Friday, Dec. 9, 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
Damn the Damage by Reverse Cowgirls
Crazy Mixed Emotions by Rosie Flores
It's Gravity by T. Tex Edwards
Crazy Blues by J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper)
Swampblood by Legendary Shack Shakers
I Crossed the Line by Jim Stringer
Holy Ghost Rock 'n' Roller by Jesse Dayton
I'm Mad by The Reverend Horton Heat
Kentucky Borderline by Rhonda Vincent
How Lew Sin Ate by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band
I Wanna Be Sedated by Two Tons of Steel
New Deal of Love by Hank Thompson An Incident Off St. Kitts by The Mekons & Robbie Fulkss
Red Brick Wall by The Waco Brothers
They Took the Stars Out of Heaven by Floyd Tillman & Johnny Bush
I Love You So Much It Hurts by Merle Haggard
Slippin' Around by Ernest Tubb
Each Night at Nine by Floyd Tillman & Willie Nelson
Driving Nails in My Coffin by New Duncan Imperials
Travelin' Mood by John McEuen
Voodoo Voodoo by Marti Brom
Inside View by Dale Watson
Heavy on the Lonesome by Miss Leslie & The Juke Jointers
99 Years to Go by The Wray Brothers
Bobbin' Bonnie by Eddie Bond
Polka de Nalgas by The Imperial Rooster
Boogie Woogie Country Girl by Sleepy LaBeef
Let's Bounce by The Supersuckers
Beer Cans Down the Trans Can by Washboard Hank
Downward Mobility by Southern Culture on the Skids
Katy Kay by Robbie Fulks
Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine by Wayne Hancock
Men With Broken Hearts by Hank Williams
The Bad Wind by Tony Joe White
You Make the Blues Feel Like a Sunny Day by Michael Hearne & Shake Russell
Getting to Know You by NRBQ
Empty Bottle by The Calamity Cubes CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Dec. 9, 2016 The recent passing of Norton Records co-founder Billy Miller set me to thinking about how much I appreciate great independent record labels. I assume Norton will remain a national treasure under the direction of Miller’s talented and visionary widow Miriam Linna.
But Miller’s death also makes me appreciate other great labels as well. Loyal readers of this column have seen me sing the praises of Norton, as well as others like Bloodshot, Saustex, Voodoo Rhythm, and Off Label.
Another one that deserves to be high on that list — especially for us fans of garage-punk and modern rock ’n’ soul — is Dirty Water Records. It's a British company named after The Standells’ major 1966 hit and an offshoot of the Dirty Water Club in London, which operated for more than a decade out of a venue called The Boston and still produces occasional live music events at various London spots.
I’ve written in the past about Dirty Water recording artists like King Salami &The Cumberland 3, Los Peyotes, and Hollywood Sinners. Here’s a look at several recent Dirty Water releases.
* Johnny & Bo by The Dustaphonics. Next only to King Salami, this band is probably the most exciting Dirty Water act in the label’s 12-year history. Featuring the guitar of the French-born Yvan Serrano-Fontova and the full-throttle vocals of Hayley Red, The Dustaphonics combine surf music, punk, and R&B (and a few echoes of ska, soundtrack music, and exotica) into a unique hopped-up sound.
The Johnny and Bo in the title refer to Ramone and Diddley, who are in Serrano-Fontova’s and Red’s personal pantheon of music heroes. The title song, complete with the famous Bo beat and a reverb-heavy guitar, has a refrain combining “Hey, Bo Diddley” and The Ramones’ signature “Gabba gabba hey.”
There’s also a high-spirited tribute song celebrating the late Tura Satana, the star of Russ Meyer‘s sex-sational 1965 classic, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Before her death in 2011, Satana collaborated with Serrano-Fontova on some music projects, including co-writing an early Dustaphonics song, “Burlesque Queen.” Here’s a DJ tip: Play this alongside The Cramps’ version of “Faster Pussycat.”
Other highlights here are a sped-up cover of The Specials’ 1979 ska-revival hit “Gangsters,” a tune called “Listen to the Showman Twang” (featuring Red calling out idols including Dick Dale, The Ventures, Mickey Baker, Magic Sam, and The Trashmen), and not one but two versions of a song called “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” — one with a horn section and one without.
I’m just confused as to why they’re called The Dustaphonics. There ain’t nothing dusty about these sounds.
