Sunday, November 14, 2010

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 14, 2010
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
Land of the Freak by King Khan & The Shrines
Catastrophe by Mark Sultan
Lovers Moon by The Tandoori Knights
Let Me Bang Your Box by The Toppers
By My Side by The Elois
Beer Time by The Ruiners
Zip My Lip by Pierced Arrows
Graveyard by Dead Moon
Two Bottles of Wine by Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
I Must Be Dreamin' by The Coasters

Back Off by The Diplomats of Solid Sound
Lovey Dovey by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
There But For the Grace of God Go I by The Gories
A Natural Man by The Dirtbombs
Muck Muck by Yochanan
Daddy You Lied To Me by The Del Moroccos
Rockin' Man by Richard Berry
Pink Champagne by Don & Dewy
Nervous by Willie Dixon & Memphis Slim

Martin Eden by The Twilight Singers
Sin Eater by Legendary Shack Shakers
Le Mistrail by The Fleshtones
Amazons & Coyotes by Simon Stokes
Take Up The Slack Daddy-O by The A-Bones
Hot Rodding in San Jose by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Jungle Fever by Grand Prees
Fattening Frogs For Snakes by Sonny Boy Williamson & The Animals
Pachuco Boogie by Orquesta Don Ramon

Pappa Legba by Pops Staples with The Talking Heads
I Walk on Gilded Splinters by Dr. John
Hoochie Koochie Man by Muddy Waters & The Electrik Mud Kats
Hoodoo Man by Junior Wells
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, November 12, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 12, 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
Wild, Wild Friday Night by Hasil Adkins
Chuckie Cheese Hell by Tim Wilson
Voodoo Bar-B-Q by Big John Bates
Get a Little Goner by Marti Brom
Baby He's A Wolf by Werly Fairburn
Kitty Car Scratch by Suzette Lawrence & The Neon Angels
Spitfire by Bill Logsdon & The Royal Notes
The Gravy Shake by The Defibulators
Lost to a Geisha Girl by Skeeter Davis
You Always Keep Me in Hot Water by Carolina Cotton with Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys

East Texas Red by James Talley
Hesitation Blues by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Hey Bub by Halden Wofford & The Hi Beams
Magpie Song by Delaney Davidson
Havin' a Ball by Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars
Untamed Love by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers
Fort Wayne Zoo by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Are You Ready for the Country by Southern Culture on the Skids

Kansas City Star by Roger Miller
Talking Bear Mountain Massacre Blues by Bob Dylan
The Fourth Night of My Drinking by Drive-By Truckers
A Man I Hardly Know by Eilen Jewell
High on a Mountain Top by Loretta Lynn
Thirty Days in the Workhouse by Peter Case
You're Going to Love Yourself in the Morning by Brenda Lee & Willie Nelson
Black Wings by Ray Wylie Hubbard

The Big Battle by Johnny Cash
Walking to the End of the World by Amy Allison
A Girl In The Night by Ray Price
The New Bye and Bye by Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
American Boy by Eleni Mandell
I Belong to the Band by Mavis Staples
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Thursday, November 11, 2010

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: YOUNG BOB'S DEMOS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
November 12, 2010

It’s probably no big surprise to anyone who regularly reads this column that of all the many faces of Bob Dylan — folkie Bob, country Bob, gospel Bob, singer-songwriter Bob, Las Vegas Bob, etc. — my favorite is electric Bob. And it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t go to the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 or see a performance from that tour in 1966 where folkies were screaming “Judas!” at him. I’d have been the 12-year-old Okie kid in the cheap seats shouting “Turn it up!”

But even for us rock ’n’ roll die-hards who secretly believe that Dylan’s career really began with the rockabilly/Johnny Cash-informed “Mixed Up Confusion” instead of with all those acoustic ditties, there’s no denying that the genius that is Dylan — the rebelliousness, the humor, his grasp on history, and his insights into the American character — is readily apparent in his earliest songs.

That’s the main thing I pick up from the latest (ninth) volume of Dylan’s Bootleg Series, titled The Witmark Demos 1962-1964.

Here is a kid in his early 20s who was about to transform the entire song-publishing industry — as well as expand our concept of folk music and the boundaries of rock ’n’ roll — singing earnestly in that tiny studio at M. Witmark & Sons, his New York publishing company in those days.

