Friday, January 31, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Santa Fe Opry Facebook BannerFriday, Jan 31, 2014 
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
Verlain Shot Rimbaud by Lydia Loveless
Nitty Gritty by Southern Culture On the Skids
My Frijoles Ain't Free Anymore  by Augie Meyers
Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C. Riley 
Nashville Bum by Webb Wilder
Big Mamou by Waylon Jennings
Out Behind the Barn by Little Jimmy Dickens
Day of Liberty by Carolina Chocolate Drops
Doggone Happy to Be Blue by Fortytwenty

Hill Country Hot Rod Man by Junior Brown
Weeping Willow / I Can't Give Up on You by Country Blues Revue
Lover I'm a Taken by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks
Let it Roll by The Dinosaur Truckers
No Business by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Waitin' by Dan Hicks
Ugly and Slouchy by The Maddox Brothers

Heavy by Possessed by Paul James
Nam Weed by Scott H. Biram
Pay Phone by Eric Hisaw
Western Union Wire by Kinky Friedman & The Texas Jewboys
Titantic Blues by Phil Alvin
A Fool Such as I by John Doe & The Sadies
There Ought to Be a Law Against Sunny California by Terry Allen
Dig Boy Dig by Freddie Hart

Rank Strangers by Ralph Stanley
Tragic Romance by The StanleyBrothers 
Wallflower by David Bromberg 
Maybe Mexico by Jerry Jeff Walker
Bringing Mary Home by Mac Wiseman
16th Avenue by Lacy J. Dalton
The Legend of the Rebel Soldier by Lee Ann Womack
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Possessed by Paul James & Scott H. Biram

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Jan. 31, 2014

When you think of country-folk songwriters from Texas, you probably think of pickers and singers like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Flatlanders and Terry Allen. Not to mention Willie and Waylon and the boys.

Here's a couple of younger singer-songwriters from the Lone Star state whose music definitely is informed by all those greats, even though they don't sound much like your stereotypical Texas troubadours. Both these guys started out as "one-man bands," both are in their late 30s and I suspect they share a lot of the same fans. But they don't sound much like your typical one-man bands either. And come to think of it, they don't sound much like each other.

* There Will Be Nights When I'm Lonely by Possessed by Paul James. Though he frequently sings like a man possessed, this singer's name isn't "Paul James." It's Konrad Wert, a preacher's son born and raised in a Mennonite family in Immokalee, Fla. “Paul James” is a combination of his father’s and grandfather’s names. Wert's day job is being a special education teacher in an elementary school.

Jeopardizing forever his standing with one-man band purists (I suppose there are some of those out there) Wert on this album is joined by by an ad hoc band on some cuts, including a couple of Texas heavyweights -- steel guitarist Lloyd Maines and harmonica honker Walter Daniels. Fortunately, the extra musicians only enhance and don't clutter Wert's sound.

Possessed fans immediately will know this record, released late last year on the Hillgrass Bluebilly label,  is a Possessed by Paul James album by the opening notes of the first song, "Hurricane." It's Wert's fiddle, screeching, but not quite abrasive, soon followed by foot-stomping and a stand-up bass, drums and well as excited yelps by Wert, perhaps an invocation to the swamp demons who haunt his music.

Wert's on the fiddle on the next tune, "Songs We Used to Sing," as well. It's upbeat with just a hint of pop in the melody, though you're not likely to hear this on commercial radio. Drummer Cary Ozanian gets a good workout on this one.

On "Heavy," Wert ditches the band and switches to banjo. "Oh this life can get heavy," he sings in the refrain. The words seem to underscore the pressure that seems to propel his soaring vocals. "Dragons," also featuring Wert on banjo, is a shambling roadhouse blues. Wert roars and growls as Daniels blows sweet riffs on his harmonica. (Wert cleverly sneaks the titles of some his earlier albums in some of the lyrics on these two. His previous record Feed the Family is referenced in the first verse of "Heavy," while in the song "Dragons" Wert sings, "You've left me Cold and Blind," a sly wink to the title of his 2008 album.)

