Thursday, March 09, 2017

THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Week My Life Was Saved by Rock 'n' Roll

Bruce Channel, third from right, with some band he met in England in 1962
Fifty five years ago this month, when I was in third grade, I got the measles. That's not a painful memory, I fact the main things I remember about it is the fact that I got to miss a week of school and that I became obsessed with my little transistor radio, which I believe I'd received as a Christmas gift a couple of months before.

No, it wasn't the radio itself, which was about the size of an iPhone, but thicker. It was the strange wild sounds that came out of it at night.

I wanted to know more about these singers who promised a mysterious, magical -- and sometimes a little dangerous world. I wanted to hear what other songs they'd sung and the musicians who'd inspired them, to find out where they came from. I might have been sick in bed with the lights out, but every night there was a party in my head coming in through that little ear plug attached to my radio

That was the week I became obsessed by rock 'n' roll.

And, as anyone familiar with this blog knows, that's an obsession that has lasted a lifetime. Well after the measles left me, the rock 'n' roll fever persisted.

A decade later when I first heard The Velvet Underground's "Rock n' Roll," about a little girl named Jenny who discovered a New York station and her life was saved by rock 'n' roll, I completely identified with her -- though I would have been eight years old and mine was an Oklahoma City station, WKY.

I don't know the exact date of my measles bout, but I  remember the song that was number one on WKY at the time. It was "Hey Baby" by Bruce Channel, who was backed up by a harmonica player named Delbert McClinton. I can't find any WKY Top 50 (yes, 50, not 40!) lists, but according to Billboard, that song was number one nationally for three weeks beginning March 10, 1962.

Here's that song, followed by a handful of others that shaped the soul of a young, measles-stricken rocker in March of 1962.



Here's another tune that was popular in March, 1962, "Let Me In" by The Sensations. I could identify with what the singer, Yvonne Baker, was saying. I could hear the music, I could hear the party. And I demanded to be let in!



Sue Thompson was already pushing 40 when she had this hit, but she still sounded cool and sexy beyond words to my young ears



Speaking of Lou Reed, this song still is my favorite "Walk on the Wild Side."



Back then I thought the Peppermint Lounge in New York had to be the coolest place in the world thanks to Joey Dee.



I still get chills when I hear this song late at night, just like the first time I heard it on my transistor radio that week in 1962. The organ solo is downright other-dimensional!



Finally, don't you be a good neighbor to her. Or I'll send you a love letter. Straight from my heart



Wednesday, March 08, 2017

WACKY WEDNESDAY: She Was Only a Ventriloquist's Daughter ...


What can you say about a lady whose siblings are Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff?

April Winchell is an actress, comedian, voice-over artist (the voice of Baby Herman's mom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Clarabelle Cow in recent Mickey Mouse cartoons), former radio host, and, yes, daughter of famed ventriloquist Paul Winchell.

And -- best of all for Wacky Wednesday purposes -- she's a collector and disseminator of bizarre music.

For years she's maintained a website  full of MP3s of crazy music -- Golden Throat celebrity covers, corporate pep songs, chicken songs, TV themes, commercial jingles, "terrifying Christian music," "Crazy Jew Rap," German covers of show tunes, ...

A woman after my own heart!

April's MP3 library has been online  years before YouTube was even invented. But many of these have found their way to YouTube, which make it easier to share with you here.

Here are some of my favorites from the April Winchell collection

First there's this song of faded love. It took both Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand  to sing the original, but only one Liberace to send it over the top.



If The B-52s covered "Stairway to Heaven," it would sound like The Rock Lobsters



A question I ask God every day: "What is This Thing called Amway?"



A little yodeling for Jesus by Princess Ramona



A classic Barbra stage outburst remixed ... like butter!



April says this one is "An extremely strange recording."





Sunday, March 05, 2017

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST





Sunday, March 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
Dirty Boulevard by Lou Reed
Banned in Boston by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
Love/Hate (Eat Me Alive) by The Ruiners
Stay Away Joe by Elvis Presley
Hey Sailor by The Detroit Cobras
Get Off the Road by Herschell Gordon Lewis (She Devils on Wheels)
Shadow People by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Black Feather by Lynx Lynx
Start Together by Sleater-Kinney

Baby, You're My Drug by The Monsters
The Future is Now (and it Stinks) by JJ & The Real Jerks
Bums by Dean Ween Group
La Coulevurve by Thee Verduns
I Don't Care If Tomorrow Never Comes by Meet Your Death
It's OK by Dead Moon
The Store That Cannot Be Named by Deadbolt
Livin' in Chaos by The Sonics
It's Suicide by Mark Sultan

An Extraordinary Woman by Psychedelic Aliens
Me Kple Dogbekpo by Lokomon Andre & Les Volcans
Macumba for You by O Lendario Chucrobillyman
Mencerminkan Makota Kotor by Arrington de Dionyso
Less of Me by Teenage Jesus & The Jerks
An Older Lover by The Fall
Caspar the Friendly Ghost by Daniel Johnson & Jad Fair
Can't Get Enough of You Baby by Question Mark & The Mysterians
Mumbles by Jack Ross

California Tuffy by Geraldine Fibbers
I've Been Falling by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
We Come in the Sunshine by The Dirtbombs
Slow Love by Charles Bradley
To Know Him is to Love Him by Amy Winehouse
Into My Arms by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
In That Great Gettin' Up Morning by The Golden Gate Quartet
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, March 03, 2017

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST



Friday, March 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
The Ballad of Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum
All You Fascists by Billy Bragg & Wilco
Tupelo County Jail by The Old 97s
Take Me to the Fire by The Waco Brothers
Hard Times by Jon Langford
Eatin' Crow and Drinkin' Sand by Jesse Dayton
Make it Up to Mama by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Loser's Lounge by Ringo Starr
Cukoo Cocoon by Hazeldine
Cryin' to Cryin' Time Again by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
Play Together Again Again by Buck Owens & Emmylou Harris

Changed the Locks by Lucinda Williams
Hands on Your Hips by Shinyribs
The Ghosts of Hallelujah by The Gourds
Every Tuesday Night by Miss Leslie
Bad Girl She Used to Be by Paul Burch
I Ain't Living Long Like This by Waylon Jennings

True Religion by Scott H. Biram
You Must Have That Religion, Hallyloo by Lead Belly
What You Did to the Boy Ain't Right by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
I Ain't Gonna Hang Around by Southern Culture on the Skids
Sea of Tears by Eilen Jewell
Jean Arthur by Robbie Fulks
That's All it Took by Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris
Dancing With the Women at the Bar by Whiskeytown
Jambalaya by Phoebe Legere

Lost from Me by Stephanie Hatfield
When Two Worlds Collide by Roger Miller
I Never Go Around Mirrors by Lefty Frizzell
That's the Way Love Goes by The Harmony Sisters
Take Me by George Jones
What Made Milwaukee Famous by Johnny Bush
My Happiness by John Prine & Fiona Prine
My Rifle, My Pony and Me by Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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Thursday, March 02, 2017

THROWBACK THURSDAY: That True Religion


Scott H. Biram
I shot this picture at Scott H. Biram's 2011 performance at Corazon in Santa Fe.


One of the real delights from Scott H. Biram's latest album, The Bad Testament, is Track 10, a crazy little gospel tune he calls "True Religion."

It's a song the dirty old one-man band from Austin, Texas been playing for years, sometimes as an a Capella medley with an old prison song "Go Down Old Hannah."

The new studio version starts with some fuzzy, slightly distorted recording of what sounds like some religious broadcast ("If the Holy Family cannot come in with the child Jesus and watch it with me, I don't watch it ...") Biram starts with the actual song.

"Oh you must have that true religion, hallelu, hallelu ... true religion and a soal converted ..."

It's catchy and infectious. Check it out on Spotify below:



But, as you probably guessed by now, Biram wasn't the first to find "True Religion." Lots of people have sung it, and no two takes are alike.

Below is a live version by another contemporary Austin musician, Shineyribs (aka Kev Russell.)



Back in 2005, Mavis Staples recorded her version for a 2005 various-artists project produced by Joe Henry.



And back in 1972, Hot Tuna -- Jefferson Airplane brothers Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady -- did a slop blues-rock version on their album Burgers featuring Papa John Creach on fiddle.



Kaukonen is listed as the songwriter in the Burgers credits. But it sounds amazing like this old Leadbelly song -- the earliest version I could find. (I'm pretty sure it's from the early '40s.)



Despite the title, I' not sure the following songs are directly related to the previous songs. There are several version of gospel choirs doing "You Must Have That True Religion." The best I heard was by Atlanta's Chorale New Creation, performed in 2008.



Finally here's a fott-stompin' version by the St. John Church of God in Christ Choir of Los Angeles. It doesn't sound much Scott H. Biram or Hot Tuna or Lead Belly. But it still sounds good to me

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy (Belated) Birthday Cindy Wilson. You ain't no Limburger!



If I could hire a house band for Wacky Wednesday, it would be The B52s, that Athens, Ga. "New Wave" group that embodied wackiness, tackiness and infectious fun.


Yesterday, Feb. 28th was the 60th birthday of Cindy Wilson, who along with Kate Pierson were the B52s' lovely and lovable female front women.

So here is a little tribute to the lady, some songs in which she sang or shared lead vocals.