These versions of his songs were not meant to be heard by the general public. They were recorded quickly and transcribed into sheet music so the publishing company could pitch them to other recording artists. Back in those days, few singers actually wrote their own songs. (That custom was changed not in small part through the efforts of one Bob Dylan.)

The sound quality is lo-fi, not to mention inconsistent. Some tracks truly sound like bootlegs. There are false starts and obvious mistakes. For instance, “Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues” begins with a Dylan cough. And he stops after one of the verses, explaining that he’d recited the wrong punch line to a verse.

So basically, although there are several of Dylan’s best-known songs included in this collection — “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” (played on piano), and (of course) “Blowin’ in the Wind” — this is a collection for fanatical fans who like to see how the Dylan sausage is made.

I like the more obscure cuts the best. You’ve got to wonder how many times must record companies put versions of “Blowin’ in the Wind” on a Dylan album. (The answer, my friend ...)

One of my favorites is “Bear Mountain.” As with some of the more “serious” tunes Dylan wrote during this period — “Ballad of Hollis Brown” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” come to mind — this song was ripped from the headlines. Dylan read a newspaper account about an ill-fated Father’s Day cruise up the Hudson River. Someone had counterfeited tickets, and the overloaded boat sunk well before it reached Bear Mountain.

Several were treated for injuries, but nobody was killed. Dylan saw the wicked humor of the situation and, according to legend, wrote the song overnight. “Just remember wakin’ up on a little shore/Head busted, stomach cracked/Feet splintered, I was bald, naked.” I still laugh when pondering how a boating accident can make you bald.

Another old favorite here is “Rambling, Gambling Willie.” Like “Bear Mountain,” this was recorded back in 1962 but never made it to an “official” album until the first Bootleg Series collection in the early ’90s. (Most real Dylan fans heard these from real bootlegs long before there were CD box sets.)

The melody of “Willie” came directly from the Irish song “Brennan on the Moor,” which Dylan’s pals the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem recorded back in the folkie days. Willie Brennan was a Robin Hood-like “brave young highwayman” who divided his loot with “the widow in distress.”

Dylan’s Will O’Conley shared his winnings with the poor as well. But apparently a large chunk of his income also went to child support. He’s a womanizing card shark who had “twenty-seven children, yet he never had a wife.” Dylan Dylan assures us “ He supported all his children and all their mothers too.”

And who would have ever thought that “Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues” would ever be relevant again? Dylan says, “Well, I investigated all the books in the library/Ninety percent of ’em gotta be burned away/I investigated all the people that I knowed/ Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go.”

Unfortunately, the sound quality of this version is so bad that it seriously detracts from the listening experience. (Someone has to be responsible for that. The Commies? The vast right-wing conspiracy?) Seek out instead the live versions on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6:  (his  1964 concert at Philharmonic Hall) or The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3.

The Witmark sessions also have a few gems I’d never heard. One of these is “Gypsy Lou,” an ode to what sounds like the sexiest heartbreaking hobo girl alive — “a ramblin’ woman with a ramblin’ mind/Always leavin’ somebody behind.” And downright lovely is y tune about looking at trains and recalling a friend who died a tragic death.

One thing these demos do is show how Dylan was appropriating old blues tunes as his own from the beginning. “Standing on the Highway” is basically a rewrite of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads.” And “Poor Boy Blues” owes a small debt to Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” and a big debt to Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning.”

If you think Dylan dropped this habit, listen to his composition “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” from 2006’s Modern Times or “If You Ever Go to Houston” from last year’s Together Through Life.

Bob Dylan turns 70 in May. Not quite as amazing is the fact that the Dylan Bootleg Series will be 20 years old next year. I’m hoping the next one will be full of rockers. Or maybe a duets album of recordings and live songs he’s done with others. Maybe Sony can find two CDs worth of Dylan stuff from the ’80s that didn’t suck. Maybe a crazy rocked-out show from “The Never Ending Tour” from the last 10 years or so.

Even if Volume 10 consists of songs Dylan sang in the shower, it’s bound to add to the enigma that is Bob.