The title song, preceded by a minute-long fiddle solo, features an even more-intense-than-usual Wert stomping, fiddling and pleading for love, even though he sees some rough times "when we cry ourselves to sleep." The darkest song here undoubtedly is the slow, minor-key "Pills Beneath Her Pillow." It's about reckless and weary lovers. The woman keeps pills under her pillow, while the man keeps guns under his.. Wert in the chorus sings "Everyone is searching for love, everyone is fighting for love, everyone is killing for love and baby, oh, I'm dying tonight ..."

My favorite song on There Will Nights at the moment is a lighter piece, a sweet love/lust tune called "38 Year Old Cocktail Waitress." With some honky-tonk steel from Maines, Wert sings, "On the golf course road down in Mexico, she's my beauty queen / She wears a pink bikini, drinks an appletini, oh she's quite the scene.

* Nothin' But Blood by Scott H. Biram. Now I doubt that Biram would ever sing the praises of a woman who drinks appletinis. He seems like he'd be more attracted to straight-whiskey types. In fact, "Only Whiskey" is the name of one of the rowdiest tunes on, this new album by gruff-voiced Biram. "Only whiskey can sleep in my bed," he growls over his distorted electric guitar. (The album is scheduled for release next week by Chicago's Bloodshot Records.)

Like the best of Biram's works, there are plenty of rip-roaring, blues-soaked, booze-fired songs on Nothin' But Blood. "Alcohol Blues," (an old Mance Lipscomb tune) with a guitar hook similar to that in Cream's version of "Crossroads" and a string of obscenities I won't even try to sneak past the editors, definitely is one. And "Around the Bend" and " Church Point Girls" might just be the first recorded one-man metal band tunes in human history. Biram on "Bend" even manages a pretty good parody of the lizard-demon voice you hear in so many death-metal bands.

While Biram sings lustily of drinking, drugging, sex and sin, there are plenty of salvation songs on Nothin' But Blood as well. "Gotta Get to Heaven" is a happy song about a guy who apparently has wrestled with his sinful ways and won. Plus, tacked on at the end of the album are three "gospel bonus tracks" including oft-covered classics like "Amazing Grace" (featuring Biram's harmonica and ambient rain sounds) a rousing "John the Revelator" and one called "When I Die," which is credited to Biram, though it sounds as if it could be a hymn from deep within the foggy realm of American folk traditions.

Speaking of cover songs Biram, performs more of them than usual on this record. Besides the ones mentioned above, he does versions of folk gems like "Jack of Diamonds," I'm Troubled," (which is credited to Doc Watson, though it sounds much older), and Willie Dixon's "Backdoor Man," which is closer to Howlin' Wolf's version than the one by The Doors.

Biram at Corazon, Santa Fe 2011
While Biram is known best for his rambunctious and sometimes raunchy material, he also is quite capable of slow, pretty acoustic songs as well. He's proved that before, of course on songs like "Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue" from Something's Wrong / Lost Forever (2009) and "Broke Ass" from 2011's Bad Ingredients. On the new album "Never Comin' Home" is a sturdy country weeper, while the minor-key "Slow and Easy" is slow, though the narrator, drinking his wine to get "that same old high" sounds anything but at ease.

But the real standout is one called "Nam Weed." It's a story of a Vietnam vet pining about the good old boys back during the war. "Long time, back in Vietnam / I had some friends that could give a damn / They'd roll 'em up and smoke 'em down / Good weed back in Vietnam ..." Here in the USA, however, the nostalgic narrator is doing time for some unspecified crime. "All my friends were over there," he laments.

Both Biram and Possessed by Paul James show that, in case anyone forgot, singer-songwriters don’t have to sound self-absorbed and that folksingers don’t have to be self-righteous And both of them also prove that Texas hasn’t stopped making top-notch troubadours.

Here's a couple of videos:






Tuesday, January 28, 2014

R.I.P. Pete Seeger

Anyone who knows me knows that I wasn't a big Pete Seeger fan. In fact, the very first article I ever wrote that evoked angry letters to the editor was a rather snide review of a Seeger concert at Paolo Soleri in 1980.

