No Radio Shows For Me This Weekend

But thanks to Tom Adler and D.J. Phi for subbing for The Santa Fe Opry and Terrell's Sound World while I'm on vacation.

I'm in the Live Music Capitol of the World and I have seen a couple of shows.

There was Brave Combo at Threadgill's Friday

Then last night we saw a bunch of bands at Mohawk. Here's the grand finale by a group called The Midget Men, joined by a bunch of friends for the greatest version of "We Are the World" I've ever heard.





Back to Santa Fe tomorrow.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: WILLIE WORLD

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 7, 2010

There are no guest appearances by Kid Rock or Sting, no detours into reggae, and no covers of Grateful Dead or Fleetwood Mac songs.

The title of Willie Nelson’s latest album is direct and correct: Country Music. And though it’s hardly an essential addition to the vast body of work the prolific singer has given us in the last five decades or so, it’s a dandy little effort with some fine performances and classic country tunes.

The album is produced by T Bone Burnett, which instantly supplies an inroad to the NPR crowd. (A press release that came with the promo copy of the album announced it will be sold at Starbucks.) As with his other projects, Burnett is tasteful, if a little subdued. He’s gathered some impressive musicians here, including Buddy Miller on guitar, Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, and Jim Lauderdale supplying background vocals.

This album probably could have been named “Bluegrass Music,” and only the most prissy purists would argue. Indeed, it’s the closest thing to a bluegrass album Willie’s ever done with songs like “Ocean of Diamonds,” “I Am a Pilgrim,” and “Gotta Walk Alone.” Even his covers of Hank Williams’ “House of Gold,” Ray Price’s “You Done Me Wrong,” and his own early tune “Man With the Blues” sound as if they came from the hills of Kentucky, thanks largely to McCoury, banjo man Riley Baugus, and Stuart Duncan on fiddle. True, there’s some steel guitar (by Russell Pahl), which isn’t a traditional bluegrass instrument, but most of the time it’s in the background.

And there are a few bluesy, jazzy tracks, the best of which are “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” which is carried by the stand-up bass of Dennis Crouch, and The Delmore Brothers’ “Freight Train Boogie.” Yes, I still like Doc Watson’s version best, but Willie’s isn’t bad.

That’s also true for this version of “Drinking Champagne,” a classic honky-tonker written by Bill Mack that’s been covered by folks from Carl Smith to Dean Martin. Willie’s version is nice and pretty, but it doesn’t have a fraction of the soul that Jerry Lee Lewis poured into the song in the ’60s.

And maybe Willie’s cover of the Porter Wagoner signature tune “Satisfied Mind” isn’t definitive. But it sure sounds good, and he sings it like he means it.

Willie Nelson just turned 77 a week ago. That he can still crank out albums as good as Country Music is nothing short of amazing.

Steve Terrell’s Ultimate Willie List

* Top 10 Songs written by Willie Nelson
1. “Something to Think About”
2. “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”
3. “I Just Can’t Let You Say Goodbye”
4. “Bloody Mary Morning”
5. “Hello Walls”
6. “I’ve Got to Get Drunk”
7. “My Own Peculiar Way”
8. “I Still Can’t Believe That You’re Gone”
9. “Permanently Lonely”

10. “Funny How Time Slips Away”