.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 8, 2010
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
Chicken Flop by Hasil Adkins
Psycho by The Sonics
Big Fat Alaskan by Donnie and the Outcasts
Doghouse by The Screamin' Yee-Haws
Hog-Eyed Man by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
Killer 45 by The Immortal Lee County Killers
I Came From Hell by The Monsters
I Don't Dig Your Noise by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Journey To The Center Of A Girl by The Cramps
I Lost My Kielbasi by Dave Stacey

Tandoori Party by The Tandoori Knights
Dumb All Over by Frank Zappa
Hetero Skeleton by Butthole Surfers
Everythinng's Wild in Wildwood by The Treniers
Evil! by Grinderman
Busload of Faith by Lou Reed
Go Berserk by Mark Sultan

Leyenda Negra by Movie Star Junkies
Vaseline by Kid Congo Powers
Lusty Lil Lucy by Nick Curran and the Lowlifes
My Time Will Come by Andre Williams
She's a Liar by Thee Ludds
Love/Hate (Eat Me Alive) by The Ruiners
Surfbored by Make-Overs
She Can Rock by Little Ike

Cosmic Shiva by Nina Hagen
Kurious Oranj by The Fall
Tombstone Blues by Bob Dylan
New York Is Killing Me by Gil Scott-Heron
Last Train by Mavis Staples
The Wallflower (Roll With Me Henry) by Etta James
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Saturday, November 06, 2010

eMusic November


* Sin & Soul... And Then Some by Oscar Brown Jr. I sought this album out mainly for a song called "Mr. Kicks." It portrays the devil as a one snazzy, jazzy cat with a slick, bongo-beatin' early '60s style. "Permit me to introduce myself ..." the narrator says. I bet The Rolling Stones heard this before they wrote "Sympathy For the Devil" a few years later.

But that's just one of  the great songs here. It starts off with "The Work Song," which Brown co-wrote with trumpeter Nat Adderly. There's also a vocal version of Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue" (I'm most familair with John Coltrane's version) and  a song called "Watermelon Man" -- which isn't the Herbie Hancock standard, which came out around the same time (later becoming a hit for Santamaria.).

And most stunning is "Bid 'em In" This is an a capella song, except for occasional drum beat, in which the narrator is a slave auctioneer. "She's healthy and strong and well-equipped/ make a fine lady's maid when she's properly whipped," he sings of one of the slaves on the auction block.

Before he was a recording artist, Brown was a journalist and political activist. As a teenager in Chicago, he was a writer for Studs Terkel's radio show Secret City. In 1944 Brown hosted Negro Newsfront, America's first black radio news broadcast. He ran for Illinois state Legislature and for U.S. Congress, but lost. He'd been a member of the Communist Party but left -- or kicked out -- in the mid 1950s, partly because of his concerns over the puritanical nature of the party and what he considered their stifling of creativity and art. But Brown, who died in 2005, remained active in protesting the Iraq War.

This album is a great introduction to this fascinating artist.

* Curry Up It's The Tandoori Knights by The Tandoori Knights. Canadian rockabilly Bloodshot Bill might be the logical person to step in and heal the rift between King Khan and BBQ.

After all, just this year he's released records with both -- recording as The Ding Dongs with BBQ (Mark Sultan) and as The Tandoori Knights with Khan. Maybe he could instigate the melding of the two -- a trio called "The Tandoori Dongs."

If I had to choose between the two, Tandoori Knights would get my nod. It's got the same spirit of lo-fi rockabilly zaniness as The Ding-Dongs. But there's also a flavor of East Indian exotica here.

Plus I like their sour-grapes dismissal of DIck Clark on the song "Bandstand."


* The Kudzu Ranch by Southern Culture on the Skids. Some folks dismiss Southern Culture on the Skids as a novelty act. I’ve probably done it a couple of times myself.

After all, for more than 20 years the musicians have cultivated a goofy faux-hillbilly image wearing funny hats, cheap sunglasses, backwoods/thriftshop clothes — and singer/bassist Mary Huff sports a beehive that would frighten most bees.

The only thing is, while they’re plenty funny, these North Carolinians are real musicians. As a trio (most of the time), SCOTS is a tight little outfit, playing a unique blend of country, rockabilly, surf, swampy R & B, garage, occasionally bluegrass, and exotica. Huff has a voice as big as her hair (I always hope for more songs where she sings lead), and Rick Miller is a fine rock ’n’ roll guitarist.

