Sunday, September 13, 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
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
We Live Dangerous The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Heavy Honey by Left Lane Cruiser
Heebie Jeebies by The Gun Club
Flesh Eating Cocaine Blues by Daddy Long Legs
Rattle Snakin' Daddy Dave & Phil Alvin
Mississippi Drinkin' by John The Conqueror
I'm Cryin' by The Animals
I'm Insane by T-Model Ford
Don't Save it Too Long by Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends
Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White by The Standells
Chillidos de la Noche by Los Eskeletos
A Question of Temperature by Balloon Farm
Lesson of Crime by YVY
Johnny Gillette by Simon Stokes
Strychnine by The Fall
Livin' in Chaos by The Sonics
Used to Be Cool by Sons of Hercules
I Couldn't Spell !!*@! by Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows
I'll Be Alright by Terrence Trent D'Arby
Psychologically Overcast by Fishbone
2 Nigs United 4 West Compton by Prince
Three Hairs and You're Mine by King Khan & The Shrines
Incarceration Casserole by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Man With Soul by Alex Maiorano & The Black Tales
Everybody Wanna Get Rich Rite Away by Dr. John
Meth of a Rockette's Kick by Mercury Rev
Me and Max by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
Widow's Grove by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
UPDATED: I corrected the date of the Sons of Royalty show! A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican September 11, 2015
Bobby Tench, Papa George, Pete Rees of Sons of Royalty
A ragtag band of British bikers on holiday are tearing through the West — from San Francisco to Santa Fe — while trying to live some crazy rock ’n’ roll dream. The tour features The Sons of Royalty, a grizzled group of rockers whose members have backed an amazing array of famous acts.
How can we stop this hog-riding menace?
Don’t stop ’em. Join ’em.
For one thing, even though they’re bound to raise some hell, they’re also raising money for charity. The Sons of Royalty will be hitting Skylight in Santa Fe next Saturday, (Sept. 19), for a night of blues-rock and good times.
The British bikers (and participants who choose to travel by car) who are taking part in the tour have agreed to pledge at least 1,000 pounds to the ChildLine Rocks program, which is a free, confidential helpline for children and teenagers in the United Kingdom, part of Great Britain’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In Santa Fe, proceeds from ticket sales will go to La Luz de Santa Fe Family Shelter.
According to the Sons’ website:
“This year is the fifth Great British Invasion and sees the event head to the west of America for more Harley-based japes involving incredible rides and, quite possibly, the firing of guns (legally, of course). You’ll fly into San Francisco in mid-September and from there it’s an 11-day exploration on two wheels, taking in Yosemite, Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Route 66, the Sandia Mountains, and New Mexico (Breaking Bad country).”
The trip has been dubbed “Standing on the Corner: In the Footsteps of Bobby Troup.” If you don’t get the reference, he’s the guy who wrote the song “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66.”
Last year, the invasion was a trip through the South, including stops at Sun Studios in Memphis and actor Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Freeman himself appeared at that event, and the Sons of Royalty website implies that he might show up this year, telling potential travelers to bring extra cash for “all the drinks you’ll want to buy Morgan Freeman.”
I dunno.
You might not be familiar with the names of the individual Sons of Royalty, who have also played together under the name the Barnes Blues Band. But they have backed several big-time stars.
Mama Royalty's baby boys
Guitarist and singer Bobby Tench, for example, has been a member of the Jeff Beck Group and he has recorded with the late Texas blues great Freddie King, Van Morrison (he played lead guitar on the Wavelength album), Eric Burdon, Humble Pie, reggae singer Junior Marvin (best known for his Clash-covered song “Police and Thieves”), and too many others to count. But having just recently seen the documentary Beware of Mr. Baker, I’m most impressed with the fact that Tench played, under the name Bobby Gass, on a 1972 Ginger Baker album (Stratavarious) with Nigerian wizard Fela Ransome-Kuti.
Keyboardist Tim Hinkley has earned a reputation as an ace studio musician, appearing on the Rolling Stones’ Some Girls album, the Who’s Quadrophenia film soundtrack, and records by R & B great Esther Phillips, Thin Lizzy, Humble Pie, Bad Company, and Alvin Lee. Hinkley also once backed Tom Waits on a British television special.
The other Sons aren’t slouches either.
The second guitarist/singer in the group, Papa George, has built a cult following as a blues artist. He started playing as a teenager at a Knightsbridge restaurant called the Borshtch ’n’ Tears. (Now that’s the blues!) And here is a local connection: In 2004 the guitarist played on the soundtrack of a movie called World Without Waves, which won the Best Southwest Film award at the Santa Fe Film Festival that year.
Sons bassist Pete Rees was a member of British bluesman (and former Thin Lizzy guitarist) Gary Moore’s band for 13 years, while drummer Darby Todd has backed the likes of Robert Plant, Ronnie Wood, and founding Animal Alan Price on stage.
The Sons of Royalty will be hitting Skylight (139 W. San Francisco St.) 7 pm Sept. 19, Tickets are $20.
Early this year, guitarist Josh Peyton and his band (wife Breezy Peyton on washboard and vocals and Ben Bussell on drums) unleashed their latest album, So Delicious, on the reconstituted Yazoo label. (The original Yazoo, which started in the 1960s, specialized in compiling old blues, hillbilly, and early jazz 78s.)
That seems appropriate for the Peyton crew. While the musicians are from Indiana, their heart is in the Mississippi Delta, and their sound harks back to those earthy sounds that came out of that region 80 years ago.
Rev. Peyton in Santa Fe a few years ago
So Delicious continues the basic sound the Big Damn Band is known for, kicking off with the chunka-chunka rhythm of “Let’s Jump a Train,” which has a guitar hook similar to that of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Green River.” There is some (so) delicious slide guitar on “Raise a Little Hell,” while “Pot Roast and Kisses” continues Peyton’s tradition of linking romance and food. (See “Mama’s Fried Potatoes” from their 2008 album Whole Fam Damnily.)
Strangely, the most mellow song on the new album is called “Scream at the Night.” It’s downright pretty.
So Delicious is a fine album, and I’m hoping that at the Albuquerque show, the Reverend reaches back and does what I still consider the group’s greatest song: “Your Cousin’s on Cops,” which, yes, is about realizing the bad boy being busted on the TV show is a relative.
xxxx
As for The Imperial Rooster, word is the Rev. Peyton gig will be their last one for some time. They've been playing only occasionally for the last year or so.
Another thing: I just found out last night -- way after I filed the print version of this column -- that none other than Slackeye Slim will be sitting in with the Rooster -- on music saw! Video time!
Here is The Sons of Royalty's Tench and Papa George in action a couple of years ago.
Here's some Pot Roast and Kisses by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Bad
And here's our beloved Rooster playing at last year's Muddy Roots Festival
This month marks the 122nd anniversary of the birth of Blind Lemon Jefferson (Sept. 24) and the 70th anniversary of the death of Blind Willie Johnson (Sept. 18).
Sounds like a good time to celebrate the music of blind American country bluesmen.
There have been blind musicians basically every since there has been music. But in the American South in the early part of the last century there arose a tradition in which visually-impaired blues singers proudly proclaimed their disability and added "blind" to their names.
Or at least their record companies did.
I'm not sure whether being known as "Blind" Blake or "Blind"
Willie McTell actually helped record sales in those days. But these singers and the others below created some mighty fine tunes and American music would have been much poorer without them.
Let's start with Mr. Jefferson (1893 to 1929), a Texan who, yes, was really named "Lemon." He sang gospel as well as the blues. He began recording in 1925. This one comes from 1926
Blind Blake, aka Arthur Blake (1896-1934), came from Florida or virginia, depending who you believe. He recorded about 80 tracks for Paramount in the 20s and early 30s. Here he's singing a song that's been covered by lots of blues, jazz, jugband and country singers.
Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945) also came from Texas. Most of his songs were religious but his slide guitar was pure blues.
The other Blind Willie probably is better known, Bob Dylan said it best: "I know no one can sing the blues / Like Blind Willie McTell." McTell (1898 to 1959) hailed from Georgia. He was known for picking a 12-string guitar. Here's a snappy little murder ballad that's best known for its versions by Johnny Cash.
Blind Boy Fuller (1907-1941) was a North Carolina bluesman whose real name was Fulton Allen. He wasn't born blind, but began to lose his eyesight as a teenager. He became known for his "hokum" numbers -- i.e. dirty songs. And he was good at it. Here is one of my favorites.
My token Caucasian here, Blind Alfred Reed, (188--1956), was an influential hillbilly singer from West Virginia. This next song has been covered by Ry Cooder and The Del Lords among others. It's a true anthem of the Great Depression.
Besides blind singers, in the realm of gospel music there also have been blind vocal groups. The most famous is The Five Blind Boys of Alabama. Leader Clarence Fountain still has an active group by that name. But my favorite is Archie Brownlee & The Original Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Brownlee was born in 1925 and died in 1960. He was discovered by Alan Lomax singing with other students at Mississippi Blind School for Negroes, which was part of Piney Woods School near Jackson, Miss. Lomax recorded them in 1937. Heres a Blind Boys classic.
If you live in Chicago and you love rock 'n' roll, chances are you're well acquainted with a cable access show called Chic-a-Go-Go. The show bills itself as "Chicago's Dance Show for Kids of All Ages."
Drawing from legendary dance programs like Soul Train and American Bandstand, as well as Chicago's own 1960s shows Kiddie-A-Go-Go and Red Hot and Blues, CHIC-A-GO-GO combines classic TV entertainment with an original, quirky style. And unlike its dance show ancestors, CHIC-A-GO-GO takes advantage of its non-commercial home on the Chicago Access Network to create a diverse TV world that does not have to focus on a single demographic. People of all ages, colors, and backgrounds, linked by their love of music, dance together in harmony on the CHIC-A-GO-GO set. The dancers, who range in age from newborns to youthful seniors, move to the latest Hip Hop music, as well as classic R&B, Rock & Roll, Punk, Funk, and all points in between.
Nobunny does it for the children
The show was the brainchild of Roctober magazine's Jake Austen after writing an article on Kiddie-A-Go-Go.
I'm not sure whether Chic-a-Go-Go is still a going concern, Neither its website nor Roctober's has been updated in more than a year.
But YouTube gives al things a measure of immortality, so on this Wacky Wednesday enjoy some of my favorite clips from Chic-a-Go-Go.
First, there's the ever delightful Nobunny who urges the kids to "Bang a gong to the Son of Sam ..." The kids here seem a little apprehensive -- except the little girl wants to squeeze his snoot.
Hunx & His Punx have played on the show many times
Neil Hamburger does his best to depress the kiddies with one of his sad country songs.
There also are interview segments with an obnoxious puppet named Lil' Ratso. Here, in this 2008 clip, Ratso meets The Cramps.
Here's an interview by Lil' Ratso with Pere Ubu's David Thompson. Thomas warns the children to stay away from musicians, and don't become a musician: "Self expression should be left to the professionals. We're the only ones who can deal with the disappointment."
Then, watch the kids dance to a song by Pere Ubu. Later there's an appearance by a band called Zolar X that sounds pretty cool
Shortly before I left my house to go do Terrell's Sound World at KSFR last night, I stumbled upon a two-part article by Steven L. Jones on the ever-bitchen Murder Ballad Monday blog: "How Charles Manson Murdered the '60s."
I've been a fan of that blog since earlier this year when I was writing about a bloody old murder ballad for a Throwback Thursday.
Murder Ballad Monday is part of The Sing Out website. Sing Out is a decades-old folk music publication, and indeed, most of the murder ballads covered there are traditional folk tunes. But not all of them.
Part one of the Manson story I found last night started out talking about an old Sonic Youth tune, "Death Valley '69" from their Bad Moon Rising album. (I got this vision of a frantic Pete Seeger having a Newport flashback and trying to unplug Sonic Youth with an ax.)
And hey, I just noticed that the first comment on Part One was none other than Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family! (She's a fellow New Mexican too.)
Anywho, Jones' Manson pieces inspired me to slap together a set for my radio show last night, using some of the songs he talked about plus some other tunes. I just posted that set on Mixcloud.
UPDATED! You can hear the Charlie Manson set on the music player at the bottom of this post
Sunday, September 6, 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 OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Let's Jump a Train by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Lonesome Town by Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater with Los Straitjackets
Treat Her Right by Los Straitjackets with Mark Lindsay
Mister Kicks by Dave & Phil Alvin
Down and Out by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The Chase by Paul Preston
Adjunct Street by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Let's Get Wild by Rudy Grayzell
Bless You by The Devil Dogs
El Preso by Al Hurricane
Saved by The Woggles
Spin That Girl by Lovestruck
Too Much of You by Thee Fine Lines
Lemonade Man by The Electric Mess
Rickshaw Rattletrap by Churchwood
Corner of Fuck and You by The Grannies
Hawkeye the Gnu by The Bonzo Dog Band
Mother Loves Her Children by Leo Welch
Charlie Manson Murdered the 60s
Death Valley 69 by Sonic Youth with Lydia Lunch
Revolution Blues by Neil Young
Never Learn Not to Love by The Beach Boys
Cease to Exist by Charles Manson
Charles Manson Blues by The Flaming Lips
Helter Skelter by The Beatles
Rock 'n' Roll Murder by The Leaving Trains
White Light/White Heat by Lou Reed
Boom Boom/Strange Brew by Buddy Guy
Red Head Walking by Beat Happening
Psychedelic Baby by Rodd & The Librettos
Wish That I Was Dead by The Dwarves
I Want You by David Lynch
When I Wake by Holly Golightly CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Sept. 4, 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
Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash
Fiesta by ThaMuseMeant
The One That Got Away by Legendary Shack Shakers
Granny Panties by Broomdust Caravan
Marijuana the Devil's Flower by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Marijuana the Devil Flower by Johnny Price
LSD by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
A Fool Such as I by Marti Brom
Honky Tonk Man by Johnny Horton
The Night That Porter Wagner Came to Town by Tabby Crabbe
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican September 4, 2015
The late Audrey Auld talks to inmates about songwriting
A few months before she died, Tasmanian-born country singer Audrey Auld emailed DJs who play independent and alternative country music with information on her new album, Hey Warden. It contained the following message for media folks: “My hard truth is that I’m paying huge medical bills and am unable to mail out promo copies of the CD. … Thanks for your understanding.” She included a link to her Dropbox with songs, MP3s, photos, etc. Huge medical bills. That was the first time I realized she’d been ill. Last month Auld died from cancer in California, where she’d lived for the past year or so. She was fifty-one. Her last album, only eight songs, is one of her best. And I’m not just being sentimental. Hey Warden is a unique work, one that’s truly worthy to remember her by. It’s a prison album. Several musicians have recorded albums at correctional facilities. The two best known are Johnny Cash — whose At San Quentin and At Folsom Prison are among his best records — and B.B. King, whose Live in Cook County Jail was my introduction to the bluesman some 45 years ago. Auld’s album was recorded in a studio, not a prison. But five of its songs were co-written by San Quentin inmates. After playing a show in the prison several years ago, Auld was inspired to begin teaching songwriting workshops for inmates there. According to the press release for Hey Warden, “Participants would include those who had never written creatively or shared their writing with anyone, to experienced musicians who wrote and played in a band within the prison’s walls. Audrey would initiate the writing session with a song swap, and then propose an idea or a title to explore in writing.”
After each session Auld gathered song lyrics from prisoners who offered them to her. At home, she’d edit the inmates’ work and add melodies. The inmates’ names are on the songwriter credits (and I assume they get royalties). The results are pretty impressive. The title song was the first song to come out of the workshops. “I hadn’t hosted a songwriting workshop before so I decided to give them the first line of each verse over a simple blues structure and see what happened.” Like the best of blues songs, the lyrics use wry humor to cope with grim realities. “Hey hey warden, can I borrow the keys?/Open up this old cellblock/Where the screws feed rats their cheese/Then I’ll head down to San Antone/Eat my Mama’s black-eyed peas.” There isn’t much humor in “I Am Not What I Have Done.” Accompanied by just an acoustic guitar, Auld sings the tale of an inmate who knows he’s done wrong. “Drugs filled the void and crazy filled my head/I lost all my faith, I wanted her dead.” But he still tries to keep some sense of dignity. “Now I’m a killer, not a man/I’m a convict, not a son/I’m a felon, the bad guy, outcast/I am not what I have done.” One of the most gut-wrenching tunes is “Poor Joe.” In the press release, Auld wrote that it was inspired by a letter from one of her workshop participants who was “on the precipice of taking [his] own life.” Poor Joe apparently had some unrealistic fantasies about his songwriting teacher. ‘But Joe, I have a husband dear/Joe, I am a wife/He’s the one who shares my songs/It’s he who holds me tight.” In the song, Auld encourages Joe to take his “darkest pain and turn it into light.” Another song here is “Bread and Roses.” No, it’s not that great old labor song; it’s one Auld wrote herself, inspired by the Bread and Roses organization through which she did her prison songwriting classes. She got the idea for the song from the prison’s list of dos and don’ts she received when she started the program. These included a rule that she couldn’t bring any gifts for the inmates. “If I could bring you anything, I’d bring a banquet for a king ... I’d have made you a cake, but the hacksaw didn’t fit the pan ... But all I could bring was my guitar and my songs/Bread and roses for the wayward/Been hungry so long.” Auld kept bringing that gift to the inmates even as her cancer advanced. She managed to perform again at San Quentin twice more this year since the album came out, once in March, when she did a show in the prison’s Catholic chapel, playing new songs and showing the video for “I Am Not What I Have Done” for a small audience; then in April, when she did a concert in the prison yard along with other performers for San Quentin’s annual Day of Peace celebration. With this album, all her fans can share her gift. If you ask me, Audrey Auld was a Tasmanian angel. Video time! Here are some of Audrey's tunes, starting with the official one for "I AM Not What I Have Done." Here is a live version of "Hey Warden" performed with Felix Lucero, one of the inmates who'd help write it. This was Lucero's first gig as a free man.
And here is an older tune with a special message from the heart.
This is for all my friends who have birthdays in September. I was born in September. So was my brother and my grandfather.
Here are some wonderful American songs that celebrate this ninth month of the year.
Let's start with the old Schnozzola himself, Jimmy Durante, singing one of his signature tunes, written by by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. It was first recorded in 1938 by Walter Huston. But I'll take Durante's cover.
Here's one from the 1960 off-Broadway musical The Fantastiks. It's sung by original cast member Jerry Orbach, who Law and Order fans will recognize as the actor who played Lenny Briscoe, the alcoholic wise-cracking police detective with the sad eyes and dark humor. ("Hope this doesn’t become habit forming," Lenny said over the corpse of a murdered nun.)
This song originally was done in 1959 by a long-forgotten vocal group called The Tempos. But I prefer the version done several years ago by a group called The Happenings.
Now let's end this September salute with some disco-tinged funk from the late '70s with Earth, Wind and Fire.
Sunday, August 30th was the 72nd birthday of one of America's greatest cartoonists, Robert Crumb.
Though best known for his work in the 1960s underground comix scene and his iconic characters like Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural (and his disciple/victim, Flakey Foont) Crumb also is a musician -- and one with real vision.
Basically, he's a devotee of old jazz, blues and hillbilly music from the 78 rmp era. He's created several decks of cards featuring his portraits of his early musical heros.
And he's done lots of album covers, his most famous being Cheap Thrills for Big Brother & The Holding Company in 1968. (He liked Janis Joplin but didn't care much for her band.)
Around the same time, Crumb started his own band.
He talked about that in a 2013 interview in Red Bull Music Academy: There were no musical influences around me at all but I remember having this really strong urge to make music. I was always fooling around with music. When I met my first wife she was part of the folk music scene in Cleveland so I kind of appropriated her guitar and started figuring out a few chords. Then when I moved to San Francisco in ‘67 it was the first time I got together with other guys who were serious about playing old time music and it was still the folk era, so the jug band thing had some popularity. So I started fooling around with these guys and we became The Cheap Suit Serenaders.
So happy belated birthday, Mr. Crumb. I salute you with your own songs.
This one's called "Hula Girl."
A lot of people call this next one "Pink Burrito," though its real name is "Get a Load of This."
Another favorite, the Serenaders' cover of a 1931 Henry Roy song about a cat.
Crumb sometimes collaborates with the New York-based East River String Band. Here's a live song.
Crumb moved to France in the early '90s. He became enamored of the French musette music of the 1930s and by end of the decade he was playing with a group called Les Primitifs du Future, with who he released an album in 2000 called World Musette. Get a load of this!
