by Rose Maddox
Murder in My Mind by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Guv'ment by Roger Miller
Cheeseburger Deluxe by The World Famous Blue Jays
After All These Years by Mose McCormack
Hotdog by Buck Owens

Negro y Azul by Los Cuates De Sinaloa
The Wolves by Felix y Los Gatos
Chords of Fame by Neil Mooney
11 Months and 29 Days by Johnny Paycheck
Nights at the Jolly Ringo by Kris Hollis Key
Beatin' On The Bars by T.Tex Edwards & Out On Parole
Goin' Up the Country by Mike Cullison

True Love Cast Out All Evil by Roky Erikson & Okerville River
Tell Me Twice by Eleni Mandell
The Call of The Wrecking Ball by The Knitters
Way Out in the World by C.W. Stoneking
Hard Time Killing Floor by The Texas Sheiks
Dirty Dozen by Delaney Davidson
Jugband Stomp by Sunshine Skiffle Band
Prince Nez by Squirrel Nut Zippers
By and By by Asylum Street Spankers

You Got Another by Drive-By Truckers
The Dying Truckdriver by The Delmore Brothers
Dirt Nap by Trailer Bride
Slippin' Away by Jean Shepard
In the Good Old Days When Times Were Bad by Dolly Parton
Falling Sky by Martin Zellar
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: A GHOST IN THE ALLEY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 2, 2010

The singer didn’t really sing. He spoke, sometimes almost shouted, the lyrics over a funky bass line and a funky flute.

“You will not be able to stay home, brother/You will not be able to plug in, turn on, and cop out/You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and/Skip out for beer during commercials/Because the revolution will not be televised.”

It was the dawn of the ’70s, and it was like nothing I’d ever heard before. The Black Panthers hijacking a beatnik poetry reading? H. Rap Brown fronting a soul revue? “The revolution will not be right back after a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people. ... The revolution will not be televised.”

After years in the shadows — 16 years since his previous studio album, Spirits, which was his first record in 12 years — Gil Scott-Heron is back with more harrowing songs on a new album called I’m New Here.

A decade after “The Revolution Will Not be Televised,” Scott-Heron would be hailed as one of the major harbingers of hip-hop. With “Televised” and songs like “Whitey on the Moon” (“A rat just bit my sister Nell, with whitey on the moon”), Scott-Heron inspired a generation of politically conscious rappers (think Public Enemy, Kool Moe Dee, and KRS-One).

He even had a string of hits that penetrated the R & B charts in the mid- to late-’70s. Some of these, like “Johannesburg,” “Winter in America,” and “Angel Dust,” could sometimes be heard on rock radio, which back then was basically as segregated as a Mississippi country club.

But despite his successes, Scott-Heron didn’t enjoy a life of ease. He spent much of the last couple of decades struggling with drug addiction and the past 10 years or so behind prison walls for drug charges.

I’m New Here, produced by Richard Russell, is harrowing. It’s mostly low-key and somber and almost like an encounter in a dark alley with a ghost. The album kicks off with an autobiographical spoken-word piece, “On Coming From a Broken Home.” It’s a touching tribute to his grandmother, who raised him in Tennessee.

“Lilly Scott was absolutely not your room-service, typecast black grandmother ... and I loved her from the absolute marrow of my bone,” Scott-Heron says over a musical backdrop that sounds like a distant interplanetary transmission of a blaxploitation movie soundtrack. “Women raised me, and I was full-grown before I knew I came from a broken home.”

But the sweet memory ends with the death of Lilly Scott — “and I was scared and hurt and shocked.” The music gets louder, the beat turns harsher, and suddenly Scott-Heron finds himself in an electronic mutation of one of Robert Johnson’s most frightening blues, “Me and the Devil.”

He actually bowdlerizes one of Johnson’s lines. Unlike the venerated bluesman, Scott-Heron doesn’t “beat my woman until I’m satisfied.” He just “sees” his woman until he’s satisfied. I bet the lessons of Lilly Scott had something to do with that little change. But the song is no less intense It’s been made, along with “Your Soul and Mine,” into a cool black-and-white video that might be described as hip-hop noir. You can find it

That’s not the only classic tune Scott-Heron transforms on this album. He takes on Bobby “Blue” Bland’s masterpiece, “I’ll Take Care of You.” Russell provides the otherworldly musical accompaniment featuring a string section on top of the electronica. And Scott-Heron’s voice, which has grown raspier through the years, sounds more like his heyday voice on this song. The old warble, almost suggesting a yodel, is back.

The title song is written by indie singer-songwriter Bill Callahan, who performs under the name Smog. Scott-Heron recites the verses and sings the choruses as a pensive acoustic guitar plays in the background.

One of the strongest selections on I’m New Here is “New York Is Killing Me.” In this original song, Scott-Heron sings a blues melody over persistent hand claps and a clacking rhythm, punctuated by bass drum. At a couple of points, the Harlem Gospel Choir comes in but disappears like a dream figment. “They got eight million people, and I didn’t have a single friend,” he sings.

The album ends with a reprise of “On Coming From a Broken Home,” this time with Scott-Heron expressing sympathy for the families of soldiers who have been killed in battle, as well as those of police, firefighters, construction workers, pilots, and truckers “who have lost their lives but not what their lives stood for.”

I’m New Here is less than 30 minutes long. But it’s one intense half hour.

BLOG BONUS:

Here's that video I mentioned above: