Wednesday, October 19, 2011

"This'll Scare the Pants Outta Ya!"

THE BIG ENCHILADA




Here's some some razor-laden apples to bob for this  Halloween season. It's the 2001 Big Enchilada Spooktacular to help you keep the true spirit of this holiday in your heart. This also marks my third anniversary of doing this silly show. So come on, podlubbers, let's get creeped out together!

DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBESUBSCRIBE TO ALL | FACEBOOK | ITUNES

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Zombie Drums by The Zombie Surfers)
Devil's Stomping Ground by Southern Culture on the Skids
Ghoulman Confidential by The Fleshtones
Vampire Sugar by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons *
Spiders and Skulls by The Liquid Vapours *
I Walked With the Zombie by Roky Erikson & The Nervebreakers
The Haunted House Boogie by Happy Wilson

(Background Music: There's a Creature in the Surfer's Lagoon by The Deadly Ones)
Mostruo Vodu Punk by Horror Deluxe
Frankenstein by 22 Pistepirkko
Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon by The Cramps
Transylvania Terror Train by Capt. Clegg & The Night Creatures
Monsters of the ID by Stan Ridgway
The Skeleton in the Closet by Putney Dandridge

(Background Music: Miss Monster by Modie Bones) *
I Lost My Baby to a Satan Cult by Stephen W. Terrell
Wolfman on Your Trail by 3-D Invisibles
Hungry Teenage Wolfman by The Bama Lamas *
Devil Dance by The Devils
Vampire by Half Japanese
Ghost in the Graveyard by The Prairie Ramblers
(Background Music: Halloween Hell by The Goldstars)

Songs so marked are from the fabulous Best of The GaragePunk compilations, Click on the links over the songs -- as opposed to the ones over the artists -- to get to the correct compilation. Then do yourself a favor and buy some of these comps.


Play it here:




Want More Spooky Tunes?

Check out my previous Halloween podcasts
Big Enchilada 28: CLICK HERE
Big Enchilada 15: CLICK HERE
Big Enchilada 1:  CLICK HERE

Sunday, October 16, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October 16, 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(at)ksfr.org

Timothy by The Nervebreakers
Blow Um Mau Mau by The Monsters
You Little Nothing by The Gories
Roundin' Up Girls All Day by L.C. Ulmer
Baby What's Wrong by The Come N' Go
Stiff Upper Lip by Monkeyshines
This Crushing Thing by Blood Drained Cows
Pagan Baby by Steel Wool
Undertaker by Southern Culture On The Skids

Living With the Animals by Mother Earth
Ass Welt Boogie by The Bassholes
Coming Back Alive by The Stomachmouths
Gopher Holes by Snake Out
Virginia Avenue by Kid Congo Powers
Dono by Afrissippi
Diddley Daddy by The Super Super Blues Band
Naggin' by Jimmy Anderson

Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Junkyard by The Birthday Party
I Can't Find Pleasure by Thee Mighty Caesars
Alleys Of Your Mind by The Dirtbombs
Romance by Wild Flag
What's Mine Is Yours by Sleater-Kinney

Everything Will Be Fine by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
No Sex by Alex Chilton
The Parable of Ramon by Richie Havens
Mercy I Cry City by The Incredible String Band
Built For Comfort by Willie Dixon And Memphis Slim
Calling All Demons by The Mekons
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

 Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Friday, October 14, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 14, 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! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Swamp Thing by Southern Culture on the Skids
To The Victor Go The Spoils by Have Gun Will Travel
Brand New Model by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Mama Don't Like Music by Smiley Burnette
Clickity Clack by The Ugly Valley Boys
Defibulator by The Defibulators
How Many Women by Lydia Loveless
Meadowlark Boogie by Buck Griffin
Because I'm Crazy by Kell Robertson

Hillbilly Thunder Machine by Joe Buck
Lipstick by Andy Vaughan & The Driveline
Pocket Dial by The Possum Posse
Down, Down, Down, Down by Dale Watson & The Texas Two
The Girl On Death Row by T.Tex Edwards & Out On Parole
I'm So Depressed by Delaney Davidson
Beer Drinking Blues by Rocky Bill Ford
Back in Your World/Forbidden Love by Billy Kaundart
Move Over Rover by Billy Hall & His Rhythm Boys

Broke Ass by Scott H. Biram
A Wedding In Cherokee County by Randy Newman
Coward's Sword by Robert Earl Reed
Burn Down That House by Poor Boy's Soul (Click the link to get free MP3 of this song!)
One Click Away From Judgement Day by The Imperial Rooster
That's All by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
I Do Drive Truck by Jon Wayne

