eMusic February

* Rock N' Roll '50s Blues Essentials This is a generous helping of blues and R&B. and one of those bargains you can find on eMusic that keep me coming back.

Just one problem. Many of the tracks were mislabeled. It looks as if there are duplicates of several songs, 11 in all. It's not eMusic's fault. The same album is listed on Amazon and iTunes with the same mistakes. It's probably the fault of the digital distributor.

This points to one of the problems with the digital age. Without an actual physical product in hand, it's way too easy to spread the wrong information about an album. And with obscure tracks, who'll know but the fanatics?

Using several internet sources, I was able to identify 6 of the mislabled songs. But 5 of them still stump me. I'm not sure of the artists on any of them. They are Track 2 (It might be called "Tommy T"), Track 6, which I'm pretty sure is called "Take the Hint"; Tracks 27, 28 and 37.If anyone has a clue, please let me know.

I stumbled across this while searching for some early stuff by Guitar Shorty, who played a benefit in Santa Fe last month for our mutual friend Kenny Delgado. In this collection I found an early tune by Shorty called "Ways of a Man." It's a funny little tune about all men basically being scumbags.

Among my other favorites here are "The Hunt" by Sonny Boy Williamson, which is a humorous novelty tune about coon dogs, the two (!) Ligntnin' Hopkins rockers and Jesse Knight's "Nothing But Money." If Big Joe Turner was the Boss of the Blues, Jesse sounds like his thug enforcer.

But the compilers might have saved their best for the first here. "Get Your Clothes and Let's Go" by Crown Prince Waterford probably sounded pretty risque back in the '50s. Now it's just crazy fun. (Unfortunately this opening song is one of the mislabled tracks.)

* Calypsos From Trinidad: Politics, Intrigue and Violence in the 1930's  by Various Artists. Another great Arhoolie compilation.

What is it about calypso that can even make a song about injustice, poverty and murder sound almost ...  happy? You hear very little outrage or despair in these songs. The singers -- who have cool stage names like Growling Tiger, Roaring Lion, Tiger, Atilla the Hun and The Executor -- skewer their politicians with a wise, sly smile and wicked lyrics.

Somehow these singers pull off political protest without the self-righteousness of so many American folkies or the pre-fab poser rage of second-rate rappers.

Wouldn't it have been great if we'd had Lord Executor around here in New Mexico to sing "Treasury Scandal" during the whole Robert Vigil /Michael Montoya mess.

Of course, politicians in Trinidad often were not amused. In fact "Sedition Law" by King Radio deals with censorship of the calypso menace.

(Beware! There's lots of mislabeling on this album too. Among other thins, they took the "growling" and "Roaring" from the Tiger and the Lion. Get it together, e-Music!)



* Sanders' Truckstop by Ed Sanders. Here's further proof that I have unhealthy obsessions about music.

Back in my early years of college, I remember KUNM playing this funny faux-country song called "Jimmy Joe, The Hippybilly Boy." Sung by Ed Sanders, a founding member of The Fugs, it's about a long-haired country boy who meets a tragic end.

I'd looked for this for years but was unable to find it. I'm not sure what made me think of  "Jimmy Joe" recently, but I looked up Sanders on eMusic and lo and behold ...

I probably should have just downloaded that song. It's still funny to me. There may be a couple of others -- For instance, "The Iliad," which is the tale of the legendary shit-kicking homophobe Johnny Pissoff. And maybe "Banshee," which is about one of Satan's demon lovers.

But most of the rest of the album doesn't hold up. The hippie humor is dated and Sander's fake hick accent gets annoying. If you want to hear really funny, really warped music about rednecks and hippies, check out Twisted Tales from the Vinyl Wastelands Volume 4: Hippie in a Blunder.

In Ed's defense though, you could argue that his work was a precursor to Mojo Nixon, Angry Johnny & The Killbillies and maybe even Southern Culture on the Skids (though none of the Hemptones can pick a guitar anything like SCOTS' Rick Miller can.)

