Thursday, June 04, 2015

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Rest in Peace Jean Ritchie

Jean Ritchie, an important figure in the New York folk revival -- and one of the sweetest voices ever captured on tape --  died Monday at the age of  92.

She one of 14 children in her family in Viper, Kentucky. Her dad let her play his dulcimer when she was seven years old. Now she's credited with reviving interest in that instrument.

Yes, Ritchie was a Kentucky farm girl. But she was no rustic bumpkin. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1946 with a degree in social work. She moved to New York City in the late '40s to work at  at the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side.

There, according to her obituary in the New York Times, "she routinely calmed the urban street children in her care with songs from the Cumberlands, which, with their haunting modal melodies and tales of simple pastimes, were so alien as to stun her young charges."

She became a regular on the Greenwich Village coffee house scene, did radio appearances with Oscar Brown and eventually was recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress.

Here's an appreciation by fellow Kentuckian Walter Tunis, a music writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. 

I've put together a Spotify playlist featuring about 35 minutes of her music.

Enjoy.

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Hot Smokin' Cigarette Songs


I don't smoke cigarettes and I never did.

But in the days before smoking bans, cigarettes -- made their smokey mark on various strands of American popular song.

Country singers poke fun at their addictive qualities. Sometimes their used as a metaphor of loneliness or a symptom of an empty, sinful life.

Listen to all of these tunes and you'll be coughing and hacking by the end of this blog post.

xxx

First let's start with the song that inspired this week's theme. A couple of weeks ago my old pal Mark asked me if I remembered a song that referred to a cigarette as something that had "fire on one end a fool on the other." I didn't recall this but went searching through cig songs to try to find it. Mark found it before I did, a novelty tune called "Cigareets & Whuskey and Wild, Wild Women." Mark found a good version by Ramblin; Jack Elliott. But I decided to use this goofy one by a group called Red Ingle & The Natural Seven. I never realized before that The Hombres lifted Ingle's introduction for the introduction to their own 1967 hit "Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out)."



I don't think hokum bluesman Bo Carter actually was singing about tobacco products in this 1936 love song, "Cigarette Blues."



One of the most famous country tunes about cigarettes was this talking song by Tex Williams, which he co-wrote with Merle Travis -- "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette."



Here's a sad and sultry one called "Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray" by Patsy Cline.



Tiny Tim (you've read about him recently) reached back to 1898 to find a song defending nicotine addiction with "Sly Cigarette," performed here with Brave Combo.



Speaking of sly, Robbie Fulks paid tribute to his boyhood home, the great state of North Carolina in his song, "Cigarette State."



I'm not sure where Ry Cooder found "Fool for a Cigarette," but it appeared on his album Paradise and Lunch as a medley with J.B. Lenoir's "Feelin' Good."



If  "Cigarettes and Coffee" were what powered Otis Redding, then they should be mandatory.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, May, 2015 
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

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Snake by Johnny Rivers
Shake Me by Motobunny
The Claw by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Glow in the Dark by Lovestruck
Walkin' with the Beast by Gun Club
Parts Unknown by Kid Congo Powers with Lydia Lunch
Who'd You Like to Love You by Li'l Wally

Wine Wine Wine by Bobby Fuller Four
Bad Bad Woman by The Molting Vultures
Red Rose by Lisa Doll & Rock 'n' Roll Romance
Local Dive by Lawn Chair Kings
I Got Eyes For You by The Gories
Dirty Hands by Black Lips
Zombie Island by Jonny Manak & The Depressives
Elephant Stomp by Left Lane Cruiser
I'm Insane by T-Model Ford
The Lord is Coming Back by Reverend Beat-Man & The Un-Believers

GOSPEL SET

Don't Drive Your Children Away by Isaac Freeman & The Bluebloods
I Want Two Wings by Rev. Utah Smith
God's New Building by Little Midget & The Morning Stars
I Am Willing to Run All the Way by B.B. King
Feel Like Holdin' On by Valerie Mathis
Let Me Lean On You by Christian All Stars of Akron, Ohio
Help Me by Lula Collins
Something Within Me by Jubilee Hummingbirds featuring Rev. E.L. Whitaker
By and By by Katie Jackson with The Campbell Brothers
I'm a Soldier by The Original Blind Boys of Mississippi
What He's Done for Me by The Famous Davis Sisters