Wishin' All These Old Things Were New by Merle Haggard
Broken Man by The Goddamn Gallows
Go Ahead and Cry by Rick Brousard & Two Hoots and a Holler
Southern Family Anthem by Shooter Jennings
How Cold by Rachel Brooke
Tryin' To Get Myself Home by Stevie Tombstone
Goodnight Juarez by Tom Russell
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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

Thursday, October 13, 2011

TERRELL'S TUNEUP:One-Man Blast

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 14, 2011


I was recently reminded of Randy Newman’s twisted love song “A Wedding in Cherokee County” when I first listened to Scott H. Biram’s “Broke Ass” on his new album Bad Ingredients.

Scott H. Biram
For some of you younger readers (I know you’re out there!) who aren’t familiar with Newman’s classic songbook, “Cherokee County” is about a doomed backwoods couple. It appears at the end of his 1974 album Good Old Boys.

To the strains of a slow, genteel Stephen Foster-ish melody, the groom sings of his spouse-to-be: “Her papa was a midget/ Her mama was a whore/Her granddad was a newsboy ’til he was 84 (what a slimy old bastard he was) ... Maybe she’s crazy I don’t know/Maybe that’s why I love her so.”

My heart was warmed in a similar way when I heard the first verse of Biram’s song:

“I’ve been spending all my money on some worn-out $2 whore/And you may think it’s funny, but I don’t think it’s fair/ that that old two-timin’ headache could ever get herself anywhere / ... yeah she’s my woman / You can see her every night / Just dancin’, lookin’ wicked til the early mornin’ light.” The singer declares, “She’s my number one undercover lover, but she’s been runnin’ way too fast and way too long.”

She might be a $2 whore, but the singer compliments her — I guess — when he calls her “the nicest piece of real estate to ever grace this town.”

It’s easy to imagine this wicked dancer laughing at the “mighty sword” of Biram’s protagonist, just like the bride of Cherokee County does in the song that immortalizes her.

 But dark humor isn’t the main point of Biram’s song. The narrator’s woman is just part of his nightmare, just one bad aspect of his life of poverty and despair. “Guess I’m just talkin’ to a stranger / Guess I’m just pissing in the wind , Guess I’m just lonely, crippled, and angry, ’til I get on my feet again,” Biram sings.

This song is slower and more melodic than most of Biram’s tunes, sweetened with a little organ not too high in the mix. As he showed on “Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue” on Biram’s previous album Something’s Wrong /Lost Forever, Biram is perfectly capable of keeping his raunchy integrity even when he does it nice and purdy.

“Broke Ass” is a standout on Bad Ingredients, but it’s not the only one. Biram, the self- proclaimed “dirty ol’ one-man band” from Austin, Texas, does what he does best — strumming his guitar like a madman, stomping his percussion as if the ghost of Keith Moon lived inside his foot, and growling his (frequently distorted) vocals.

Like on his previous works, the production here is simple. The music is a ferocious blend of blues and country with a lo-fi, punk-rock aura. For the most part he sticks to his one-man-band credo — with the exception of Walter Daniels’ sax on the swampy “I Want My Mojo Back” and some percussion help on a couple of tracks from Matt Puryear.

Most of the songs are original, though Biram throws in a cover of Bill Monroe’s “Memories of You, Sweetheart” and Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Have You Ever Loved a Woman.” But the best ones are the Biram originals.

I love the frantic rockers like the insane “Killed a Chicken Last Night,” “Victory Song,” (which starts off with some pretty fancy guitar picking), “Dontcha Lie to Me, Baby,” and “Hang Your Head and Cry,” which sounds like the history of Southern rock boiled down into a loud three-minute, 47-second roar. Also worthy are some of his smoldering blues tunes like “Just Another River,” which sounds like it’s begging to be covered by ZZ Top.

As I said, Biram does here what he does best. But he seems to keep doing it better. The man is nothing short of a one-man blast.

Also recommended:


* Indestructible Machine by Lydia Loveless. Here’s my favorite new female country vocalist. Loveless is a 21-year-old (I have shirts older than her!) punk-rock honky-tonk gal from Columbus, Ohio. I’m not the first one to think her throaty voice suggests an ancient soul.

When I heard her I was reminded of Marlee MacLeod, an Alabama-born singer who, sadly, hasn’t released any new music in nearly a decade. In, sometimes when I listen to Indestructible Machine and my mind drifts (the best way to listen to music, of course), I think I’m listening to some new MacLeod songs. That’s not a bad thing.