I'd dance with you, Cindy!



Fish? Candy? I'll take it



This one's a lesser-known tune, sung by Cindy and Kate, about the joys of counterfeiting.





Tuesday, February 28, 2017

New Big Enchilada Will Crawl Into Your Head and Touch Your Heart

THE BIG ENCHILADA



 This month The Big Enchilada gets inside your head and refuses to leave. Featuring deep rocking tunes by The Angry Samoans, King Salami, Mark Sultan, Bloodshot Bill, The Count Five, Black Joe Lewis and more! Let the music shut your mouth and open your mind.

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Dance of the Dream Man by Angelo Badalamenti)
Sometimes the Devil Sneaks Into My Head by The Immortal Lee County Killers
She was a Mau Mau by King Salami & The Cumberland 3 
Freakin' Out by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Who Shot the Druggies by Lynx Lynx
Peeling Face by The Routes
Bums by The Deen Ween Group

(Background Music: Moon Shot by The Akulas)
Inside My Brain by The Angry Samoans
They're Gonna Get You by The Count Five
Orgasm by The Sex Organs
Agitated by Mark Sultan
Honey Time by Bloodshot Bill & Shannon Shaw
Don't Lie to Me by The Mojo Brothers
Sinner Joe Crazy by Sloming Moops
Disciplinary Action by James Chance & The Contortions  

(Background Music: Mule Train Says by King Khan)
Dig Me Out by Sleater-Kinney
Lay it Down by Chicken Snake
The Panther Cries at Midnight by The Slow Poisoner
Not Enough Madness by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle

Play it here:


Sunday, February 26, 2017

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST





Sunday, Feb. 26, 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
There's No Business Like Show Business by Ethel Merman
Movies are a Mother to Me by Loudon Wainwright III
New Age by The Velvet Underground
Act Naturally by Ringo Starr with Buck Owens
Western Movies by The Olympics
Celluloid Heroes by The Kinks
Beloved Movie Star by Stan Ridgway

Run Through the Jungle by Link Wray
Bad America by The Gun Club
Double Kross by Grandpa Death Experience
Jumpers by Sleater-Kinney
Gawker Delay by The Hentchmen
Stutterin' Sue by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Treat Her Right by Los Straitjackets starring Markm Lindsay

Can't Get Your Lovin' by The Count 5
Get Straight by Lynx Lynx
Everything's Gonna Be the Same by Weird Omen
Baby What's Wrong by The Cynics
The Torture Never Stops by Frank Zappa
Love Enchanted by Daniel Johnston
Maroon by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

Trying Hard Not to Know by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Pledging My Love by Swamp Dogg
Light My Fire by Jackie Wilson
The Comedians by Roy Orbison
The House Where Nobody Lives by King Ernest
Take it With Me by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, February 24, 2017

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST



Friday, Feb. 24 , 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
A Hangover Ago by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere  by The Byrds
You Can Have the Crown by Sturgill Simpson
First and Last Blues by Big Sandy & The Flyright Boys
Lay You Down by Nikki Lane
I Ain't Givin' Up Notin' by Ben Hewitt
Tennessee Women's Prison by Wanda Jackson
Medication by The Saucer Men
Can't Hardly Stand it by Charlie Feathers
Crazy Blues by J.P. Richardson

The Nail by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Detour by Cyndi Lauper with Emmylou Harris
Shakin' the Blues by Gail Davies & Robbie Fulks
I'm the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised by Johnny Paycheck
Someone to Give My Love to by Big Al Anderson
Possum Ran Over My Grave by Jesse Dayton
My Gal by Jim Kweskin Jug Band
Tub Gut Stomp and Red-Eyed Soul by Shinyribs

I Don't Care by Webb Pierce
There Stands the Glass by Ted Hawkins
Heebie Jeebie Blues Number by Webb Pierce & Willie Nelson
Back Street Affair by Webb Pierce

Wouldya Wanna / 13 Roses by Beth Lee & The Breakups
Parachute by Chris Stapleton
Working on  Building by The Meat Purveyors
Mental Cruely by John Prine & Kacey Musgraves

(Out on the Street) Junk is Still King by Gary Heffern
Do They Dream of Hell in Heaven by Terry Allen
True Religion by Scott H. Biram
Let Your Light Shine by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Old Man Souls by Possessed by Paul James
Waltz Across Texas by Leon Russell
She Was No Good for Me by Waylon Jennings
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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Black Joe Lewis, King Salami & Sleater-Kinney

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Feb. 24, 2017

Black Joe Lewis is back with a funky vengeance. More than three years had passed since his previous album, the underrated Electric Slave, when the Austin-based rock ’n’ souler and his band the Honeybears this month released a groove-infused collection of tunes called Backlash.