PLUS:

* The 16 tracks I didn't get last month from Soundway Records Presents The Sound of Siam : Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz and Molam from Thailand 1964 - 1975. The Soundways label never ceases to amaze me. It's best known for its compilations of amazing African rock, funk and soul. Now they've turned their ears to Asia.

There's some cross-cultural hijinx that would make 3 Mustaphas 3's heads spin. For instnace "Diew Sor Diew Caan" by Thong Huad & Kunpan basically is an Irish fiddle reel gone Siamese.

You can find direct influences from Western rock and pop in these grooves. Because none of the songs on this Soundways collection are sung in English, it's not as obvious as the Thai Beat a Go-Go collections where you find Siamese versions of songs like "Hit the Road Jack," "Lady Madonna" and Hank Williams' Kaw-Liga.

But on "Sao Lam Plearn," The Petch Phin Thong Band draws straight from "Jumping Jack Flash, " And in the middle of "Kai Tom Yum" by Kawaw Siang Thong, the melody seems to change to that of Leo Sayer's 1970s AM Radiio sap hit "More Than I Can Say." (But since Leo didn't release that song until the late '70s, Thong probably got the tune from the earlier version by Bobby Vee.)

For those who don't speak the language, the rueful laughter and dialog toward the end of "Kai Tom Yum" by Kawaw Siang Thong might sound sinister, like foreign mobsters about to commit some atrocity.

But it doesn't get anywhere as sinister as The Viking Combo Band's "Pleng Yuk Owakard" The title means "Space Age Music," but with its Dirty Dog bass, shouted lyrics, machine-gun drums and weirdo organ, it sounds like a murder after hours at a roller rink. (This song was included on Thai Beat a Go-Go Volume 1. Except there it's called "Phom Rak Khoon Tching Thing (I Really Do Love You)")


* Two songs from Battle of the Jug Bands. I'd never heard of any of these groups on this album, released in 2000. But who cares? The beauty of jug band music is that anyone with the proper spirit (and in some cases, proper spirits) can play it. The album is connected with an actual annual event, the "Battle of the Jug Bands," which takes place in Minneapolis every weekend after the Superbowl.

I picked up jug band versions of "Kung Fu Fighting" by a group called Girls on Top and the Rolling Stones classic "Sweet Virginia" -- a natural for a jug band treatment -- by Hoakim Yoakim & The Eggwhites. More on this album next month.

Meditations on The Green Weenie

Rachel Maddow tonight did a segment about former Sen. Allen Simpson's interview on CNN. Simpson, now co-chairman of President Obama's debt commission, told Candy Crowley that one way to deal with critics is "stick your finger down your throat and give them the green weenie."



Rachel went into all sorts of explanations about what "The Green Weenie" is. Some of them can be found in the comment section of her blog

But here's one she missed:





(And yes, that's the late, great Jimmy Carl Black, the Indian of the group, on drums.)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, February , 2011
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
Dropkick Me, Jesus by Bobby Bare
The Great Joe Bob by Terry Allen
Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed
Penny Instead by Charlie Pickett
Miniskirt Blues by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Penny Instead by Charlie Pickett
Mummy by The Kilimanjaro Yak Attack
Sooprize Package For Mr. Mineo by The Mummies 
Love Hates Me by Texas Terri Bomb

Rock 'n' Roll Rocket by The Micragirls
People Look Away by Death
Born With Two Heads by Waylon Thornton and the Heavy Hands
Scorpion Accordion by Old Time Relijun
Dum Du by Butthole Surfers
Son of Sam by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Big Belly Giant by The Tandoori Knights
Mojo Workout by King Salami & the Cumberland 3 
Found a Peanut by Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkeybirds
Happy Wanderer by The Polkaholics 