But Loveless’ tunes tend to be rowdier than MacLeod’s. The album starts off with “Bad Way to Go,” which features crunching distorted guitars and a banjo. Loveless’ voice wails over all the din.

But that’s followed by an even stronger punch, the minor-key “Can’t Change Me,” in which she sings a harsh tale of drinking, passing out, talking too much, and drinking more. “If I can’t change who I am I shouldn’t try so goddamn hard,” she snarls.

I’ve read a couple of reviews of this album that complain that there are too many alcohol-soaked lyrics. (Then there’s the album cover, which shows Loveless chugging a can of gasoline. What kind of message does that send to the children?)

Maybe it does seem a little weird that a 21-year-old woman writes lyrics that seem to imply that she could match Johnny Paycheck drink for drink. But is there any law that says women singers have to write mopey confessionals about boyfriends who have a hard time sharing their feelings?

The truth is, Loveless’ “How Many Women” is one of the most soulful country songs I’ve heard in months. Tammy Wynette should come back from the dead to cover it. Heck, I even wish Steve Earle would make the tongue-in-cheek fantasy of Loveless’ song named after him come true. The two could sing some wild duets together.

Bloodshot Records is on a roll. It released the Loveless and Biram albums. Check out www.bloodshotrecords.com .

BLOG BONUS
A couple of videos for ya





And the old master ...

Sunday, October 09, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October 9, 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(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Volare by Alex Chilton
Raw Power by Iggy & The Stooges
Blues for Joe by The Monsters
Angry Hands by Manby's Head
Bad Boy by HeadCat
One-Eyed Girl by The Compulsive Gamblers
Old Folks Boogie by Jack Oblivian
Crawdaddy by Nine Pound Hammer
White Rabbit by The Frontier Circus

Spook Factor by The Memphis Morticians
Get Down (and Get Stupid) by The Del-Gators
Electric Band by Wild Flag
Family Tree by Black Lips
Sweet Jesus by Elvis Hitler
Sister Ray Charles by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Booty City by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Natural Man by The Dirtbombs
Crazy Clown Time by David Lynch

Victory Song by Scott H. Biram
Hail Bop! by The Bassholes
Primitive by Southern Culture on the Skids
The Pimps Don't Like It by Juke Joint Pimps
I Might Just Crack by April March
Good Bye Johnny by The Gun Club
Baila Bailme by Al Hurricane

Kool Thing by Sonic Youth
In the Dark by Jay Reatard
Outside Woman Blues by Blind Joe Reynolds
Frankie and Johnny by Kazik Staszewski
Lazy River Road by The Persuasions
Surf's Up by The Beach Boys
Greater Day by The Rev. James Cleveland
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis


 Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Saturday, October 08, 2011

eMUSIC OCTOBER

* Pachuco Cadaver by The Jack and Jim Show. So you didn't think it was possible to make Captain Beefheart sound even weirder?

Well take a bite out of this little tribute album by guitar mutant Eugene Chadbourne and Frank Zappa's late original Mothers drummer Jimmy Carl Black. Some tunes sound like a lost congregation of hillbilly snake handlers somehow got hold of Beefheart's songbook and turned them into insane hymns and, in some cases like "Dropout Boogie," surreal comedy routines.

Black's gruff voice is perfect for the bluesier tunes here like "Sure 'Nuff Yes I Do," and "Willie the Pimp," done here as a Delta blues with Chadbourne playing slide.

When Beefheart did "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby" it was a blues growler. But here it's a pilgrimage  into the Dark Dimension, featuring the insect hum of a didgeridoo,  a jazzy basson and other instruments played by guests. Chadbourne plays banjo on this, as he does on several other tunes here, most notable, the seven-minute version of "Clear Spot" and the stompin' "Steal Softly Through Sunshine Steal Softly Through Snow."

JIMMY GROWLS THE BLUESI was lucky enough to see The Jim & Jack Show live in Albuquerque about a year before Jimmy died.  He lived in Germany the last years of his life and his trips to the states weren't that frequent.

A bunch of Jimmy's children came up from El Paso and Anthony to see the show. Both he and Chadbourne seemed to be having a great time. And they even did a couple of Beefheart songs -- "Willie the Pimp" and "The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back" .


And I never miss an opportunity to brag that when I did Picnic Time for Potatoheads in the early 80s, Jimmy Carl Black was the Indian of my group. Hear his magic drums on "The Green Weenie" HERE. (It's the second song down.)