Sweeping Exit by Jody Porter
Drowning Man by Stan Ridgway
Fannin Street by Tom Waits
Innocent When You Dream by Kazik Strazewski
Surf's Up by Brian Wilson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, May 29, 2015

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

UPDATED with Mixcloud player for Slackeye Slim segment

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Friday, May 29, 2015 
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:

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
The Omninous Anthropophageous Slackeye Slim by The Misery Jackals
Slackeye Slim Live Set
Cowboy Song
Where the Wind Will Let Me Go
Vengeance Be Thy Name
Looks Like I Killed Again (from album)
Don't Touch My Horse
Introducing Drake Savage (from album)

Honky Tonk Maniac from Mars by Jason Ringenberg
Take Me to the Fires by The Waco Brothers
Nashville Casualty and Life by Kinky Friedman
The Love-in by Ben Colder
Me and The Whiskey by Whitey Morgan
I Can't Hold Myself in Line by Frontier Circus
North to Alaska by Johnny Horton

Marie Laveau by Bobby Bare
Weather Woman by The Gourds
Chick Singer, Badass Rocker by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Born to Boogie by Texas Marty & The House of Twang
Be My Ball and Chain by Brennen Leigh & Noel McKay
Cool Rockin' Loretta by Joe Ely
Two Dollar Bill by Paula Rhae McDonald

In My Arms Once Again by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Some of Shelly's Blues by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Cheater's World by Amy Allison & The Maudlins
Feeling Mortal by Kris Kristofferson
Drinkin' Thing by Gary Stewart
I've Got a Tender Heart by Merle Haggard
The Selfishness in Man by George Jones
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Updated: Here's the first hour -- with the Slackeye Slim set -- via Mixcloud




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SLACKEYE SLIM LIVE ON THE SANTA FE OPRY

The mysterious Slackeye Slim will play LIVE on the Santa Fe Opry tonight, Friday, May 29 on KSFR.

The show starts at 10 p.m. Mr. Slim will go on 10 or 15 minutes after that.

Slackeye, known in the mundane world as Joe Frankland is responsible for at least three albums -- Texas Whore Pleaser, El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa, and, his most recent effort, Giving My Bones to the Western Lands. (Follow the links to my reviews of the last two.)

Basically his albums are the musical equivalent to dark, troubling western movies, wild tales full of harsh landscape, desperate anti-heroes. Sometimes the songs are full of savage violence. Sometimes they're just soul-searching reflections by men with broken hearts (to sneak in a Hank Williams reference.) And many of his melodies are nothing short of gorgeous.

Slackeye's originally from Ohio, but like the troubled transients he sings about, Slackeye has knocked around the west these past few years, living in Montana, Colorado and now New Mexico.

So tune in tomorrow night and hear Slackeye Slim's songs and stories. You can listen live on KSFR's website, or, if you live in  northern New Mexico and parts of Albuquerque, at 101.1 FM.

I have one listener down there who tells me he sometimes drives out to the West Mesa to listen to my show on his car radio.

Tonight would be a great night to do that.

You can listen -- and buy (what a radical idea!) Slackeye Slim's most recent works HERE.

And meanwhile, here's one of his real purdy songs:



Thursday, May 28, 2015

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Songs Tiny Taught Us

Tiny Tim from his debut album God Bless Tiny Tim

Whatever you say about Herbert Boutros Khaury, better known as Tiny Tim, you have to admit that the man knew a lot about old popular songs, especially those from the the first three or four decades of the 20th  Century.

Below are a bunch of Tiny's songs as done by the original -- or at least much earlier -- artists. All but one of the following were on Tiny's first album, God Bless Tiny Tim.

Tiny loved these tunes and so do I.

"Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" was written by a couple of guys named Al (Sherman and Lewis) for the 1930 movie, The Big Pond, which starred Maurice Chevalier. Tiny Tim was exposed, so to speak, to whole new generation when his version was used in the very first episode of Spongebob Squarepants.

But Maurice did a good job too.



I once saw Ozzie Nelson sing a version of "Out on the Old Front Porch" on some late-night talk show. I think it was on Joey Bishop' show. Maybe Harriet was there too, I don't remember. But this one goes way back to at least 1913 when Billy Murray did it as a duet with Ada Jones.

Tiny of course didn't do a duet. He sang all the parts himself, including the angry father.



Tiny did a pretty warped cover of  "On the Good Ship Lollipop" on his first appearance on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.  He also recorded it for his 1969 children's album For All My Little Friends. 

