Friday, February 10, 2017

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST



Friday, Feb. 10, 2017
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
3 Pecker Goat by Jesse Dayton
The Most Wanted Woman in Town by Dale Watson
Just Like Geronimo by Dashboard Saviors
Treat Her Right by The Riptones
I Can't Be Myself Without You by Merle Haggard
Someone to Give My Love To by Johnny Paycheck
Boney Fingers by Hoyt Axton
In the Pines by Dolly Parton
But You Like Country Music by Brennen Leigh &Sunny Sweeney

Baby, It's Alright by Beth Lee & The Breakups
Some of Shelly's Blues by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
You Don't Know Me by Susana Van Tassle
We Live in Two Different Worlds by Red Allen & The Kentuckians
Free to Go by Dwight Yoakam
Jackpot by Nikki Lane
Alone and Forsaken by Social Distortion
I Can't Tell the Boys From the Girls by Lester Flatt

We Deserve a Happy Ending by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Red Wine by Scott H. Biram
Pickles by The Gourds
Is This My Happy Home by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Nobody Wins by Kris Kristofferson
Don't Let Her Know by Buck Owens
Kentucky / Bowling Green by The Everly Brothers

Roswell Town by Jack Clift & His Illuminati Assassination Orchestra
All Around You by Sturgill Simpson
Permanently Lonely by Willie Nelson
Storms Never Last by John Prine & Lee Ann Womack
A Couple More Years by Waylon Jennings
The Last Word in Lonesome is Me by Roger Miller
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Dinosaur Jr, James Chance, Dean Ween

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Feb. 10, 2017

Even though it’s been four years or so since their previous album, despite any rumor to the contrary, Dinosaur Jr.  has not gone extinct.

In fact, more than 30 years after they first roared, they’re back with another doozy of an album, Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not, released late last year. Though they’re getting old enough to be called “Dinosaur Sr.”,  singer /guitarist/ songwriter J. Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow (who contributes two tunes here), and drummer Murph all are in prime form, sounding revitalized as they tear through 11 new songs.

Basically, if you’ve liked this band during any point in their career — the original Mascis/Barlow era (mid to late ’80s), the post-Barlow grunge era (early to mid-’90s), or the post-reunion era (2007 to the present) — you’re bound to like Glimpse too. Mascis’ screaming guitar — those mud-soaked solos that seem to hurl effortlessly into some cosmic storm — and shaky vocals are front and center on most of the songs.

They kick off the album with a wild ride called “Goin Down,” which reminds me of another great high-energy Dinosaur Jr. opener, “The Wagon” from 1991’s Green Mind. “Goin Down” immediately draws you into the record. But the next song, “Tiny,” is even better. Though the music is strong and confident, the lyrics tell a different story: “Coming out I’m deep in doubt I’ll meet you/Calling out it’s always with a stare/I can’t give you less than what I mean to/I’ll pretend that I don’t see you.”

The song “Knocked Around” is a cool sucker punch. It starts off slow and mellow with Mascis singing in a gentle falsetto. But about two and a half minutes into it, Dinosaur erupts and pounds the holy hell out of the song, ending it with a classic Mascis guitar solo.

Barlow’s songs are powerful as well. “Love Is,” a minor-key rocker, would fit in well with Barlow’s ’90s band, Sebadoh. (Actually, Sebadoh still is around, but I digress.) And “Left/Right,” which closes the album, is a terse little snarler. Barlow’s voice sounds hauntingly similar to The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn’s in this song about love redeemed.

For those of us who have loved this band, Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not is like a visit from an old friend — an old friend who’ll blow out your eardrums and shake the plaster off your walls. Long may Dinosaur Jr. roam the Earth!

Also recommended

* The Flesh Is Weak by James Chance & The Contortions. Speaking of bands you thought might have gone extinct, no-wave champ and certified sax maniac James Chance also returned with an impressive album late last year.

Chance, playing in bands including James White and the Blacks, committed random acts of musical weirdness during the late ’70s and early ’80s, combining punk, funk, and avant-garde jazz. Along with bands like Lydia Lunch’s Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Arto Lindsay’s DNA, and Mars,

The Contortions contributed several songs to the influential No New York compilation of the wild experimental no-wave scene. Flesh shows Chance still has his unique discordant vision and his chops on both sax and vocals.

The first song, “Melt Yourself Down” (a song he’s been doing live for years), starts out with a jarring electric-organ blast before the band comes in with their lively James Brown-meets-Captain Beefheart funk groove. Chance screams and squeals. “We’re gonna take that night train to Auschwitz!” he sings at one point. That’s followed by the title song, which is just as funky in its own peculiar way.

