Wednesday, December 10, 2014

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Words of Truth from the Rev. Billy

Back in the early '80s when I was trying to make it as a musician, I sometimes got compared with another singer with whom I wasn't familiar.

No, not Celine Dion. It was the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, a South Carolina-born singer, piano player, comedian and true man of God.

I guess we had some similarities. Both of us sang funny, usually irreverent songs based in blues, country and primitive rock 'n' roll.

Both of us were played on the late, lamented KFAT radio in Gilroy, Calif.

Both of us had a perverse fascinations with Elvis, Satan and pro-wrestling.

Both of us have degrees in education. (He was a special ed teacher, while I never did find full-time employment as a teacher.)

But there were differences. I barely could strum a few chords, while Rev. Billy could actually play that piano. Hell, he was mentored by Sunnyland Slim himself.

Plus, Billy actually has landed paying gigs with pro wrestling!

So once I learned who Rev. Wirtz was, I was honored by the comparison. I took the compliment whether I deserved it or not.

Enjoy some videos:



And here's one of his best wrestling tunes:



And here's some surf music, Billy C style:



I just learned that Rev. Billy and I have something else in common: He does a radio show. Rev. Billy's Rockin' Rhythm Revival airs on WMNF in Tampa, Fla. (Apparently it airs on KPIG, the heir to KFAT, also.)

And he's got a podcast version too. I'm listening to one at the moment where he sandwiched an Iron Butterfly song between Big Mama Thornton and Memphis Slim. In some places they call that "Freeform Weirdo Radio"! You can play that episode below:


Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Remembering John Lennon


Thirty four years ago, Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was murdered by a crazed shithead with a gun.

I was in bed with my then wife, who at the time was eight months pregnant with a little human who would later turn out to be my beautiful daughter.

I cried. Spent the next day in weepy disbelief. That night I'd been scheduled to play on KUNM's Home of Happy Feet. I sang a very angry "Working Man's Hero" on the show.

I still get upset.

Here's a video of Loudon Wainwright singing his murder ballad inspired by the killing, "Not John."



Here's a radio report about the killing;

Monday, December 08, 2014

A New Gregg Turner Kickstarter Album



Brace yourself, Bridget, my Angry Samoan crony Gregg Turner has launched a new Kickstarter project for a new collection of songs that so far exist only in his troubled mind.

He's calling it "Chartbusters!" and. as he expains,  that's ...

Only suitable to follow the last one: Plays The Hits. Lotsa catchy melodics ("Franz Kafka"), some Del Shannon-inspired doo-wops (I beg indulgence for the comparison), a Roky Erickson rocker or two (the "Stand For The Fire Demon"-ish "Kremlin Dog" as well as a cover of "I Walked With A Zombie") and even a kids' song called "Hide And Seek" with my 11-year old daughter Nico joining in on the chorus !  Hey - and whatever happened to Sheila Klein and Marsha Bronson, Lou Reed's graduating class of 1967? Check out "The Box" for what will be the "Gifted" iconic/sonic sequel update 48 years later (pushing the boundary of blasphemy, I know).

Sammy the Spatula and Whitey discuss options
And yes, there's a new video featuring dramatic interpretations from the collection of weirdos I've dubbed the "Satan's Bride Players," including an Oscar-worthy (Oscar Meyer, that is) performance by ace thespian, ME. It's not only a cinematographic masterpiece, it's an incisive behind-the-scenes look at cutting-edge behavioral-health practices, 

(Sorry it's not on Youtube, at least not yet, so you'll have to watch it on the Kickstarter site.)

So check it out, Unlike many crowd-funding scams you might have read about recently, this one's reasonable. $15 bucks get you a coy of the CD, expected to be released next summer. And bigger contributions gets you prizes (including a "personal harassing phone call" from the Mean Nurse you'll meet in the video. (Who looks a lot like Satan's Bride herself.)

Discaimer: I'm writing this post not in my usual role as critic, but as a cheap hustler for a pal. Since I'm involved in the video etc., any pretense of critical integrity here would be an insult to us all.

Sunday, December 07, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, December 7, 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

Here's the playlist below: Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Friday, December 05, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


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Friday, December 5, 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

Here's my playlist below:



Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Thursday, December 04, 2014

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Singing Instrumentals and Gnostic Hoodoo

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
December 5, 2014

Did you realize that many of the best-known rock ’n’ roll instrumentals of the ’60s, from “Pipeline” to “Telstar” to “Hawaii Five-O,” actually have words? Neither did I — until I heard the new album by Los Straitjackets, Deke Dickerson Sings the Great Instrumental Hits.

And even if there weren’t lyrics when The Ventures, The Shadows, Dick Dale, and the others recorded them, Dickerson and his masked amigos have made them up for the benefit of this fun little album.

Here’s how Dickerson — an ace guitarist himself and former member of The Untamed Youth — explains it in a news release: “In case you’re confused, imagine Bill Murray’s classic lounge singer character on Saturday Night Live belting out drunken made up lyrics to the ‘Star Wars Theme.’ It can be done, it has been done, and these songs truly come alive once you hear them sung … with words!”

Indeed. And the next time you hear the original version of any of these on the radio and feel compelled to sing along, you won’t have to sing “duh-duh-duh-duh dum-dum duh” anymore.

Granted, some of these selections already had lyrics. Back in the ’60s, The Lettermen (an easy-listening hit machine in their day) had a syrupy cover of the theme from A Summer Place. Dickerson and the boys do a pretty good imitation of the trademark Lettermen falsetto here. And while “Perfidia” was recorded by The Shadows, a British group, and The Ventures, the song’s recording history features vocal versions by everyone from Desi Arnaz to Julie London to Ben E. King. With lyrics referring to betrayal by a beautiful woman, the song inspired the title of James Ellroy’s latest crime novel. Los Straitjackets do it as a quasi-ska tune.

Hearing words sung to these songs is truly a gas. Also admirable are the original arrangements on many of them. “Miserlou,” for instance, was originally a Greek song that spread to Turkey and the Arab world. In the ’60s it came to the U.S., thanks to Dick Dale’s classic surf-rock version. (Dale is of Lebanese descent.) Los Straitjackets turn it into an exercise in exotica that might remind Elvis Presley fans of the soundtrack from Harum Scarum. “Apache,” The Shadows’ biggest hit, is done here as a goofy faux-disco-rap number that’ll make you think of Blondie’s “Rapture.”

A couple of songs even get new titles with their new lyrics. “Hawaii Five-O,” The Ventures’ great television theme, becomes “You Can Count on Me,” with appropriately cheesy lyrics: “If you get in trouble, come on home to me/Whether I am near you, or across the sea.”

And The Tornados’ “Telstar” becomes “Magic Star,” with Dickerson singing even cheesier lyrics: “Magic star above, send a message to my love.” This isn’t the first time somebody’s put words to “Telstar,” though. Fans of the late Michael O’Donoghue’s 1979 dark comedy, Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video, should remember it as “The Haunting Theme Song,” the movie’s recurring strain in which Julius La Rosa sings, “that wacky world of Mondo Video.”

Two of my favorites here are songs that began life as Los Straitjackets originals: the cranked-up opening song, “Fury,” in which Dickerson borrows the pro-wrestler growl of The Novas’ garage-rock classic “The Crusher,” and “Kawanga,” in which Dickerson tips his hat to the vocal stylings of singer/drummer Steve Wahrer, of The Trashmen. The latter shouldn’t be surprising: Dickerson recorded an album, Bringing Back the Trash, with those “Surfin’ Bird” maniacs that was released earlier this year.

For the record, this isn’t the first time Los Straitjackets (probably the finest instrumental-rock guitar group of the past 20 years) have done an album with vocals.

Back in 2001, they hit us with Sing Along With Los Straitjackets, featuring a revolving cast of singers that included the likes of Dave Alvin, Nick Lowe, Raul Malo, and Reverend Horton Heat. The real show-stealer, though, was Mark Lindsay, of Paul Revere & the Raiders, who tore into Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right” with amazing energy. In 2007 came Rock en Espanol Vol. 1, which had Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos), Big Sandy (Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys), and Little Willie G. (Thee Midniters) taking turns singing Spanish versions of songs like “Hang on Sloopy,” “Dizzy, Miss Lizzy,” and — my favorite — Arthur Alexander’s “Anna,” sung by Little Willie.

As much as I admire the crack instrumental prowess of guitar stud Eddie Angel and the other Straitjackets, good vocals do nothing but add to my enjoyment of their sound.

Also recommended:

* 3: Trickgnosis by Churchwood. This band is from the Lone Star state and has its roots in blues rock, but this ain’t your average Texas blues band.

As the title suggests, this is the group’s third album. And, like its first two, it’s got cryptic but alluring lyrics — singer Joe Doerr, who wrote many of the words, is an English professor by day — with references to Gnosticism, voodoo, God, and Satan. Some kind of cosmic struggle seems to be playing out from song to song, though there’s no easy story line to grasp.

And, as Churchwood fans have come to expect, these weird tales are sung over musical backdrops with changing time signatures and unpredictable twists and turns, with nods to Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Pere Ubu (I hear this influence especially in the song “I Spit You Out”), and maybe even Mr. Bungle.

Churchwood’s two guitarists, Bill Anderson and Billysteve Korpi, lead each other down strange corridors — and yet the band maintains an undeniably rootsy quality.

There are several standout songs on Trickgnosis. The aforementioned “I Spit You Out” features Doerr singing like some high priest at the Temple of Doom sentencing a hapless sinner over Black Sabbath guitar riffs. “Chemtrailer Trash,” the song with the funniest title, is simple breakneck punk rock.

“Eminence Gris Gris” borrows the main hook of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” as Doerr tells the story of a New Orleans root doctor, while name-checking an actual hoodoo musician who died in 2011: “He got a cane and a turban, a little juju for the enemy/He got a sack full of mojo, a John the Conquer root, a marigold/He got a friend in Coco Robicheaux, the Loup Garou, and the cat bone.”

But my favorite, at least at the time of this writing, is “Hanged Man.” With its funky harmonica and horn section that punctuates the refrain, this upbeat number is the bluesiest track on the album. Doerr happily quotes from a famous scene in Touch of Evil before the story ends with murder and possibly suicide.

Churchwood is a band that never will find a place in the mainstream. But the group definitely deserves wider exposure. Every time I listen to Trickgnosis, I find more surprises that delight and amaze. For more on the band, including a fascinating interview with Doerr and Anderson, visit www.saustex.com/churchwood.html.

Video time!



And here's a Halloween party out of control with the 'jackets, Deke and The dadgum Fleshtones. (Miriam Linna of Norton Records, A-Bones etccan be seen among the onstage dancers.)



And here's a little Churchwood just to twist your head off:

THROWBACK THURSDAY: I'll See You in My Dreams

Back in the late '70s when local TV stations would actually shut down for a few hours at the end of the broadcast day, KOB TV in Albuquerque, following Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show for awhile signed off with a short music video.

The song was "I'll See You in My Dreams," a classic old crooner tune from the 1920s.  I don't know who performed the version used by Channel 4, but it featured a tenor crooning and cheesy skating-rink synth fills (mostly after the vocalist sang the word "dreams.")

This version skipped the (mostly forgotten) intro to the song and got straight to the verses:

I'll see you in my dreams
Hold you in my dreams
Someone took you right out of my arms
Still I feel the thrill of your charms

Lips that once were mine
Tender eyes that shine
They will light my way tonight
I'll see you in my dreams

The video consisted of various scenes in which a pair of woman's eyes would appear in the sky overhead.

For some reason, I became obsessed with the song as well as the cheaply-done video. I actually began looking forward to it and would refuse to turn off the television until it was over, often to my then-wife's consternation, ("Why do you like that stupid song?")

"I'll See You in My Dreams" was written by Isham Jones and lyricist Gus Kahn and published in 1924. Jones recorded it with the Ray Miller Orchestra (vocals by Frank Besinger) and had a number-one national hit with it the next year. Here's that version:



Lots of artists, well known and otherwise covered it. Louis Armstrong did an instrumental of it as did guitarist Django Reinhardt, who inspired a version by country artist Merle Travis.



My favorite take on this tune, however, goes back to 1930. That's the one by singer Cliff Edwards, also known as "Ukulele Ike." Even if you've never heard of Edwards, I'm almost certain you're very familiar with one of his songs. He was the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio in 1940. He sang "When You Wish Upon a Star."

So when you play the video below, imagine Disney's famous bug crooning it.



Although I can't imagine anyone replacing Edwards' "Dreams" as my favorite, some of my favorites have covered it. Bob Wills did a western-swing version, while Jerry Lee Lewis did a rocking instrumental. Leon Redbone, The Asylum Street Spankers and Dan Hicks (who injected it with some new lyrics, some scat-singing and hot guitar) all have felt the thrill of this song.

I did stumble across this lovely -- and I have to say, dreamy -- re-imagining by French-born singer Scarlett O'Hanna and Greek guitarist Panos Giannakakis from 2013:



See you in my dreams ...