It had been so long since the last one, I was beginning to wonder whether Lewis — who just a few years ago was driving a delivery truck for a seafood business — had gone back to the fish biz. Fortunately not.

The first difference between this record and his last one that Black Joe fans are bound to notice is that while Electric Slave leaned heavy on hard rock and blues, Backlash shows the band’s funkier side. His horn section, which always been present, is more prominent than ever. In fact, I’m not the first to notice certain similarities between the Honeybears and the Dap-Kings, the late Sharon Jones’ band. In fact, Lewis’ song “Sexual Tension” would have made for a wonderful duet between Jones and neo-soul giant Lee Fields. “Nature’s Natural” could almost pass as a Charles Bradley tune, while the slow-burning “Wasted” is a minor-key howl from the dark night of the soul. A flute that appears about halfway through the song adds a jazzy touch.

But don’t think that anyone’s trying to hide Lewis’ rock chops. There are plenty of guitar-centric rockers here, such as “Prison” (in which Lewis shouts, “I don’t mind being locked up!”). Likewise, “Shadow People” and the frantic “Freakin’ Out” show that Lewis and crew haven’t turned their backs on those punk influences that marked their early work.

And speaking of freaking out, Lewis flirts with psychedelia with the spacey six-minute album closer, “Maroon,” featuring a tasty trumpet solo and some fine guitar from Lewis. But the most impressive song here is the other six-minute song on the album, “Lips of a Loser.” In this one, the horns interweave with ’70s-style strings to dominate the first half of the track. But then, Lewis comes in with a fiery guitar solo that’s downright jaw-dropping.

It’s heartening to know that musicians like these are out there blurring lines between musical borders and making good-time music that thrills.

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears are scheduled to play The Launchpad in Albuquerque on March 29.

Also recommended:

*  Goin’ Back to Wurstville by King Salami & The Cumberland 3. In terms of the wurst, these guys are the best. This hopped-up, high-energy London-based band has been around for more than a decade, but despite my overly optimistic prediction a few years ago when reviewing their previous album, they never really have made a huge splash in the good old U.S.A. That’s our loss, my fellow Americans. With Salami and the Cumberlands’ seamless bend of garage-rock, ’50s and ’60s R&B, and occasionally a little instrumental surf music, few bands match their sound in terms of pure fun.

Wurstville is only their third actual album in all these years — the previous ones being Cooking Up a Party in 2013 and Fourteen Blazin’ Bangers in 2010. But between albums, Salami and the boys are a singles-producing machine.

 And just like the days of yesteryear in rock ’n’ roll history, most of the songs from the singles end up on the albums. Some of the best songs on Wurstville are in that category, including “Tiger in My Tank” (a hard thumper that sounds like some missing Fleshtones song). “Camel Hop,” with its appropriately tacky faux Mideastern guitar riffs, is only slightly less politically incorrect than the tacky pseudo-Japanese guitar riff and gong in the instrumental “King Ghidorah.”

And speaking of politically incorrect, my favorite Wurstville song at the moment is “She Was a Mau Mau.” The title character sounds more related to the cartoonish cannibals of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “Feast of the Mau Mau” than the actual anti-colonialist Kenyan rebels from the 1950s. And despite the historical inaccuracies, this is a crazy little stomper complete with jungle noises and an irresistibly nasty guitar hook.

*  Live in Paris by Sleater-Kinney. One of the most successful and satisfying rock ’n’ roll comeback stories in recent years was the 2015 return of Sleater-Kinney. Their album, No Cities to Love was nothing short of a triumph, and their show in Albuquerque that year was even better. And, judging from this new album, their concert in Paris was dadgum good as well.

To be honest, I was hoping that the group’s follow-up to No Cities would have been a studio album of new material. These troubled times demand intelligent and exciting music. But I guess the comeback reunion wasn’t a permanent thing. Oh well, no complaints here. I guess this is the next best thing.

The song selection leans heavy on No Cities, kicking off with a fully charged version of “Price Tag” and equally strong versions of the bouncy but intense “A New Wave,” “Surface Envy,” and the title song. They perform several tracks from The Woods, the group’s last album before the decade-long hiatus, and there also are some classic S-K tunes like “Dig Me Out,” “Start Together,” and  “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone.”

But there is only  one tune, “Oh!,” from my favorite Sleater-Kinney album, 2002’s One Beat. I wish they would have  done “Step Aside,” the best song from that album, instead.

But that’s just the grousing of a picky critic. Those who are already fans will appreciate this live album. And newcomers will have a useful starting point.

Let's have some videos:

Here's "PTP" from Black Joe Lewis' new one.



Here's a video I shot myself in 2011



Have a slice of Salami



And here's Sleater-Kinney in Paris

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...