Though most of the songs here are original, Chance gives us three worthy cover songs. One is an intense version of an intense tune called “I (Who Have Nothing),” which has been a hit for Ben E. King, Shirley (“Goldfinger”!) Bassey, and Tom Jones. There’s also “Home Is Where the Hatred Is,” a harrowing drug tale written by Gil Scott-Heron.

But the best cover here is Chance’s reimagining of Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life.” Fans of this song might not even recognize it on first listen with its probing bass line and wah-wah guitar straight out of Shaft and its Zappa-like time-signature change in the bridge, with Chance’s horn screaming for mercy. And yet in the last minute the song springs back into a more recognizable swing.

Not a note on this record sounds dated. I hope Chance continues to release his amazing sounds.

* The Deaner Album by Dean Ween Group. Ween was one of the strangest bands to ever get a video on MTV in the ’90s. They were a wickedly clever experimental duo who somehow captured the imagination of the (then) music channel with a quirky Bizarro World ditty called “Push th’ Little Daisies” that amazed and baffled the masses.

Ween hasn’t done a studio album in 10 years or so, but singer Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo Jr.) is back with a new band.

So how does this outside-the-box visionary start off his new record? With a bona fide Southern rock instrumental titled “Dickie Betts” and sounding a lot like the former Allman Brothers guitarist. Not what you’d expect, but in a strange way, it works. There’s also an instrumental, “Garry,” inspired by Parliament-Funkadelic guitarist Garry Shider.

But it’s the vocal tracks that carry this album. “Exercise Man” is a brutal and actually obscene tirade against some third-rate Jack. “Nightcrawler” is a nasty little nugget that could almost pass for classic rock if not for the distorted vocals and sci-fi guitar effects.

But my favorite at the moment is “Gum,” with heavy bass and what sounds like a toy piano tinkling away as the singer shouts lyrics about enjoying gum, ice cream, and McDonald’s. This could almost be an ode to … the band called Ween.

OK, let's see some videos!

First, let's roller derby with Dinosaur Jr.!



Here's James Chance & The Distortions playing "That's Life" live at Beerland in Austin last November.



We'll give Mr. Ween the last word ...




Thursday, February 09, 2017

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday Lonnie Johnson

Alfonzo "Lonnie" Johnson, one of the most respected singers, guitarists and stylists to ever come from the world of the blues, was born Feb. 8, 1899 in New Orleans.

He started playing guitar and violin in his family's band, doing gigs at weddings and banquets. In 1917 he joined a traveling revue that toured England. When he returned home two years late he learned that his entire family, except his brother James Johnson, had died in a flu epidemic. He and his brother moved to St. Louis, where the two got music gigs on riverboats.

In 1925, Lonnie won a blues contest sponsored by Okeh Records. Part of his prize included a recording contract.

That turned into a good deal for everyone.

Johnson died in 1970. But he left us some glorious music.

Here is one of Johnson's early records, "Ball and Chain Blues," recorded in 1926.



"Racketeer Blues" from 1932 might be called "Gangsta Blues":  "When the gang is out to get you, it don't do no good to run," Lonnie sings. "It's true you can dodge the law, but you can't dodge them slugs out the machine gun"



Johnson recorded jazz as well as blues. He played in bands fronted by Duke Ellington and Louis Armstromng. Here is a 1929 record by Louis Armstrong & The Hot Five, featuring Johnson on guitar.



This is one of my favorites, a hit from 1948. Elvis Presley later recorded "Tomorrow Night" at Sun Studios.



Here's a 1963 performance from The American Folk Blues Festival, a package show featuring some of the greatest blues stars of the ea -- and previous eras. Sonny Boy Williamson introduces Lonnie, who is backed by Otis Spann on on piano, Willie Dixon on bass and Bill Stepney on drums








Wednesday, February 08, 2017

WACKY WEDNESDAY: A Musical Birthday Card to Classy Freddie Blassie



If he were still alive, Classy Freddie Blassie would be celebrating his 99th birthday today.

Happy Birthday, King of Men!

Blassie was born Frederick Blassman in St. Louis, the only child of his German immigrant parents. He started his wrestling career working in carnivals.

In the 1950s became known as one of the toughest heels in the wrestling racket. And one of the greatest showmen in a business that thrives on showmanship.

Though he was well beyond his wrestling years in the mid '70s -- by this time, he was a "manager" whose clients included Hulk Hogan and future Minnesota Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura -- his oversize personality would make him a pop-culture star.

He and Andy Kaufman starred in My Breakfast with Blassie, a hilarious spoof on a popular "art" movie of the era, My Dinner with Andre.

But even before then, Blassie made records.

Dr. Demento made Blassie's single "Pencil Neck Geek" a novelty classic. Recorded in the mid '70s, Billy Zoom of X played guitar. Blassie released an EP Called King of Men in 1978. It featured "Pencil Neck Geek" and three other songs.

And in 1983, Rhino Records released a full Blassie album called I Bite The Songs.