* Rockabilly Frenzy by Various Artists. Here's 53 tracks for $5.99. You do the math. It's a great bargain, like other cool compilations on the Rock-a-Billy label available at eMusic. (I've previously picked up 50s Rockabilly Hellraisers and 1950s Rock N' Roll & Rockabilly Rare Masters. I just can't get enough.) Many of the selections seem more hardcore honky tonk than rockabilly, but who's gonna quibble?

Frenzy concentrates mostly on unknown performers, though "Corky Jones," the rockabilly alter ego of   Buck Owens, is here with his shoulda-been-a-hit "Rhythm & Booze."

Speaking of booze, this album is overflowing with songs about alcoholic beverages. There's "Set Up Antother Drink" by Carl Phillips, "Booze Party" by Three Aces and a Joker (The Cramps covered this),  "Flop Top Beer" by Buddy Meredith, "Moonshine" by Montie Jones, "I'm Drinkin' Bourbon" by Billy Starr, "Wine Wine Wine" by Bobby Osbourne, "Whiskey Women and Wilid Living" by Tommy W. Pedigo, "Moonshine Still" by Jack Holt and "Pink Elephant" by Wally Willet.

What kind of message does this send to the children? I feel almost drunk after listening to all these.

But wait, there's more ...

There's a not-bad cover of George Jones' "White Lightning" by a band called The Valley Serenaders. But that's not nearly as remarkable as "White Lightning Cherokee" by Onie Wheeler. No, it's not a politically incorrect look at Native American alcoholism. It's about a guy who gets a better thrill from kissing his Indian girlfriend than drinking his pappy's brew. But he has no intention of giving up either.

And there's not one not two but three versions of a song called "Beer Drinkin' Blues." One's by Eddie Novak, another by Rocky Bill Ford. Johnny Champion calls his song "Beer Drinkin' Daddy." All deal with a hard-drinking alcoholic whose drinking is interfering with his marriage. Ford plays it sad, while Novak seems more comical. My favorite though is Champion's. It's an upbeat song with a snazzy organ solo. He seems almost defiant about his beer drinkin'.

* Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927-1935 by Various Artists. The Mekons led me to this one. On their latest album Ancient & Modern, Sally Timms sings a song called "Geeshie," a spooky, bluesy little number I said sounds as if it came from "a speakeasy near the gates of Hell." The group based this song on an obscure blues song called "Last Kind Words" by a woman named Geeshie Wiley.

When I read that, I searched for the song on eMusic and found it here in this Yazoo Records collection, along with two other Geeshie tunes, "Skinny Legs Blues." (Look out, Joe Tex, the ghost of Geeshie is looking for you!) and "Pick Poor Robin Clean," which sounds like a crazy cousin of "Salty Dog" sung with Elvie Thomas.

Wiley is fairly obscure, but she might be the best known artist on this album. There's King Soloman Hill, who has a piercing voice that might remind you of Skip James. Blind Joe Reynolds does "Outside Woman Blues," a song revived in the '60s by Cream. I know now where Canned Heat got the "Bullfrog Blues." (It's by a guy named William Harris, who does that and two other tunes here.)

And Mattie Delaney was singing "Tallahatchie River Blues" decades before Bobbie Gentry and Billy Joe were throwing stuff off the bridge.

ALSO


* The final five tracks of Fire of Love by The Gun Club. As I said last month when I downloaded the first six tracks, I came to this band decades too late.

I don't regret that. In fact it's pretty cool that I left some great musical surprises for my old age.

This was the first album by Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the boys and it just gets better after each listening.  There's some pumped up version of old Mississippi blues -- Robert Johnson's "Preaching the Blues" and a six minute wrestling match with Tommy Johnson's "Cool Drink of Water."

But Pierce's originals are powerful in their own right. "Ghost on the Highway," "Black Train" and "Good Bye Johnny" are raw and wild. Even though I'm a new initiate, it's hard to imagine rock 'n' roll without these songs.

* "Rainmaker" by Eliza Gilkyson. I stumbled across this song a few weeks ago when looking for songs by New Mexico artists for one of my Spotify playlists. Released on a 2005 Gilkyson compilation called RetroSpecto, this is one of her earliest recorded songs, released in the late '60s or early '70s under the name of Tusker, a Santa Fe band that Gilkyson fronted back when she was known as "Lisa. Along with my personal favorite group of that era, The Family Lotus, Tusker represented the best of New Mexico hippie music.