See my full review HERE

Plus
I spent a more than usual amount of my credits on stray tunes instead of full albums like I usually do.

* Two songs from Rare Rock N' Roll Masters, namely "Monster's Holiday" by The Plainsmen (a rocking version of my favorite Buck Owens novelty Halloween hit) and "Mojo Workout" by Larry Bright, just so I could share it with my pals on Real Punk Radio's Mojo Workout show. There's some other interesting looking stuff on this collection, as well as some crap ("Bingo" by Pat Boone for instance. Why was he trying to lead the children astray into the dismal world gambling addiction?)

* Speaking of Halloween, I downloaded three tunes from Halloween Classics: Songs That Scared The Bloomers Off Your Great-Grandma just for my radio shows. I got "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" by Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees (a Henry VIII satire); "Ghost in the Graveyard" by The Prairie Ramblers; and "'Taint No Sin" by Fred Hall. which ha almost a western-swing feel to it. Tom Waits, using William Burroughs on vocals, revived this bizarre little ditty for The Black Rider back in the '90s.

* "The Ex President's Waltz" by David Massengil. I heard this strange little folk tune 3 or 4 times on KUNM back in the mid '80s and have been looking for this song for years. It has a verse for each living ex-president at the time -- Carter, Ford, Nixon, plus one for JFK and one for the then-current president. Funny, yet touching in a weird way. Great song for election season.

* "Collegiana" by Waring's Pennsylvanians. I always loved The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's version on their 1968 album Rare Junk. It's a snazzy little 23-skidoo number about college life in the '20s. "Danced til I dropped, and I'll never stop!" It's on a compilation called Collegiate 1920s that has some other cool Roaring '20s jazz craziness. I might pick up some more tracks someday.

* Two of the three tracks from Take A Good Look Bonus Tracks Super Rock! I picked up "Time Will Tell" and "Le Mistral." I already had "Bigger and Better." This reminds me -- Take a Good Look was The Fleshtones' previous album and that was in early 2008. Good news is they've been working on a new one, and apparently Lenny Kaye is involved on at least a few tracks. Meanwhile, you can watch this documentary about the band, Pardon Us for Living but the Graveyard Is Full for free right HERE.

* The five tracks I didn't get last month from Phosphene Dream by The Black Angels. And they're just as good if not not better than the first ones I downloaded. Read my full review HERE

Friday, November 05, 2010

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 5, 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
Billy Richardson's Last Ride by Grandpa Jones
Keep on Truckin' by Hot Tuna
Move It On Over by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
Finders Keepers by Marti Brom
Tear Up the Honkey Tonk by Suzette Lawrence & The Neon Angels
Kiss and Tell Baby by Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars
Wrecking Ball by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Get What's Coming by The Defibulators
Juke Box  Boogie by Big Jeff & The Radio Playboys

Oh! Susana by Don Charles & The Singing Dogs
Oh! Susana by Ronny Elliott
As Long As You Still Got a Song by Kell Robertson
Corn Liquor Made a Fool Out of Me by Bad Livers
Fiddling Man by Michael Martin Murphey
Flyin' Blind by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes with Phil Alvin
Long White Cadillac by The Blasters
Moonlight Midnight by The Coal Porters with Peter Rowan
Horny Hound by Roy D. Mercer

Don't She Look Like a Rodeo Star by Kris Hollis Key
Artificial Flowers by Cornell Hurd Band
Danny Diamond by The Squirrel Nut Zippers
Collegiana by Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians
Why Me Lord by Ray Charles with Johnny Cash
Busy Road by Southern Culture on The Skids
Cathead Biscuits and Gravy by Nancy Apple by Rob McNurlin

Bootleggers Blues by South Memphis String Band
Taint Nobody's Business If I Do by Hammie Nixon, Van Zula Hunt & The Beale Street Jug Band
Play It Again Sam by Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
She's Acting Single, I'm Drinking Doubles by Gary Stewart
Husbands and Wives by Bill Kirchen with Chris O'Connell
Be My Love by NRBQ
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

Thursday, November 04, 2010

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: RETURN TO KILL CITY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 5, 2010


Kill City is hardly Iggy Pop’s greatest album — not by a long shot. But this relatively obscure record, rereleased in October and credited to Iggy and his collaborator James Williamson, has a brand new mix and represents a point at which Iggy was desperately clawing his way out of the abyss.