Blassie died in 2003. But the joy and music he created live on.

Here's that song that made us all fall in love.



And here's another tune from both King of Men and I Bite the Songs.



Blassie also covered this song written by Jerry Reed and covered by Elvis, "U.S. Male"



And if you need more, here's the whole durn I Bite the Songs album (caution ... this apparently came straight off vinyl and it skips in some places.)

Sunday, February 05, 2017

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017
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
Chem Farmer by Thee Oh Sees
Love Is... by Dinosaur Jr
Everybody is in Love with You by Lynx Lynx
Why Do You Hate Me by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
It's Not Easy by Question Mark & The Mysterians
Miniskirt Blues by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah by Bob E. Soxx & The Blue Jeans
Tropical Hotdog Night by Captain Beefheart

Look in the Mirror by Gregg Turner
Evil Hoodoo by The Seeds
Pappa Satan Sang Louie by The Cramps
Straight Long and Hard by Meet Your Death
Talk About the Blues by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Burlesque Queen by The Dustaphonics
No Calypso Song by Coconut Kings

Will You Teach Me by Mark Sultan
Parts Unknown by Kid Congo Powers with Lydia Lunch
American Gangster Time by Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Chains of Love by The Dirtbombs
Drowning by The Sex Organs
Can't Keep My Cool by Durand Jones & The Indications
It's Not Over by Soul Scratch
It's All in the Game / Make It Real One More Time by Van Morrison

This Land is Your Land by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
CzekajÄ…c na wczoraj” (Yesterday is Here) by Kazik
Reach For Me by Bernadette Seacrest & Kris Dale
Too Far Gone by Dead Moon
Love Letters by Kitty Lester
Perfect Day by Lou Reed
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, February 03, 2017

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Friday, Feb. 3, 2017
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
Super Freak by Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby
Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel by Jason & The Scorcers
If You Want to Be My Woman by Dale Watson
Cautious by Jim Lauderdale
Do You Think About Me by The Waco Brothers
Jungle Swing by C.W. Stoneking
Rainmaker by Eliza Gilkyson
Who Knows Right From Wrong by Porter Wagoner
The Night Porter Wagoner Came to Town by Tabby Crabb

One More Thing by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Blue Moon of Kentucky by Reverend Beat-Man
Baddest of the Bad by Reverend Horton Heat
Everything It Takes by Loretta Lynn with Elvis Costello
You Win Again by Van Morrison & Linda Gail
Love You Always by Wayne Hancock
Tennessee Song by Margot Price
The Piquot Dance Hall by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
I've Just Destroyed the World by Willie Nelson

Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud, Loud Music by John Prine & Amanda Shires
Mighty Lonesome Man by James Hand
What Did the Deep Sea Say by Dave Alvin
Wake Up America by Sylvia Boshers
Evenin' Breeze by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
I Like to Keep Myself in Pain by Kelly Hogan
This is Your Night by The Flat Five
You Left Me a Long Time Ago by Miss Leslie
Love Letters in the Sand by Mac Wiseman

I Tremble for You by Waylon Jennings
Commandment 1 by Slim Cessna;s Auto Club
Walking to the End of the World by Amy Allison
First Girl I Loved by John Hartford
Dancing With the Women at the Bar by Whiskeytown
Mr. Blue by David Bromberg
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, February 02, 2017

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday Alan Lomax!


Wednesday would have been Alan Lomax's 102nd birthday.

Had he not been born, American music would have suffered beyond description. He died in 2002, but his legacy is immortal.

Lomax, following in the footsteps of his father, John Lomax, was a musicologist who, beginning in the 1930s, traveled through the South -- to plantations, prisons, backwood churches, Louisana fai do-dos -- recording thousands of wild, raw songs and stories of the people that you didn't hear on the radio. John and Alan Lomax helped establish the Library of Congress’ Archive of American Folk Song.

Through the years Alan Lomax would cross paths with some of the most revered names in folk, blues, jazz and hillbilly music. He recorded McKinley Morganfield -- later to become known as Muddy Waters -- recording him playing acoustic blues while he was still living on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi. He was the first to record Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. He also did sessions with Jelly Roll Morton, Reverend Gary Davis,  Big Bill Broonzy and Missisippi Fred McDowell.

He recorded the folk music of Europe and the Caribbean. Still, it's the music he collected along the backroads of the American South that I cherish the most.

Some of Lomax's greatest recordings are by those who never achieved popularity very far outside of their home towns.

Today I celebrate such singers along with Lomax.

One was Alabama-born Vera Hall, whose haunting "Another Man Done Gone" is a masterpiece in the rough.



This celebration of the Titanic disaster by Georgia singer Bessie Jones in my book is Lomax's  greatest single recording.



Lomax helped bring the strange and powerful music known as Sacred Harp to those of us who never would have hear it otherwise.