The lyrics are pure hippie-dippie wanna-be Indian: "We can dance, people, bring that rain down from the sky/We don't have to let the land go hungry or run dry/We can dance and bring Rainmaker back before we die ..." But it sure brings back great memories.

Friday, October 07, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 7, 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! terrel(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Out There a Ways by The Waco Brothers
Too Much Thinkin' by Andy Vaughan & The Driveline
Gettin' By by Six Shot Revival
Open Road by Scott H. Biram
Bitter by Black Eyed Vermillion
Jesus Was a Wino by Lydia Loveless
Pink Elephant by Wally Willett
She's My Witch by Southern Culture on the Skids
Flop Top Beer by Buddy Meredith

Me Not Calling by Rock Brousard & Two Hoots and a Holler
Moonshine by Montie Jones
Uncle Sam by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Susie Anna Riverstone by The Imperial Rooster
A Girl Don't Have to Drink to Have Fun by Jane Baxter Miller and Kent Kessler
Elbow Grease, Spackle and Pine Sol by Dale Watson & The Texas Two
Jumping the Sharks by Carter Falco
Drop the Charges by The Gourds
Oh These Troubled Times by The Corn Sisters
Rubber Legs by Gene Smith

JOHNNY CASH SET
All songs by JC unless otherwise noted
So Doggone Lonesome
Thunderball
Don't Think Twice It's Alright
A Girl Named Johnny Cash by Harry Hayward
Galway Bay
What is Truth?
I Walk the Line (Revisited) by Rodney Crowell with Johnny Cash
I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash
WWJCD (What Would Johnny Cash Do?) by The Dolly Ranchers
New Mexico

Cocaine Blues by Merle Haggard
Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson
Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain by Carla Bozulich
I Can't Help It-(If I'm Still In Love With You) by Hank Williams
The Love That Faded by Bob Dylan
Lion in Winter by Hoyt Axton
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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

STOOGE, WALK WITH ME

Here's a couple of freebies you can start your weekend with.

There's a new live Iggy & The Stooges DVD featuring their live performance of the entire Raw Power album at last year's All Tomorrow's Parties festival. You can get a free MP3 of "Search and Destroy" if you give these folks your email address. (Is this a vile plot to compile a list of Stooges fans for the government to make it easier to confiscate your Stooges records? We'll see.)

Embedded in the below graphic are a couple of videos of live songs (scroll over Iggy's hands), plus a trailer for the DVD. Also lotsa links to where you can buy the video, MP3s, etc.

Then scroll down to the bottom of this post to hear and, if you like, to get a free copy of some musical weirdness from David Lynch. Yes that David Lynch. He's got a new album coming out!




Thursday, October 06, 2011

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Johnny Cash is For Everyone

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 7, 2011



I Walk the Protest Line NYC 2004
One of the best protest rallies that I ever covered took place during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. Sotheby’s auction house in uptown Manhattan held a reception for U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and the Tennessee delegation to the convention.

The event was billed as a tribute to Johnny Cash, and memorabilia from the Man in Black was to be auctioned. The reception riled Cash fans on the left, who argued that Cash was known for singing songs for America’s underdogs.

Before the rally, Ed Pettersen, a spokesman for a Nashville organization called Music Row Democrats, told me that he had spoken with Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, who wasn’t against the GOP event because his dad and Sen. Alexander were friends.

“If this is in conjunction with a reception for Lamar Alexander, I have no problem with it,” Pettersen said. “But if it goes beyond that, and the Republicans start proselytizing using Johnny Cash, I have a big problem with it.”

It was a nonviolent demonstration. Black-clad protesters sang Cash songs and carried signs referencing J.C. tunes: “I Walk the Line for Kerry,” “Send Bush to Folsom,” and one calling Republicans “Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dogs.” The sign I liked best referred to an awful corporate hat act that performed for the GOP convention: “You Can Keep Your Brooks & Dunn, but Johnny Cash Belongs to Everyone.”

That message recently slapped me in the face when I received a review copy of Sony Legacy’s latest Cash compilation, Bootleg Vol. III: Live Around the World, scheduled for release on Tuesday.

In the middle of the first disc of the collection there’s a set of songs from the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. Cash is introduced by venerated lefty folk singer Pete Seeger, who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. (During this set, Cash says hello to an offstage Bob Dylan, whom Cash called “the best songwriter of the age since Pete Seeger.”)

And then on disc two, there’s a set of tunes Cash performed at the White House in April 1970. Here he’s introduced by the 37th president of these United States, Richard Milhous Nixon.