For more on this song CLICK HERE

For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Check Out The New Look




I gotta admit that for the last several months -- o.k., dammit, years! -- I've kind of let this music blog slide. Sometimes for weeks at the time all I had here would be my radio show playlists and my Tuneup column.  

Pretty skimpy, I know. It became even more obvious a few months ago when I began doing Tune-up only every other week.

Finally last month I decided to force myself to create more content every week by adding two new features, Wacky Wednesday (some funny music to help you make it through the middle of the week) and Throwback Thursday (some fun musical history from long-gone eras). I'll also be looking for various other music-related things to post at other times during the week.

To mark these additions I decided to change the look of this joint, including a new collage for the header.

Remember, even though Terrell's Tune-up runs in the New Mexican, I do all this stuff on my own time. (And just to reiterate my disclaimer, the views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Santa Fe New Mexican or santafenewmexican.com (Same goes for KSFR. Don't blame them for anything weird I might post here.) 

And by the way, I recently got my own domain name for this blog: www.steveterrellmusic.com. It's still on Google blogger, at least for the time being, so the old link should still work. But if I decide to move on (after 11 years now!) the domain will still stay the same.

So keep coming back and tell your friends that The Stephen W. Terrell (MUSIC) Web Log is alive.


WACKY WEDNESDAY: Are You Ready, Hezzie?



Before there was Spike Jones, and long before there was the Bonzo Dog Band, there was The Hoosier Hot Shots, a band that bridged Vaudeville and Hollywood. A band in which the lead instruments were a clarinet and a slide whistle.

Behold:



Three of the four Hot Shots played together since the 1920s, playing the Vaudeville circuit as part of Ezra Buzzington's Rube Band. These were clarinet man Gabriel Ward and guitarist Ken Trietsch and his brother Paul "Hezzie" Trietsch, who, with his animated eyebrows, was the real comic of the group. He played the whistle as well as a souped-up washboard and an arsenal of bells. whistles and percussion. Frank Delaney later joined playing stand-up bass.

After the Great Depression killed off Vaudeville, the Hot Shots became national radio stars on the National Barn Dance, on WLS in Chicago and later as regulars on the Uncle Ezra Pinex Cough Syrup show on NBC.

They moved to Hollywood in the late '30s. There, they would appear in 22 films, mostly westerns, and "soundies" such as the above video of From the Indies to the Andes in His Undies.

A personal note about Hezzie Trietsch: When I was a kid and my grandmother was taking me somewhere, she'd often say, "Are you ready, Hezzie?" She'd just laugh when I'd ask who Hezzie was. It wasn't until well into my adulthood, when I discovered The Hoosier Hot Shots that it all became clear to me.

Cub Koda wrote in the All Music Guide:

Although nowhere near as wild as Spike Jones, nor possessing the `thinking man's hillbillies' personas of Homer & Jethro, it is impossible to think of either of those two acts existing -- much less prospering and finding an audience -- without the groundbreaking efforts of the Hoosier Hot Shots.

All true.

Here are a couple of more live songs from these Indiana crazies, "Darlin', You Can't Love But One" and a highly Hoosierized "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" :

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Make Your Road The Jukebox Highway

Interstate 10 in south Texas is a seriously boring stretch. But I learned a couple of days ago that it's far more bearable when you turn it into The Jukebox Highway.

To translate, during that part of the drive home from Austin I played some recent episodes of my old friend John Egenes' excellent radio show.

Longtime followers of Santa Fe music know that Egenes was for years an integral part of the local scene. A singer, guitarist and master of mandolin, dobro, banjo, steel guitar and more, he was in more bands than I can count. He moved to New Zealand a few years ago where he's got some academic gig. But he still plays and he's got this cool weekly radio show which is available worldwide via podcast.

Egenes has great taste in country, bluegrass and folk music. In the episodes I heard Sunday he played lots of old favorites like Buck Owens, Guy Clark, Lefty Frizzell, Uncle Tupelo, Dillard & Clark, Rhonda Vincent, etc. and recent favorites like Rachel Brooks. He also played some of his New Mexico cronies like Tom Adler and Wayne Shrubsall and some local New Zealand artists.

But I was most imressed that he played a George Jones that I was not familiar with. That's a wonderful murder ballad called "Open Pit Mine," which deals with a deadly love triangle in an Arizona copper-mining town.

In short, all fans of The Santa Fe Opry should check out The Jukebox Highway.  A bunch of recent episodes are HERE. You can subscribe HERE and you can find the playlists on the show's Facebook page. (Come on, press that LIKE button.)


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...