In Memory of Lux Interior 
All Songs by The Cramps except where noted

The Most Exalted Potentate of Love
Garbage Man
Shortnin' Bread
Rockin' Bones by Ronnie Dawson
Do the Clam
Get Off the Road
Love Me by The Phantom 
You Got Good Taste (for Mr. A the Barber) 
The Strangeness in Me by The Runabouts
Bikini Girls with Machine Guns
Mad Daddy

Now You Blame Me by Carlos Rodriguez
Theme from The Psycho Playboys by The Desperate Twisters
Ritalin by Sonic Reverends
I Worn My Body For So Long by T-Model Ford & GravelRoad
Don't You Ever Let Nobody Drag Yo' Spirit Down by Wilson Picket Picket with Linda Tillery Cultural Heritage Choir
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis 

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, February 4, 2011 
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
Kung Fu Fighting by Girls on Top
Pigfork Jamboree by The Imperial Rooster
Nothin' Shakin' by Linda Gail Lewis
Appleton by Webb Pearce
My Go-Go Girl by Bozo Darnell
Let's Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels with Annette Zilinskas
The Wrong Kind Of Girl by Roger Miller
Play It Cool by Ray Campi
One Too Many Mornings by Johnny Cash
Strangeness in Me by The Cramps

Chicken and Gravy by Richard Johnston with Jessie Mae Hemphill
Coulda Shoulda Woulda by J.P. McDermott & Western Bop
Precious Memories (The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised) by The Blasters
Plastic Love by The Riptones
I Dig Dangling Participals by The Harper Valley PTA
The Maple Court Tragedy by Ed Sanders and the Hemptones
(If I Go to Heaven) Give Me a Brunette by Deke Dekerson
Lets Fall In Love Again Tonight by  Hundred Year Flood


WANDA JACKSON SET 
All songs by Wanda except where noted
Thunder on the Mountain
Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad
Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson & The Cramps
Rock Your Baby by Candye Kane
Wild Side of Life/Honky Tonk Angels
Money Honey
His Rockin' Little Angel by Rosie Flores with Wanda Jackson
Honey Bop
Let's Have a Party by Wayne Hancock
Rip It Up

Riot in Cell Block #9 by Wanda Jackson & The Cramps
My Walking Stick by Leon Redbone
Honky Tonk Heroes by Billy Joe Shaver
Two Different Worlds by Hank Williams
I Dreamed Of A Hillbilly Heaven by Eddie Dean wth the Frontiersmen 
In the Jailhouse Now by Jimmie Rodgers
Mother Earth by Mother Earth


MORE TO COME (Keep refreshing your browser until midnight)

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Wanda Doesn't Need Jack White to Party

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 4, 2011


Dag nabbit! I’m about to write an album review that’s going to make me sound like a boring old purist. And in general, I hate boring old purists.

It’s like that joke told in music circles: How many bluegrass fans does it take to change a light bulb? The answer: Four — one to screw in the bulb, three to sit around and talk about how the old bulb was better. But this bulb — Wanda Jackson’s new Jack White-produced album, The Party Ain’t Over — has brought out my crotchety purist. ( And, as Luke told Laura — a few days after he raped her — “That’s a side of me I don’t like.”)

Brief history lesson: For those unfamiliar with Jackson, she’s a rockabilly fireball from Oklahoma who started out as a country singer — discovered by the great Hank Thompson, no less. She wrote the country classic “Right or Wrong.” But she heard the call of the wild. Her high-charged “Let’s Have a Party,” originally recorded by Elvis Presley, was a rock ’n’ roll hit in the late ’50s. Others followed, including “Fujiyama Mama” (which actually became huge in Japan) and my favorite, “Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad.”

In the mid-’60s, when rockabilly became unhip in the wake of the British Invasion (which was stupid, because The Beatles and other Brit rockers loved the ’billies), Jackson, like Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and others, turned back to the world of country. But with the rockabilly revival of the ’80s and ’90s, Jackson started rocking again. She appeared on Rosie Flores’ album Rockabilly Filly in 1995 (along with fellow early rockabilly gal Janis Martin). And — hot dog! — she’s been rocking ever since.