* Best Willie album: Phases and Stages
* Best Willie tribute album: Twisted Willie (with outlaw pals like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson; plus ’90s “alternative” acts like L7, The Supersuckers, The Reverend Horton Heat, and Mark Lanegan, and Willie himself)
* Best Remake of a Willie album: Red Headed Stranger by Carla Bozulich. (Willie makes a guest appearance too.)
* Best Willie appearance on a tribute album: “Ride ’em Jewboy” on Pearls in the Snow: The Songs of Kinky Friedman
* Best Willie duet: Tie — “Seven Spanish Angels” with Ray Charles and “Sioux City Sue” with Leon Russell
* Best Willie & Waylon duet: “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died” (written by Tom T. Hall)
* Best song by a superstar trio featuring Willie: “Old Friends” with Roger Miller and Ray Price
* Best Willie Dylan cover: “Señor” (with Calexico from the I’m Not There soundtrack album)
* Best Willie cover: Tie —“Hello Walls” by Faron Young and “Night Life” by Ray Price
* Best Willie cover by Waylon: “Pretend I Never Happened”
* How many female vocalists does it take to cover “Crazy”?: Apparently all of them
* Last great song Willie wrote: “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” (circa 1980)
* Willie song most likely to supply a title for a sci-fi movie: “I Just Destroyed the World.”
* Willie song most likely to be played at a gay pride event: “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” (written by Ned Sublette, performed by Willie)
* Best religious song Willie wrote: “In God’s Eyes”
* Weirdest Willie spoken-word piece: The conversation between the unborn Willie and God at the beginning of the Yesterday’s Wine album
* Best Willie TV commercial: Taco Bell, early ’90s (he sang a song called “Lady With the Rose Tattoo”)
* Best Willie tax return: The I.R.S. Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories (Willie recorded and sold this to pay off an enormous tax bill)
* Best guilty-pleasure Willie song: “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” with Julio Iglesias
* Best not-guilty Willie courtroom appearance: Last month at Billy Joe Shaver’s aggravated assault case in Waco. What Texas jury is going to convict somebody when Willie Nelson’s there to show his support?
* Willie album that proves marijuana can cause brain damage: Countryman (Willie’s reggae album)

TIN SOLDIERS AND NIXON COMING

Hard to believe it was 40 years ago when the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four student protesters at Kent State University. I was a junior in high school on May 4, 1970.

What scared me even more than police firing on demonstrators was the fact that so many Silent Majority types were so callous about it. Making excuses for the Guard was one thing, but there were many expressing the sentiment that the protesters deserved to be killed.

"Should have been done long ago ..."

So how would that reaction be if the same thing happened 40 years later?

Probably worse.

Here's a story about Neil Young's song "Ohio," which Young, along with Crosby, Stills and Nash were able to crank out and get on the air within three weeks of the killings. What's amazing is that commercial radio stations actually played the damned thing. That really wouldn't happen these days.

And below is Uncle Neil singing an acoustic version.

And here's a great version by The Isley Brothers. The video isn't much to look at, but listen to the song.

eMUSIC MAY

* Tangle by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. This band truly is one of the major lost gems of the '90s, one of the most unjustly overlooked groups of their era. And this album (their second) is so overlooked, I overlooked it myself. For some reason I thought I had all their albums. Somehow I never had this one until now.

I first stumbled across the Fellers back in 1991 -- the Summer of Grunge! -- when I was up in Seattle to go to a wedding. They were headlining a bill of fellow unknowns at a little club called The Off Ramp. Their strange, discordant, yet lovably goofy sound twisted my head off. Describing that night in a review of another TFUL282 album back in 1996, I wrote, "I was amazed at how joyful and childlike the Fellers were, not in a self-conscious or cloying way as they created their musical magic, how they could be sweet and ear-wrenching at the same time. I'd never realized before that night that a mandolin could be used as an audio assault weapon."

In Tangle, I hear echoes of Captain Beefheart, The Fall, maybe even a little Husker Du. But mainly I hear that crazy band I loved so much at the Off Ramp nearly 20 years ago.


*Git High Tonite! by Bloodshot Bill. He's a one-man rockabilly band from Montreal. He's a crony of both King Khan and BBQ, and allegedly even has his own brand of hair gel called "Nice 'n' Greasy," and -- like me -- he's a major Roger Miller fan. Sometimes you can hear it in his voice.

Although he rose from the punk scene, Bloodshot Bill does not play "psychobilly." You can feel the love and respect he's got for the rockabilly tradition. No metal riffs, no songs about werewolves or zombies (at least not on this album) .

But like the late great Ray Condo, you can hear the "psycho" in his vocals, his hiccups, his yodels.

I'm looking forward to a couple of upcoming CDs on Norton Records featuring this guy -- The Ding-Dongs with Mark Sultan (aka BBQ) and Tandoori Knights with the King (Khan, that is.)


* I Learned the Hard Way by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. I wouldn't call this "over-produced," but Sharon's fourth album with the Dap-Kings is noticeably more polished than he previous efforts. There's strings and vibes and background singers, more obvious references to Motown -- pretty classy stuff, though I prefer Jones and the Daps more gritty and less sweetened,

It took me a few tracks to start to sink into Hard Way. But it was worth it. There's some fine tunes here.