And between the two is a set from a January 1969 show at the Long Binh Post in Vietnam, where Cash, June Carter Cash, and Carl Perkins entertained the troops, singing songs like “Remember the Alamo.” And there are even a few songs played for inmates — at Österaker Prison in Sweden.

Johnny Cash belongs to everyone.

Like the previous two volumes in the authorized Cash Bootleg series (Personal File is the first, From Memphis to Hollywood the second), Live Around the World is a fascinating compilation of rare tracks, most of which are previously unreleased. Die-hard Cash fanatics as well as casual listeners will find plenty to love here.

As expected, some of the recordings are low in audio quality — especially the ones from live shows in the 1950s and early ’60s but also the ones from the mid- to late-’70s. Audiowise, they sound about the same as the ones recorded in a war zone a decade earlier. But what the heck, this is advertised as a bootleg.

Most of Cash’s greatest songs are represented here. There are a couple of versions each of “Big River,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “Rock Island Line,” “I Still Miss Someone,” and “Wreck of the Old 97” — and three renditions of “I Walk the Line.” Cash never minded singing the hits.

Command performance for Tricky Dick: Cash didn’t always take requests, as President Nixon learned. Before the big White House show, Nixon, who was famous for courting the stars of Nashville, requested Cash sing a couple of his favorite country tunes of the day.

What is Truth?
One was “Okie From Muskogee,” a hippie-bashing tune by Merle Haggard. Another was a more obscure number called “Welfare Cadillac,” which was done by a singer named Guy Drake. It made fun of all those lazy bums living a luxurious life while collecting welfare. Cash said, “No, sir.” He wouldn’t play those songs, not even for the Leader of the Free World.

A surprisingly gracious Nixon made light of that refusal while introducing Cash. “I’m not an expert on his music. Incidentally, I found that out when I tried to tell him what to sing,” Nixon said, evoking laughter and applause from his White House guests. And when he began his set, Cash joked back, “And for my second song, Mr. President —”

He started out with “I Walk the Line.” But he didn’t walk the line Nixon would have wanted. One of the songs he did that night was “What Is Truth,” based on “a poem for the youth of America.” It’s a sympathetic look at the young people of that era — even the ones with long hair — questioning authority.

“The young girl dancing to the latest beat has found new ways to move her feet / And the young man speakin’ in the city square / Might be tryin’ to say that he really cares.”

I can’t help but wonder what Nixon thought about this song a couple of weeks later when the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four student protesters at Kent State University.

But even Nixon knew the truth about Johnny Cash. As he said in his introduction that night, “He was born in Arkansas and he now lives in Tennessee. But he belongs to the whole country.”

Cash on the Spot(ify): Hey, Spotify users, check out my new playlist of Johnny Cash covers and tribute songs HERE.

Cash on the radio: I’ll be playing a huge cache of Cash Friday on The Santa Fe Opry. The show begins at 10 p.m. I’ll start in with J.C. songs a little after 11. And don’t forget Terrell’s Sound World, freeform radio at its finest, 10 p.m. Sundays. Both shows are on KSFR-FM 101.1 and screaming on the web at www.ksfr.org.



Sunday, October 02, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October, 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(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Stop Trying to Break Me Down by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Parchment Farm by Blue Cheer
Hoodoo Party by Rockin' Tabby Thomas
Want More by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Livin' In The Jungle by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Future Crimes by Wild Flag
Rattlesnake, Baby, Rattlesnake by Joe Johnson
Speedy's Coming by The Monsters
You Break Me Up The Thunderfucks

Acid Bird by Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Eagle Never Hunts the Fly by The Music Machine
Fujiyama Mama by Frontier Circus
Vampire Sugar by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
Baby Scratch My Back by Slim Harpo
Gary Gilmore's Eyes by The Adverts
You Can't Teach a Caveman Bout Romance by The 99ers
Miss Monster by Modie Bones
Blues Come Yonder by L.C. Ulmer
If You Wanna by Baby Jean

AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE
Ilha Virgem by Jovens do Prenda
Start Wearing Purple by Gogol Bordello
Forty Deuce by Black 47
I'm All Skinny by Sinn Sisamouth
Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu by Cornershop
Mamo, Snezhets Navalyalo by 3 Mustaphas 3
Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Petty Booka

Lover Please by Jack Oblivian
Moonbeam by King Richard & The Knights
Buzzards of Green Hill by Les Claypool & The Frog Brigade
The Devil at Rest by The Mekons
Arabia by Pere Ubu
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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...