* Goin’ Chicken Crazy by MFC Chicken. This band leans heavily on soul and R&B, as filtered
through 1960s Northwestern U.S. bands like The Sonics and The Wailers. Led by sax man/singer Spencer Evoy and guitarist Alberto Ziol, this album sounds like a party that has no intention of ever ending. That’s probably most evident in the songs “Hooch Party,” “Blackout Drunk,” and the Chicken’s raucous cover of The Toppers’ 1954 novelty, “Baby Let Me Bang Your Box.”
The group celebrates simple joys like having a new pair of socks, roast potatoes, and even hair-care products.
“I Ain’t Crying (That’s Just Pomade in My Eyes)” pokes fun at the retro culture that often surrounds music like this. “When my girl up and left me, she took my good pomade/Now I’m left with the cheap stuff, the kind that ain’t well made.”
There are so many chicken songs here — “Goin’ Chicken Crazy,” “Chicken in a Hurry,” “Big Cluckin’ Mistake” — I couldn’t help but be reminded of Hasil Adkins’ album (on Norton Records) Poultry in Motion.
* Dirty Rock ’n’ Roll by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons. This is a high-energy, big-personality English trio, led by singer Puss Johnson, whose voice is a joyful experience that reminds me of KatieJane Garside of Daisy Chainsaw. (Remember “Love Your Money”?)
Even so, some songs on this album deal with gruesome themes. There’s the opening song “Burying the Bodies.” Then in “Hell Bent,” Puss sings of making boots out of a victim’s skin (and shrinking his head and grinding his bones), while the near-metallic “Souvenir” contains romantic lyrics such as, “They’ll find you in a ditch somewhere/bound and broken with no hair/I kept it as a souvenir.”
My favorite songs here are “Why Do You Hate Me,” “Hideous” (a rocking tirade against fashion-obsessed, celebrity-worshiping conformists), and best of all, “Still Livin’ With Mum and Dad,” an ode to eternal youth. “Hey why don’t you come over/and play on my Game Cube/We can listen to punk rock, baby, and make out in my room.”
And there’s even a song about the cat’s mortal enemy: “Dirty Li’l Dog.”
* Mystery Lover by Archie & The Bunkers. This band mostly just rants against hippies and
liberals
and demands their wives stifle themselves. Not really. Actually I’m a little puzzled about why this group — a pair of teenage (!) brothers from Cleveland — chose this name. But I don’t care if they call themselves Herman’s Hermits — these youngsters have created some amazing music here. With Cullen O’Connor on organ and Emmett O’Connor on drums (and both contributing vocals), these youngsters rock hard beyond their years.
The omnipresent organ gives the sound a spooky feel that reminds me of Mr. Quintron, the New Orleans keyboardist whom I first came to love through his collaboration with The Oblivians.
Alas, this is only a six-song EP. One of the songs is a cover of “Sunglasses After Dark,” first done by rockabilly Dwight Pullen and later by The Cramps.
For the sake of all us dingbats and meatheads, I hope these guys have a long future in music and stay true to these roots. can find out more at.
Today is the birthday of one of country music's greatest songwriters, Floyd Tillman.
He would have been 102.
He was born in Ryan, Oklahoma, but raised in Post, Texas, According to his official website, "Floyd was drawn to playing music by the fact that two of his brothers were earning $5 a night playing dances at a local skating rink.
"Floyd developed his own style of performing at an early age. He was always just a little off from the beat of the other musicians. He would rather sing his own compositions than the common hits of the day."
After years of recording hits and relentless touring, Tillman slowed down on his performing in the early 1950's, his website says, Quoting the artist: "It was a daily rat race. I was sleeping in my car-a bus was out of the question, too expensive-and making $200-$500 a night, more money than I could pay taxes on, and I got tired of it. I told the band they could go on and keep playin' but I was going to retire. That kind of life can get to you."
Tillman was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1971. And in 1984, Willie Nelson inducted him into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Tillman died in 2003 at the age of 88.
Here are some of his greatest songs.
Here's Tillman himself singing "I Love You So Much It Hurts Me" in 1948
"They Took the Stars Out of Heaven" was Tillman's first single in 1944, Here's a 1946 cover by a singer called Boots Faye
According to his website, "Each Night At Nine," a 1944 hit by Tillman, "captured the feelings of lonely servicemen so well that both Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose played it heavily to encourage desertion." Here's a version by one of Tillman's greatest interpreters, Ernest Tubb
Jerry Lee Lewis covers Tillman's "Slippin' Around," known as one of country music's first cheating songs.