The original version, of course, was by America's little friend, Shirley Temple, who sang in in her 1934 movie Bright Eyes.



Tiny reached way far back for "Then I'd Be Satisfied with Life," 1903 to be exact. It was written by George M. Cohan, the same guy who wrote "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There." This version is by S.H. Dudley.

One major change Tiny made in his version.  Dudley wants "an heiress" for his wife. But Tiny wants Tuesday Weld!



And Tiny also did a little number called "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." Here is the original, as performed by Nick Lucas, the Crooning Troubadour, in the movie Gold Diggers of Broadway.

Tiny Tim's brief brush with fame even got Lucas a spot on The Tonight Show in 1969.




Here is my Wacky Wednesday post from a few months ago about the time Camper Van Beethoven played with Tiny Tim.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Bad TV Shows, Worse Theme Songs

Before you start watching the videos of the bad television themes below, indulge me in a couple of creative musical exercises:

1) Think of the melody to "House of the Rising Sun." Now think of someone singing the Gilligan's Island theme to that melody. (Hey, it works better than "Stairway to Heaven.")

2) Now imagine The Pogues singing the theme, Shane MacGowan slurring all the lyrics, to The Brady Bunch.

I apologize if you can't get those out of your head all day.

The point is, I'm a fan of TV themes, even, in a weird way, the bad ones. I think about them way too much.

The Too Many Cooks video that swept the Internet late last year was a wonderful satire of cheesy boob-tube theme songs, especially from the late '70s and '80s. (If you're one of the last six Americans who hasn't seen or heard this CLICK HERE.)

But here a bunch of theme songs -- from shows that mostly were flops -- that still haunt my nightmares.

First, I give you My Mother the Car, a Jerry Van Dyke vehicle (pun intended) that ran on NBC from late 1965 through the spring of 1966.

Many years ago, George R.R. Martin (sorry for the gratuitous name-dropping)  made me laugh out loud when he said that that the funniest thing about My Mother the Car was that serious men with briefcases and expensive suits at NBC had to have had several intense meetings to develop this show.

The entire premise of this clunker is explained in the theme song.



Phyllis (1975-77) has the distinction of being the worst of the Mary Tyler Moore Show spin-offs. (Hey, I liked Lou Grant!) The opening theme actually was kind of clever. But still ... Phyllis.



The mid '60s hit series Batman had one of the coolest theme songs in TV history. Written by Neal Hefti, this instrumental was covered by The Ventures and even Iggy Pop, who did a live version. But that makes the theme song of Batman's far-less successful spin- off Batgirl even more deplorable. For one thing, they gave it lyrics -- lyrics like "Are you a chick who fell in from outer space? Or are you real with a tender warm embrace?" Holy crap on a cracker, Batman!



Besides Batgirl,  Batman's success, inspired other superhero shows on network TV. NBC's answer was a bad comedy called  Captain Nice. At least Batgirl was easier to look at than this mercifully short-lived series. And the theme song was nearly as terrible.



F Troop's stereotypical treatment of Native Americans would never fly today. Just ask Adam Sandler. Of course the only people dumber than the Hekawi tribe, for the most part, are the white soldiers at Fort Courage.

I have to admit, I kind of liked this show when I was a kid. It was better than My Mother the Car anyway. Still, the mock-heroic theme song from the first season is pretty clunky.



B.J. and The Bear was an NBC comedy about a truck driver and his chimpanzee. It debuted in 1979, a year after Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way But Loose, a comedy about a truck driver and his orangutan.  (It was not a rip-off. Chimps and orangutans are completely different animals.)

And yes, the theme song sucked. "New dreams and better scenes/ And best of all I don't pay property tax," the show's leading man, Greg Evigan sang.

I don't know, but I think even Grover Norquist would rather pay property tax than to be stuck in the cab of a truck with a damned chimpanzee day in and day out.

The song loses even more points when you compare it with the theme of an earlier NBC truck-drivin' comedy Movin' On, -- which was written and sung by Merle Haggard.



All parents make mistakes, but I can proudly say that I never inflicted Lamb Chop's Play-Along (PBS, 1992-97) on either of my children. But I must admit, the theme song is a showcase for one of the pioneers of Caucasian hip-hop: Shari Lewis.



And I agree with this next one. Eight IS enough of these horrible tunes.

But may you spend your Wacky Wednesday like a bright and shiny new dime!




Monday, May 25, 2015

It's True: My Podcast Has Gone to the Dogs!


THE BIG ENCHILADA



Woof! This podcast has gone to the dogs. But that's not a bad thing. I've barked up the right tree searching for howlin' good rockin' tunes.

 SUBSCRIBE TO ALL GARAGEPUNK PIRATE RADIO PODCASTS |

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Dog Eat Dog by Brass Liberation Orchestra)
Baby I'm Your Dog by Stomping Nick & His Blues Grenade
Duct Tape Love by HeWhoCannotBeNamed
Spider and Fly by Motobunny
Say You're Sorry by The Remains
J'vais M'en J'ter un Derrière by Tony Truant & The Fleshtones
Volare by The Drifting Mines

(Background Music: Bulldog by The Fireballs)
Underdog by The Dirtbombs
Heavy Honey by Left Lane Cruiser
That's Mighty Childish by The Mummies
The Headless Flowerpot Girl by Wild Billy Chyldish 
Total Destruction of Your Mind by Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires
Bless You by The Devil Dogs

(Background Music: Dog Breath in the Year of The Plague by The Mothers of Invention)
Deputy Dog by The Great Gaylord & The Frigss
Motor Pyscho by Rattface
Bomb Squad by Gas Huffer
Saint Dee by The Bloodhounds
You Bring Me Down by Jonny Manak & The Depressives
Hound Dog by '68 Comeback
(Background Music: Taylor's Rock by Hound Dog Taylor)

Play it below


Sunday, May 24, 2015

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, May 24, 2015 
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; 

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres 

After the Rain by Mission of Burma

God is a Bullet by Concrete Blonde

Goo Goo Muck by The Cramps

Miniskirt Blues by Simon Stokes

Suicide in a Bottle by Evil Idols

Baby Doll by Horror Deluxe

Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson

Spider and Fly by Motobunny

Milkshake 'n' Honey by Sleater-Kinney

Whammy Kiss by The B-52s


Inside Looking Out by Chesterfield Kings 

Time Will Tell by Handsome Jack

Take Me to Our Place by Jonny Manak & The Depressives

Mean and Evil by Juke Joint Pimps

Total Destruction to Your Mind by Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires 

Oh Wendy, Let's Stay Out All Night by The A-Bones

Do the Get Down by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Designed to Kill by James Chance

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB DYLAN

Maggie's Farm by Bob Dylan

The Wicked Messenger by The Black Keys

Thunder on the Mountain by Bob Dylan

Don't Think Twice by Mike Ness

Dignity by Bob Dylan

Every Grain of Sand by Giant Sand

Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Reprise) by Bob Dylan & The Band


That Knucklehead Stuff by Chuck E. Weiss

Borracho Mark Lanegan

That Lucky Old Sun by Bob Dylan

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, May 22, 2015

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


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Friday, May 22, 2015 
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:

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

Vengeance Gonna Be My Name by Slackeye Slim

Daddy Was a Preacher, Mama Was a Go-Go Girl by Southern Culture on the Skids

Hard Times by Jon Langford

Tulsa by Wayne Hancock

Trailer Mama by The Bottle Rockets

Big Ol' White Boys by Terry Allen

What Kinda Guy? by Steve Forbert

The Rubber Room by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole


Hey Mama My Time Ain't Long / Snake Farm by Ray Wylie Hubbard 

Falling Off of the World by Chipper Thompson

Give Back the Key to My Heart by Uncle Tupelo

The Devil Ain't Lazy by Asleep At the Wheel with The Blind Boys of Alabama

Ditty Wah Ditty by Ry Cooder

Liquor and Whores by The Misery Jackals


Kansas Women by Two Ton Strap

Don't Give a Damn by Honky Tonk Hustlas

Ready to Run by Jimbo Mathus

The Hoover Farm Exorcism by The Imperial Rooster

The Road Goes On Forever by The Highwaymen

Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes by The Rizdales

I'll Be There (If Ever You Want Me) by John Fogerty

There's No Fool Like an Old Fool by Ray Price

The Genitalia of a Fool by Cornell Hurd with Justin Trevino

 

Legend in My Time by Don Walser

Train of Life by Merle Haggard

When Two Worlds Collide by Roger Miller

The Last Kind Words by David Johansen & The Harry Smiths

Geeshie by The Mekons

Dying Breed by Allison Moorer

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...