Few bands in the history of the known universe disintegrated as spectacularly as The Stooges did.

The story’s been told a jillion times — how, following the release of the David Bowie-produced Raw Power, the drugs, music-industry frustrations, internal conflicts, and the craziness of life on the road caught up with the band, which went down in a blaze of inglorious glory, as documented on the live album/crime-scene document Metallic K.O.

In the immediate aftermath of The Stooges, Iggy Pop ended up in a Los Angeles mental hospital, the Neuropsychiatric Institute in Westwood. There, according to his 2007 biography Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed by Paul Trynka, he was diagnosed with “hypomania, a bipolar disorder characterized by episodes of euphoric or overexcited and irrational behavior succeeded by depression.”

However, Trynka points out that Iggy’s doctor now says this diagnosis, which reads like a review of a mid-’70s Stooges show, might not be accurate. Iggy’s mental problems back then might have just been a temporary condition brought on by all the drugs.

Whatever the case, in 1975 Iggy was at a low point. He was in the funny farm, his career was in shambles, and most of his bridges were burned. But not all of them.

Before checking into the hospital, Iggy had been hanging out and writing songs with Williamson, who had been the lead guitarist in the Raw Power-era Stooges. Williamson arranged for some recording sessions at the home studio of Jimmy Webb — yes, the man who wrote “MacArthur Park” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” Webb’s brother Gary engineered the recordings. According to Open Up and Bleed, Webb’s buddy Art Garfunkel showed up to the studio one night and watched one of the sessions.

Now there’s a Marvel Team-Up for you: Iggy & Garfunkel.

According to Ben Edmonds, a former Creem editor who was involved with the project, Iggy wanted to maintain the spirit of The Stooges, “but show people The Stooges could make something that resembled music.”

But by 1975 very few in the music industry were interested. Remember the state of the music industry at this point. True, The New York Dolls were making some noise on the East Coast and Patti Smith was riding her Horses to weird unimaginable places. But most of the “rock” you heard on the radio at the time was happy, poppy California soft-rock sounds like those of Fleetwood Mac and The Steve Miller Band.

Who wanted to hear some junkie mental patient bellowing harsh and ugly craziness like, “I live here in Kill City where the debris meets the sea/It’s a playground to the rich, but it’s a loaded gun to me. ... The scene is fascination man and everything’s for free/Until you wind up in some bathroom overdosed and on your knees ...”

So Kill City was shelved for two years. In the meantime, Iggy persevered and, with the help of his pal Bowie, achieved his big comeback with The Idiot and Lust for Life, both released in 1977. It was only after this that the independent Bomp Records released Kill City — on green-colored vinyl. The sound was terrible — “muddy” being an adjective frequently applied to it. That problem, after more than 30 years, has finally largely been solved on the new version through the magic of modern technology.

But still, Kill City doesn’t have the punch, the raw power of Raw Power — much less the fun of Funhouse. A lot of it is dark and pensive, perhaps a harbinger of the introspective moodiness of The Idiot. Garfunkel would have fit in on the mellow “No Sense of Crime.”

But there’s some inspired Stoogey craziness here. “Johanna” is a rocker The Stooges had performed. Here, it’s driven by John Harden’s sax madness. “I’ve been a dreamer, I’ve been a screamer,” Iggy shouts. And even better is the title cut, which is charged with Williamson’s stinging guitar and a chorus of “Give it up, turn the boy loose.” And Iggy proves he’s still a menace, declaring “I’m sick of keeping quiet and I am the wild boy/But if I have to die here, first I’m gonna make some noise.”

“I Got Nothin’,” another final-daze Stooges tune, is an angry cry of defiance from someone at the bottom. I think my favorite here, though, is “Lucky Monkeys.” It’s a put-down of L.A. scenesters trying to look like Bowie and be “as sick as Mick.” It starts off slow, like a lion sizing up a stray zebra. But then Iggy takes aim at himself and ends by shouting, “I was born dead in prison, in prison born dead.”

While this isn’t an essential effort, fans of The Stooges and or Mr. Pop shouldn’t pass it by.

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...