Back to the Party: White Stripe Jack White must have a thing for older women. In 2004, he produced an amazing “comeback” album, Van Lear Rose, for Loretta Lynn. I noted at the time in this column that some of the tracks had “about 10 times the drum sound of any previous Loretta effort” and described the song “Little Red Shoes” as “honky-tonk trip-hop.”

But Van Lear is a superior effort, because White stifled himself more on that album. On Party, he frequently goes overboard, doing something I previously assumed was impossible — overwhelming Wanda Jackson.

It’s obvious from the opening moments of the first song — a cover of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates’ “Shakin’ All Over” — that White’s going nuts, turning the knobs up to 11 when a seven would do. The horn section sounds machine-made, and worst of all, White uses some weird effect to distort Jackson’s voice.

But this isn’t even the worst of it. Little Richard’s “Rip It Up,” a natural song for Jackson, seems to have cold techno overtones. And “Busted” (a Harlan Howard tune recorded by Johnny Cash and Ray Charles) starts out with Jackson singing it straight but then turns into a jackhammer waltz or perhaps a mad polka. It sounds like some funny mash-up song created by a bored kid for YouTube giggles. And then there’s The Andrews Sisters’ “Rum and Coca-Cola.” Under White’s direction it sounds like a rejected commercial for Captain Morgan.

Sure ain’t like the Wanda we knew in the ’50s — grouse grouse, grumble grumble.

But seriously, folks, I don’t mind hearing Jackson in a more modern context. Back on her 2003 album, Heart Trouble, she played with The Cramps on a couple of tracks. “Riot in Cell Block #9” was a joyous kick, but even more successful was the remake of her old hit “Funnel of Love.” The fuzzy guitar didn’t sound like it did in the original version, but Lux and Ivy basically stayed in the background, letting Jackson carry the song.

That’s the trouble with The Party Ain’t Over. Too often it seems that White is trying to upstage Jackson with his gee-whiz studio gimmicks.

To be sure, sometimes White’s production works. And when it does, it’s wonderful. By far the best song here is “Thunder on the Mountain.” It’s a not-very-well-known Bob Dylan song from his 2006 album Modern Times — Dylan in his raging Old Testament prophet mode. It’s a hard-driving romp. Jackson sings it with undisguised glee backed by White’s screaming guitar, a horn section that sounds fueled by pep pills, and a madhouse Jerry Lee-style piano. It was a wise choice to pick this for the first video from the album.

Another song that stands out in a good way is Jackson’s cover of Amy Winehouse’s noir-soul “You Know I’m No Good.” Jackson captures the smoky, sleazy spirit of Miss Beehive’s song. True, it’s not a little disturbing to hear her sing, “I’m in the tub, you on the seat/Lick your lips as I soap my feet/Then you notice little carpet burn.” But sometimes disturbing is good.


The sexy Dinah Washington classic “Teach Me Tonight” almost works. It’s a perfect tune for Jackson. The steel guitar sounds sweet, but the twinkly keyboards get annoying: it seems White turns everything up — the horns, the guitar — during the instrumental. It’s not as bad as it could have been, but a lighter touch would have sounded so much better.

And then there’s Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel #6,” which ends the album. It’s a low-production, unplugged version. No great revelation, just a good country song that Jackson does so well without all the weird studio distractions that mar many of the songs.

If this album gets more people interested in Wanda Jackson, then yippee. But take some advice from this stuffy old purist and seek out her wild sounds of yesteryear.

Wanda, yesterday and today: I’ll play some Jackson cuts from her long career on The Santa Fe Opry, the country music Nashville does not want you to hear, 10 p.m. on Friday. And don’t forget Terrell’s Sound World, free-form weirdo radio, same time on Sunday, both on KSFR-FM 101.1. It’s streaming and screaming on the web at www.ksfr.org.

BLOG BONUS:
Here's Wanda back in the '50s