(An old acquaintance, Bob Stearns, reminded me of that just a few days ago. His late wife Rose Mary wrote one of those letters. We all got to be friendly not long afterward despite that disagreement.)

When it came to folk music, I always was more in the camp of rough 'n' rowdy types like Dave Van Ronk. But that's neither here nor there. I was saddened by Pete's passing.

But one thing I admired about Pete Seeger was the way he stood up to the communist witch-hunters during the McCarthy era -- even though it seriously hurt his ability to earn a living.

This from the New York Times obit for Seeger:

In 1955 he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In his testimony he said, “I feel that in my whole life I have never done anything of any conspiratorial nature.” He also stated: “I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.” 

Mr. Seeger offered to sing the songs mentioned by the congressmen who questioned him. The committee declined.

Mr. Seeger was indicted in 1957 on 10 counts of contempt of Congress. He was convicted in 1961 and sentenced to a year in prison, but the next year an appeals court dismissed the indictment as faulty.
Plus, I've always loved this song.


So rest in peace, Pete. You whipped a lot of old devils.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


Terrell's Sound World Facebook BannerSunday, Jan. 26, 2014 
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
Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee by Sticks McGee
Bikini Girls With Machine Guns by The Cramps
The Anal Swipe by New Bomb Turks
Can't Take Em Off by Andre Williams & The New Orleans Hell Hounds
Burning Spear by Thee Oh Sees
Run Run Run by The Velvet Underground
The Fella With a Happy Heart by The Dot Wiggin Band

Church Point Girls by Scott H. Biram
Don't Look At The Hanged Man by Big Foot Chester 
Geraldine by Figures of Light
The Pissed Off Punk Rock Ex-Girlfriends Club by The Barbaraellatones
Enter/Looking Down by Lovestruck 
Voodoo Blues by Lightning Slim
Spreading the Love  Vibration by 27 Devils Joking
Blackout by Hank Haint
Sheik of Araby by Spike Jones & His City Slickers

This set feature songs from albums reviewed in Friday's Terrell's Terrell's Tuneup
The Second Generation Punks by Wild Billy Chyldish & CTMF 
You Disapprove by The Mobbs
Jukebox by Left Lane Cruiser
Cold Wind Blowin' by David Lynch
Take It Away by Pietra Wexstun & Hecate's Angels
Reverse Shark Attack by Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin
And the Band Played On by Richard Thompson & Christine Collister

Louie Louie by The Flamin' Groovies
Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson
La Nen La Bambele by The Pussywarmers
Drone Operator by Jon Langford
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, January 24, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Santa Fe Opry Facebook BannerFriday, Jan. 24, 2014 
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
All American Girl by Angry Johnny and the Killbillies
Pig Fork Jamboree by The Imperial Rooster
Georgia on a Fast Train by Billy Joe Shaver
Wang Dang Dula by Deke Dekerson & The Calvanes
Wreck on The Highway by The Waco Brothers
Reprimand by Joe West
Cuss in' in Tongues by Legendary Shack Shakers
You're Humbuggin' Me by Lefty Frizzell 
Sam Hall by Tex Ritter

Mother Blues by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother by Cracker
The Low Road by Shooter Jennings
Pistol Pete by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Let The Jukebox Keep on Playing by Carl Perkins
38 Year Old Cocktail Waitress by Possessed-by Paul James
Jack of Diamonds by Scott H. Biram

Haley's Comet by Dave Alvin
The Beautiful Waitress by Terry Allen
Collins Cave by Phil Alvin
The 24th Hour by Ray Price
Don't You Think This Outlaw Thing Has Done Got Out of Hand by Waylon Jennings
Rumble of The Diesel by Les Claypool's Duo de Twang
Hippieville By Alvie Self

Be a Little Quiter by Porter Wagoner
Porter Wagoner's Grave by Marty Stuart
She Used to Love Me a Lot by Johnny Cash
This Town is Dead by Boris McCutcheon & The Salt Licks
Roswell Town by Jack Clift & His Illuminati Assassination Orchestra
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 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...