"Money" kicks off with a mini-sermonette about the recession woes, the message here basically is the same as other songs of similar titles - she needs MONEY! "Mama Don't My Man" is nice and basic -- just a guitar, some foot-stomps and some background singers. I bet somewhere there are Shirelles demos that sound a lot like this.

But by far the strongest here, and one of the best Sharon's ever done, is "She Ain't a Child No More," a tragic story of abuse and growing up too fast.

See for yourself. Here's Sharon and the lads performing this song recently on The Colbert Report.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - She Ain't a Child No More
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes

* Rosco's Rhythm by Rosco Gordon. You gotta love eMusic. Believe it or not, this, album is classified as "electronic experimental."

And no, it's not ska either, although Rosco's shuffling piano rhythms have been credited with inspiring a generation of Jamaican musicians.

But in reality, it's good basic R&B from the '50s. Rosco started out in Memphis where in the late '40s he was in a group called The Beale Streeters, which included B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland and the late great Johnny Ace.

This generous album (30 tracks!) includes Gordon's earliest singles, "Bootin'" and "No More Doggin'," as well as the hilarious "Weeping Blues" and his novelty hit "Do the Chicken." And hey, Roy Head fans, check out Rosco's original version of "Just a Little Bit."

* The Very Best of The Boswell Sisters More than 40 years before Dan Hicks gave the world The Lickettes, there were the lovely Boswell Sisters from New Orleans. Connee, Vet and Martha Boswell and their snazzy, jazzy harmonies are nothing short of immortal. The Andrews Sisters identified the Boswells as a major influence, while Ella Fitzgerald was an admirer of sister Connee's vocals.

The girls began singing on the radio in the mid 20s and started recording for the Victor label in 1930. Their first hit, "When I Take My Sugar To Tea", (included on this collection) was from a Marx Brothers movie, Monkey Business. In 1932 they appeared with Cab Calloway and Bing Crosby in a movie called The Big Broadcast. And they were even featured in a Max Fleischer cartoon. "Sleepy Time Down South," (unfortunately not included here.) Their career was short. The act broke up in 1936 when both Martha and Vet got married and retired. Connee continued on as a solo act, recording well into the '50s.

The "Shout! Sister Shout!" on this album is not the song by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, but it's still wonderful. "Heebie Jeebies" is the Louis Armstrong tune. One of the coolest here is "Crazy People," which I'm surprised more people haven't covered. Take a gander below.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 2, 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
Sister Hell by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Two Bottles of Wine by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Funnel of Love by The Fall 2:58
White Lies by Purple Merkins
Georgia Stomp by Barrence Whitfield
Shakin' All Over by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
Woody on a Safari by The Silly Surfers
Outkast by The A-Bones
I Saw A Ghost (Lean) by The Black Lips 2:52
You're Breaking My Heart by Nilson

Smokestack Lightning by Howlin' Wolf
Down The Road by The Monsters
Julio Iglesias by The Butthole Surfers
Flat Shoes, High Heels by Cyco Sanchez Supergroup
Nerves by Thee Fine Lines
Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf
Hairy Eyeball by The Dirtbag Surfers
Haunted House by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Do the Trouser Press by The Bonzo Dog Band

KIM FOWLEY SET
Music Is The Magic by Kim Fowley
Inferno by Johnny C and the Blazes
Underground Lady by Kim Fowley
Fallout by Aston Martin and the Moon Discs
The Rebel by The Players
Eleventh Commandment Of Love by Bonnie and the Treasures
Long Hair, Unsquare Dude Called Jack by The Hollywood Argyles
March Of The Siamese Children by U.S. Rockets
The Trip by Kim Fowley
Night Of The Hunter by Kim Fowley
Worst Record Ever Made by Althea and the Memories

Please Judge by Roky Erikson with Okkervil River
Murder in My Heart for the Judge by Moby Grape
Mondo Bongo by The Electric Mess
Dance Like a Monkey by New York Dolls
Black Shiny Beast by Buick MacKane
Daisys Up Your Butterfly by The Cramps
It's All In the Game by Tommy Edwards
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis