Wednesday, November 16, 2016
WACKY WEDNESDAY: Another Year of Wacky!
It's been two years since I started the Wacky Wednesday feature on this blog.
Wacky Wednesday, was created "to introduce you, the reader to strange, funny and/or confounding music -- the type of "unclaimed melodies" that the Firesign Theatre's Don G. O'Vani was talking about when he said, `if you were to go into a record store and ask for them they would think you were crazy!' "
We've seen a lot of wackiness since Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. Last year about this time I did a Wacky Wednesday best-of. Guess what ... I'm doing it again.
Here's a sampling of wacky memories from the past year, including that time we heard some singing clowns
We had fun with Mash-ups
We heard songs by music greats as performed by the international stars who loved them. Here's a Beatles song by Bollywood titans Mohammad Rafi & Asha Bhosle
And here's a Hank Williams favorite by a Swedish group, The Long Gone Smiles
We payed tribute to The Marx Brothers
And Jimmy Durante
And Napoleon XIV
And we still had time for karaoke nightmares. Amanda, light of my life!
And whatever the Hell this is ....
Stay wacky, my friends. It may keep you from going crazy.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016
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
Look at that Moon by Carl Mann
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival
No Trash by Mystic Braves
More You Talk Less I Hear You by The Devils
Carol Anne by Thee Oh Sees
Hey Sailor by The Detroit Cobras
Take Me to My Place by Jonny Manak & The Depressives
Look in the Mirror by Gregg Turner
Feel So Good by Shirley & Lee
Geraldine by The A-Bones
Rock 'n' Roll Deacon by Screamin' Joe Neal
Love to Love by Miriam
And Satan is Her Name by The Cavemen
Sick When I See by Women Discord
My Shadow by Jay Reatard
Down on the Street by The Stooges
Sick by James Williamson & Maia
Baby Let's Play House by Arthur Gunter
Sag by Churchwood
LEONARD COHEN TRIBUTE
(All songs by Leonard, except where noted)
So Long Maryanne
The Future
First We Take Manhattan by Warren Zevon
I'm Your Man
Everybody Knows by Concrete Blonde
Tower of Song by Tom Jones
Closing Time
Living Today by The Fleshtones
Never Take the Place of You by NRBQ
Bluebird by Leon Russell
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, November 11, 2016
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, Nov. 11, 2016
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
Friend of the Common Man by The Blasters
Amos Moses by Dale Watson
Wear Out Your Welcome by Wayne Hancock
Purple Rain by Dwight Yoakam
Hard Times by Martha Fields
This Town Gets Around by Margo Price
Train Kept a Rollin' by The Royal Hounds
Looking at the Moon, Wishing on a Star by Charline Arthur
Slowly Losing My Mind by Southern Culture on the Skids
Sweet Betsy from Pike by BR-549
Dixie Fried by Carl Perkins
Why Does the Wind Blow So Wild by Washboard Hank
Meet You Down South by Reverse Cowgirls
Old Joe Clark by Dustbowl Revival
Gonna Love My Baby Now by T. Tex Edwards & The Swingin' Kornflake Killers
Rosie the Riveter by Susie Bogguss
Keep it Clean by Charley Jordan
Bird on a Wire by Johnny Cash
Winter Lady by Palace Songs
Leonard Cohen's Day Job by The Austin Lounge Lizards
The Red Door by The Handsome Family
A Girl Don't Have to Drink to Have Fun by The Stumbleweeds
Hard Travelin' by Tim Timebomb
Tennessee Border #2 by Homer & Jethro
If it Takes a Lifetime by Jason Isbell
I Am Weary, (Let Me Rest) by The Cox Family
Janey by Ed Pettersen
Mose Melton by Cedar Hill Refugees
Ocean Paradise by Rudy Grayzell
Pilgrim by Steve Earle
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 TUNE-UP: Kindly Keep it Country
Nov.11, 2016
I’ve said it before: If you think they ain’t making country music like they used to, you’re just not looking hard enough. You won’t find much of it on so-called “country” radio, but it’s out there. This week I look at a bunch of recent country albums I’ve been playing the holy heck out of on KSFR’s The Santa Fe Opry (101.1 FM, Fridays 10 p.m.-midnight) in recent weeks.
* Slingin’ Rhythm by Wayne Hancock. Wayne the Train is back with a fistful of mostly original, good, solid honky-tonkin’ songs with lyrics full of wicked wit and heartache — often in the same song — and lots of impressive picking. Hancock’s got a new band, including an impressive new steel guitarist, Rose Sinclair, and not one but two electric guitarists, Bart Weinburg and Greg Harkins. As usual, Hancock gives his bandmates plenty of room to stretch, while their producer, Lubbock string-titan Lloyd Maines, captures the sound that some call retro, but I call timeless.
Things falling apart seem to be a general theme here with tunes like “Dirty House Blues,” “Two String Boogie,” and “Wear Out Your Welcome,” about a love that’s disintegrated.
My immediate favorite song on Slingin’ is a brand new murder ballad — actually, a double-homicide fantasy — in the great tradition of Leon Ashley’s “Laura (What’s He Got That I Ain’t Got),” Porter Wagoner’s “The Cold Hard Facts of Life,” and Johnny Paycheck’s “(Pardon Me) I’ve Got Someone to Kill.”
Hancock’s song is called “Killed Them Both,” and that’s just what he does to his cheating sweetheart and some funky dude. Hancock sings, “Somebody heard the shots and called 911/The law’s outside to ruin all my fun …” Now that’s what I call country music!
* Live at the Big T Roadhouse, Chicken S#!+ Bingo Sunday and Under the Influence by Dale Watson. Dale Watson may be the hardest working honky-tonker in Texas. He’s known to play gigs without taking a single break. He even works holidays. I saw him play the Continental Club in Austin last Christmas — and he’s scheduled to play there on Thanksgiving this month.
Watson always seems to have a new album. In fact, he’s released not one but two in recent weeks.
One album is a live show from his favorite Hedwig, Texas, haunt, known for bingo games that use live poultry instead of balls to determine the numbers being called.
The other is an album full of cover songs made famous by the musicians who most influenced him.
Big T Roadhouse features a bunch of old Watson tunes, including ought-to-be classics like “I Lie When I Drink,” “Where Do You Want It” (an ode to Billy Joe Shaver’s infamous shooting incident), and one of his best trucker songs, “Birmingham Breakdown.” There area couple of Merle Haggard favorites, “The Bottle Let Me Down” and “The Fugitive,” plus my personal favorite here, a spirited cover of Jerry Reed’s “Amos Moses.”
And speaking of covers, Under the Influence is a true treat. Watson performs Bob Wills’ “That’s What I Like About the South,” Buck Owens’ “Made in Japan,” and two relative Haggard obscurities: “Here in Frisco” and “If You Want to Be My Woman.”
My favorites are Watson’s version of “You’re Humbuggin’ Me,” a classic recorded by Lefty Frizzell, Rocket Morgan, Ronnie Dawson, and others, and Danny Dill’s “Long Black Veil.” That’s a well-worn chestnut first made famous by Frizzell. But Dale’s treatment is unique. He actually makes this ghostly murder story swing.
* Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars … by Dwight Yoakam. Yoakam undoubtedly was the best-known neo-honky-tonker of the 1980s.
Though he’s dabbled in bluegrass before, this is Kentucky-born Yoakam’s first all-bluegrass album. All the songs are new acoustic versions of old Yoakam originals, including the title song of his first album, “Guitars, Cadillacs,” refitted with fiddles and banjos.
All but one, that is.
The album ends with Prince’s “Purple Rain.” And while a lot of people chuckle at the thought of a bluegrass rendition of Prince, this is nothing to snicker at. Yoakam kills it. Without a trace of irony he finds the soul of the song and makes it into the perfect hillbilly tribute to the ascended master from Minneapolis.
* Southern White Lies by Martha Fields. She has roots in Texas and Oklahoma, though these days Fields is living part-time in Bordeaux, France.
But just because she’s across the ocean doesn’t mean she’s forgotten her musical roots. Last year, with a band of Frenchmen called House of Twang, she released an album full of rocking country boogie called Long Way From Home. But while that one was fun, her new acoustic banjo- and dobro-driven record is much deeper and hits much harder.
With a strong, throaty voice, Fields sings about her Southern heritage with stark honesty. A major theme running through several songs on Southern White Lies is how poor, rural people are manipulated by politicians and big business to keep them poor and ignorant for the sake of keeping up the supply of cheap labor and soldiers for wars.
There’s a real current of righteous anger running through many of these songs. Fields sums it up in “American Hologram,” singing, “No pot to piss in, believe in that trickle down/Snake handlers and TV tellin’ ‘em it’s for the best ... No need for education, no money for schools/Easier for Limbaugh, to play ‘em like the fool.”
A tasteful handful of covers like Woody Guthrie’s “Lonesome Road Blues” — better known as “Going Down That Road Feelin’ Bad” — and Janis Joplin’s “What Good Can Drinkin’ Do” adds a little levity to the album. “Pandering politicians, we need more musicians,” Fields sings in the title song.
There’s a political slogan I can get behind.
Here are some videos that you can get behind:
Thursday, November 10, 2016
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Janet Reno and her Songs of America
I didn't know former Attorney General Janet Reno. But I know her niece Jane and Jane's husband Ed. And I learned about her death this week via a sweet eulogy to her that Ed posted on his Facebook page Monday.
Reading Ed's tribute reminded me of this a cool music project that Reno had envisioned and Ed, a musician in Nashville, co-produced. Released in early 2008, the double-disc collection was called Song of America.
And it was, in the words of a wise old journalist, "a big, old, various-artist collection of songs outlining the strange and complicated history of this great land — both the official version and various alternate views that go beyond the wars, political campaigns, and other stuff they teach in school. There are patriotic tunes, protest songs, musical re-tellings of historic events, and songs about changes in our society."
Below is a Good Morning America feature on Song for America.
Below are a few tracks from Song of America.
This one, by Suzy Bogus, is really snazzy!
And here is a rocking version of a Johnny Cash song, "Apache Tears" by Scott kempner, formerly pf The Dictators and The Del-Lords
So rest in peace, Janet Reno. Thank you for your song.
Scott Kempner with Ed Pettersen |
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
WACKY WEDNESDAY: Songs for an Election Hangover
So you've had enough of the damned election?
Who are you kidding?
Go ahead.
Scramble your brain just a little more with some of these wacky campaign jingles.
It won't hurt.
Honest!
Let's start with this one from Milwaukie, Oregon. (Thanks Kristina ... I think)
40 years ago there was this ...
And even further back in time ... (The actual song starts at about the 1:30 mark)
Finally, OBEY YOUR ANIMAL OVERLORDS!
Sunday, November 06, 2016
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, Nov. 6, 2016
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
Liar Liar by The Castaways
G-D Liars by Chuck E. Weiss
Dead in a Motel Room by Hickoids
I Don't Mind by The Angry Dead Pirates
Losing My Mind by Alien Space Kitchen
Tore Up by The Cryin' Jags
Ride With Me by Sulphur City
Dog on a Leash by The Badass Motherfuzzers
I Can Hear Her Fighting With Herself by Jonathan Richman
The Crusher by The Cramps
Kremlin Dogs by Gregg Turner
White Faces by Roky Erikson & The Aliens
Raw Power by Iggy & The Stooges
Not a Sausage by The Mobbs
Pony Tail and a Black Cadillac by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle
Elected by Alice Cooper
Hallelujah by Churchwood
I Made a Mistake by James Williamson & MAIA
I Don't Want You Anymore by The Monsters
Follow Me Home by The Mystery Lights
White Glove Service by The Grannies
Analia by The King Khan & BBQ Show
It's Mighty Crazy by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
When Fate Deals Its Mortal Blow by Meet Your Death
200 Years Old by Frank Zappa & The Mothers & Captain Beefheart
Mesopotamia by The B52s
Down on Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Plastic Fantastic Lover by The Jefferson Airplane
Autumn Leaves by Bob Dylan
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, November 04, 2016
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, Nov. 4, 2016
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
Long Time Gone by The Dixie Chicks
Wreck of the Old 97 by Johnny Cash
My Dirty Life and Times by John McCuen
The Ballad of Charles Whitman by Kinky Friedman
Too Sweet to Die by The Waco Brothers
Southern White Lies by Martha Fields
Poor Don't Vote by Paul Burch
I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow by The Soggy Bottom Boys
Holy Ghost Rock 'n' Roller by Jesse Dayton
Love You Always by Wayne Hancock
Inside View by Dale Watson
I Play With Girls My Own Age by Cornell Hurd
Much Too Young for Love by Barney Burcham
Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young by Faron Young
Rattlesnake Daddy by John Tinsley
That'll Learn Ya, Dean Ya by Washboard Hank
Whooping Baby by Earl Songer
Baby Keeps Stealin' by Great Recession Orchestra
Skull and Crossbones by Bell & Shore
Big Drops of Trouble by Arty Hill
Home for Sale by Dwight Yoakam
Bueno Noches from a Lonely Room by Cracker
Heartache by The Numbers by Wille Nelson
Psycho by Eddie Noack
Hogtied Over You by Tennessee Ernie Ford & Ella Mae Morse
Heaven is the Other Way by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
The Silver Light by The Handsome Family
When The Good and The Bad Get Ugly by Butch Hancock
Pretty Girl by Miss Leslie
Pastures of Plenty by Cedar Hill Refugees with Dave Evans
Sweet Alcohol by Audrey Auld
Down to the River to Pray by Allison Krauss
I'll See You in My Dreams by Asylum Street Spankersrs
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Thursday, November 03, 2016
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Remembering Leon Theremin
Leon in action |
The instrument would come to be known as the Theremin.
Theremin invented the contraption in St. Petersburg shortly after the Russian revolution. It consisted of a small wooden cabinet which contained glass tube oscillators and two antennae that produced electromagnetic fields. In 1922 Theremin demonstrated his instrument in the Kremlin for Lenin, who reportedly was pretty darned impressed.
Lenin sent him on tour in Russia to show off Theremin and his Theremin as an example of Russian progress and ingenuity.
In 1927, Theremin traveled to the U.S., where he played Carnegie Hall and licensed RCA to build his instruments.
But the BBC article said the real reason he came to the U.S. was to engage in industrial espionage. "He had special access to firms like RCA, GE, Westinghouse, aviation companies and so on, and shared his latest technical know how with representatives from these companies to get them to open up to him about their latest discoveries," Theremin biographer Albert Glinsky told the BBC.
Here is a video of Theremin demonstrating his instrument in 1954,
The Theremin was praised by composers like Edgard Varese (he demonstrated one at a lecture at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1936 according an article in Theremin.info. But it didn't really catch on in American pop culture until the '40s and '50s in movie soundtracks like the ones below.
Hungarian composer Miklos Rozsa used a Theremin in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound as well as this 1945 noir classic.
Here's a contemporary Theremin artist, Dorit Chrysler.
The Beach Boys brought the Theremin to rock 'n' roll with "Good Vibrations" in 1966. But the rocker who seems to to have the most fun with a Theremin is Jon Spencer, who usually does a Theremin number in his shows with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. This is a strange clip from some even stranger TV I just found.
Wednesday, November 02, 2016
WACKY WEDNESDAY: How God Led Me to Kinky Friedman
Tuesday was the 72nd birthday of Richard Samet Friedman, better known to the Free World as Kinky Friedman, country singer, comic agitator, mystery author, failed politician, animal lover, cigar aficionado and 1973 Male Chauvinist of the Year.
Happy birthday, Kinky!
A couple of months before I ever heard Kinky's music, I learned about him from an article in a newspaper somebody had left in a little chapel that was part of a Methodist church in downtown Oklahoma City. That was on September 11 (!), 1973, back when I was doing my first big hitchhiking trip. The chapel at that time was open 24 hours and turned out out to be a good place to crash for a new amateur hobo.
But the main thing I remember about my stay there was reading that article about this crazed Texan -- whose band was called "The Texas Jewboys" -- who sang songs with titles like "The Ballad of Charles Whitman," "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed" and "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore."
I knew I was going to love this guy. God must have wanted me to find Kinky or He wouldn't have left that newspaper in His chapel.
And a couple of decades later I was extremely honored to be asked to open for him at a couple of gigs (1992 and 1995) at Albuquerque's El Rey Theater.
Kinky's songs were pretty radical back in the early '70s. But the thing is, they're probably more radical today. If he were more famous, his combination of fearless irreverence, wicked dark humor and outright blasphemy would get him banned from many college campuses (he don't give one Texas hoot about your "safe places"), condemned by religious leaders and shunned by all polite society.
Here are the three songs that made my eyes pop when reading about them in that paper at that Methodist chapel.
God love ya, Kinky!
Let's start with the song that earned him the National Organization of Women's Male Chauvinist of the Year award, "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed."
Kinky uses all sorts of racial slurs in "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore." But remember, they're coming from the mouth of an idiot racist -- who in the end gets his just deserts from "one little Hebe from the Heart of Texas."
Kinky was a student at the University of Texas in Austin when Charles Whitman raised his ruckus in the belltower. "The Ballad of Charles Whitman" was recorded only six years after that violent tragedy.
And while looking for the above song, I stumbled across this little feature with the Kinkster talking about the Whiitman shootings.
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
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