Lomax went to Louisiana's infamous Parchman Farm prison in the late 1940s to record songs of the inmates. The movie O Brother Where Art Thou used one of his Parchman work-gang songs, "Po' Lazarus."   Here's another one called "Rosie."



But not all the great music that Lomax found was in the fields or the prisons or the churches of the South. Apparently he also heard some incredible music in his own New York apartment. Here's a film clip of one of his picking parties featuring Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson performing the classic murder ballad, "The Banks of the Ohio."



This handful of videos only scratch the surface of Alan Lomax's musical world.

Check out hours of music and interviews at The Alan Lomax Archive YouTube channel .
And visit his Association for Cultural Equity online archives.

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

WACKY WEDNESDAY: More Random Acts of Wackiness


Here's a Wacky Wednesday in search of a theme.

I did this once before nearly a year ago, but I sure didn't use up the supply of weird music videos on Youtube. Here are some more.

Let's start out with a New Wave synth-pop nightmare, "Elektronik Supersonik" by Zlad!

I think this one is a joke. Or maybe, the joke is ON YOU!



It's then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man came singing songs of love ...



Ever wonder what the Bonanza theme sounded like in German? Well I don't care, I'm posting it anyway.



Ya like porkchops? Apparently so did Vincent Price. (Like the German "Bonanza," I found this among April Winchell's incomparable MP3 collection. April says it's created "using clips from Vincent Price cooking records.")


And to finish up, here's 20 minutes of a very drunk Hank Williams, "Recorded sometime in the late '90s, apparently, possibly in Kansas City," the poster says. To be honest, I haven't listened to the whole thing. Maybe you're braver than me.



Sunday, January 29, 2017

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017
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
Love is All Around by Husker Du
All the Nation's Airports by Archers of Loaf
America Goddamn by King Khan
Immigraniada by Gogol Bordello
West of the Wall by Toni Fisher
Evil is Going On by Howlin' Wolf
Let's Burn Down the Cornfield by John the Conquerer
What's the News by Motor City Crush
Legs by PJ Harvey
Melt Yourself Down by James Chance & The Contortions

A New Wave / Dig Me Out by Sleater-Kinney
Fall on You by The Plimsouls
I Love You So Much by Mark Sultan
Killing the Wolfman by The King Khan & BBQ Show
Earth Blues by The Sex Organs
Goin' Down by Dinosaur Jr
I Like it Small by Mudhoney
Not Me by The Orlons

Mazhott by Mazhott
Rag by Ras Al Ghul
Who's Your Buster, Dolly by Dicky B. Hardy
Lost Someone by James Brown
The Claw by Barrence  Whitfield & The Savages
So Much in Love by The Tymes
Celery Stalks at Midnight by Doris Day with The Les Brown Orchestra

Charlie Brown by The Dean Ween Band
Love Like a Man by The Fleshtones
Graveyard by  Sloaming Moops
Cold Feelings by Social Distortion
Slippin' Sideways by Drywall
I Believe in Tomorrow by Tiny Tim
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

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Friday, January 27, 2017

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST



Friday, Jan. 27, 2017
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
Take Me to the Fires by The Waco Brothers
I'm Just a Honky by The Ex-Husbands
Babe Be Mine by Butch Hancock
Long Walk by Mose McCormack
I Won't Go Huntin' With You Jake by The Marlettes
Let Me Go Home, Whiskey by Asleep at the Wheel
Yes Ma'am, He Found Me at a Honky Tonk by Miss Leslie & Her Juke Jointers
Keep the Home Fires Burnin' by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
The Cajun Queen by Jimmie Dean

Big Balls in Cowtown by Ike Johnson & His Roadhouse Ramblers
Haunted Honky Tonk by John Lilly
Ain't Got No Home by Sonny Burgess & The Legendary Pacers
Fangs by The Saucer Men
The Race is On by George Jones
Sweet Dreams by Janis Martin
Small Bouquet of Roses by Wayne Hancock
I Will Stay Wtth You by Emily Kaitz & Ray Hubbard

This Old Honky Tonk by Rosie Floses
Commandment 8 by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Fast Fuse Blues by Paul Burch
A Place to Hang My Hat by Porter Wagoner
Dump Road Yodel by Legendary Shack Shakers
Crawdad Song by Washboard Hank
Cheap Motels by Southern Culture on the Skids
Long Old Time by Scott H. Biram
Flora, the Lily of the West by Tim O'Brien

Be Real by Freda & The Firedogs
Marie by Leon Redbone
Give Chance a Chance by Vince Bell
Dreamin' My Dreams With You by John Prine & Kathy Matea
Satin Sheets by Jeannie Pruett
Love Me by Elvis Presley
Nobody's Darlin' But Mine by Hylo Brown
Treasure Untold by Doc & Merle Watson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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

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...