Rockabilly star Eddie Bond is one of many to cover Tillman's "This Cold War With You,"
Here's a fairly recent version one of Tillman's most-loved songs, "Drivin' Nails in My Coffin" performed by Rhonda Vincent
Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Lightning's Girl by Nancy Sinatra
You Let the Dead In by Churchwood
Baby Let Me Bang Your Box by MFC Chicken
Cheap Thrills by Ruben & The Jets
Don't You Just Know It by The Sonics
Action Packed by The Del Moroccos
Devil Dance by The A-Bones
Better to Be Lucky Than Good by The Electric Mess
Cold Line by Nots
Campanas del Mission by De Los Muertos
We Go On by The Come 'N Go
Losing My Mind by Alien Space Kitchen
Don't Lie to Me by Mojo Brothers
Forming by The Germs
Nomads of The Lost by Oh! Gunquit
Zip Code by Deadbolt
Gangsters by The Dustaphonics
Tucson Girls by Gregg Turner
Why Do You Hate Me by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
Persona Non Grata by The Upper Crust
49 Guitars and One Girl by Pere Ubu
White Glove Service by The Grannies
The Flesh is Weak by James Chance & The Contortions
I Would Die For You by The Rockin' Guys
Sunglasses After Dark by Archie & The Bunkers
I'm Alright by Mose Allison
Hound Dog by 68 Comeback
I'm Gonna Have Fun by Jack Lee
Satisfy You by The Seeds
Give It Back by Sharon Jones
Harry Hippie by Bobby Womack
At the Crossroads by Hickoids Lili Marleen by Zuch Kazik CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Dec. 2, 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
Back from the Shadows Again by Firesign Theatre
The Bottle Never Let Me Down by Dale Watson
Apartment 34 by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Who's Gonna Take Your Garbage Out by Rosie Flores & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Saginaw, Michigan by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
James River Blues by Old Crow Medicine Show
Gentlemen by The Handsome Family
Little Pig by Robert Gordon
I Cry, Then I Drink, Then I Cry by Cornell Hurd
Highway Queen by Nikki Lane
Lonesome Road Blues by Martha Fields
Midnight Caller by Southern Culture on the Skids
Just Like Geronimo by The Dashboard Saviors
Dolores by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Bad Times Are Coming Round Again by The Waco Brothers
You Don't Love God (If You Don't Love Your Neighbor) by Rhonda Vincent
A strange character introduces himself: "They call me Hanging Johnny ... But I never hung nobody ..."
But after that little disclaimer Johnny begins bragging about all the people he has hanged. His mother, his brother, his sister Nancy, a robber, a police officer, a friar, his own mates and skippers ..." Different versions include different victims.
It's no wonder this morbid little sea chanty delights me so.
Indeed, "Hanging Johnny" is a classic sea chanty. It's a halyard chanty, a call and response sung by crew members engaged in a long, tedious task like setting the sails on a ship.
According to the liner notes of a 1967 EP titledChicken on a Raft by a folk group called The Young Tradition:
"Hanging Johnny" is a good example of a shanty that was ready made for stringing out, a trick used by the shantyman for lengthening a song to suit the job in hand. Anyone could be a candidate for Hanging Johnny's rope until he had enough verses to finish the job.
On her folk ballad site The Contemplator, Lesley Nelson-Burns writes:
There is speculation that "Hanging Johnny" may refer to the eighteenth century hangman, Jack Ketch. In fact "Jack Ketch" was a term used to refer to all hangman, named after a Jack Ketch who was the executioner at Tyburn from 1663-1686.
However, a web page about "Hanging Johnny" in the Traditional Ballad Index on the California State University, Fresno website says:
According to most sources, the "hanging" in this song does not refer to execution. Great Lakes sailor Carl Joys said it referred to the young sailors who went aloft to swing out the halyards when a sail was hoisted. Another account says it referred to a sailor who held a rope lashed to other sailors. If this "hanger" let them go in a bad sea, they would be washed overboard and lost.
I guess that would explain Johnny's claim that he never hung nobody.
Part of "Hanging Johnny" was featured in a scene from the 1962 movie version of Herman Melville's Billy Budd. (UPDATE 6-18-20: I had a clip of the song from the movie, but it's no longer on YouTube. If it somejhow reappers, please let me know!)
Here is a version recorded by ethnographer Sidney Robertson Cowell in Belvedere, Calif. Performing are a bunch of sailors -- Captain Leighton Robinson, Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur, and Leighton McKenzie.
This one's from a 1979 Smithsonian Folkways album Sea Songs: Louis Killen, Stan Hugill and the X Seamen's Institute sing of Cape Horn sailing at the Seattle Chantey Festival
But my favorite is a more recent take on "Hanging Johnny" by Stan Ridgway, which appeared on Hal Wilner's 2006 various artist compilation Rogue's Gallery.
