THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, March 31, 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
Back from the Shadows Again by Firesign Theatre
700,000 Rednecks by Nikki Lane
Cowboy in Flames by The Waco Brothers
Still Sober After All these Beers by The Banditos
Solitary Confinement by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Battle of Love by Mose McCormack
Beans & Make Believe by John Wagner 
This Town Gets Around by Margo Price
Fuck This Town by Robbie Fulks
I'm Fixin' to Have a Breakdown by Dale Watson
Y'all Come by Minnie Pearl

Hands on Your Hips by Shinyribs
My House Has Wheels by Southern Culture on the Skids
The Ballad of Thunder Road by Jim & Jesse
Flora, The Lily of the West by Tim O'Brien
Hey Little Darlin' by The Wilders
I Believe in Spring by Eleni Mandell
Sold and Stolen by Stephanie Hatfield
Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean

She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye by Jerry Lee Lewis
Who's Heart Are You Breaking Now? by Don Walser
Cajun Joe (Bully of the Bayou by Doug & Rusty Kershaw
North to Alaska by Johnny Horton
I'd Like to Know by Jo-El Sonnier
Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud Loud Music by John Prine & Amanda Shires
One Bad Shoe by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Wasp's Nest by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Crippled and Crazy by Scott H. Biram

Mercy and Loving Kindness by Jessi Colter
Commandment 3 by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
The Selfishness of Man by George Jones
You Don't Know Me by Willie Nelson
Crazy Moon by Merle Haggard
April Fool's Day Morn by Loudon Wainwright III
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Here's to Seward's Folly!

One hundred and fifty years ago today, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia to purchase what later would become the 49th state for $24 in beads.

Ooops. That was another land deal. Seward agreed to buy Alaska for $7 million -- which was about 2 cents per acre.

But while this still was a huge bargain, opponents mocked the deal as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Ice Box" or "Seward's Ice Capades" (Ok, I just made that one up.)

The U.S. Senate on April 7, 1867 ratified the treaty by a one-vote margin.

To celebrate, here's a musical tribute to the Last Frontier.


This is Alaska's official state song.



Here's what ought to be Alaska's damn state song:



Johnny Horton had a knack for Alaska songs



And finally some old fashioned Alaska-centric political incorrectness from Hank Thompson

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday, Eric Idle

Eric Idle, probably the most musical member of Monty Python, turns 74 today.

Let's honor him by presenting some of his greatest songs.

Here's one called "Eric the Half-a-Bee" from Monty Python's Previous Record, their third album released in 1972.




Eric got cosmic in this classic number from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.



The Carter Family's "Keep on the Sunny Side" might have sounded like this had the Carters sung it while being crucified. (From The Life of Brian.)



And we can't forget Eric's contributions to The Rutles, in his guise as Dirk McQuickly.



Here's a sentimental little gem from the George W. Bush era.



And here's a happy little meditation on mortality performed on the Craig Ferguson show in 2009

BIG ENCHILADA 106: And Their Hearts Were Full of Spring

It's springtime at the Big Enchilada. Birds are singing, bells are ringing and bitchen tunes are sprouting up like poisonous mushrooms awaiting their victims! Plus an inspired tribute to the recently ascended master Chuck Berry. So don't fall back, spring forward to the glorious sounds. 

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Garbage City by The Street Sweepers)
Tailgate Party by The Gay Sportscasters with Evan Johns
Fate of a Gambler by Laino & The Broken Seeds
It's Not Easy by Alcoholic Helltones
Kill Zone by James Arthur's Manhunt
Mean Evil Child by The Raunch Hands
(Background Music: Midnight by Hank Levine & The Blazers)

CHUCK BERRY TRIBUTE
Roll Over Beethoven by The Sonics
Let it Rock by The Animals
Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller by The Flamin' Groovies
Rock and Roll Music by The Red Elvises
Reelin' and a Rockin' by The Astronauts
The Promised Land by Dale Hawkins
Johnny B. Goode by Lolita #18
(Background Music: My Mustang Ford by Chuck Berry)

Crazy to the Bone by Dead Moon
Apes Live a Life by The Blind Shake
Mojo by Blind Butcher
You Can Be a Fascist Too by Playboy Manbaby
(Background Music: Holiness Dance by The Rev. Louis Overstreet)


Play it below:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 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
Nutbush City Limits by New Diamond Heavies
Boogie Tale by Laino & The Broken Seeds
The Stranger Rides Tonight by Daddy Long Legs
Funeral by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Heart Attack and Vine by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Big Black Mariah by John Hammond
No Pussy Blues by Grinderman
Johnny B. Goode by Lolita No. 18

A Fix on You by Dead Moon
Pizza by Double Date with Death
Circus Freak by The Electric Prunes
Complication by The Monks
Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy by The Fall
Become A Monk by Modey Lemon
Ways to Get Along with You by Lynx Lynx
All My Lovin' by The Beatles
I Can't Dance by Singing Sadie

The Cuckoo by Big Brother & The Holding Company
Police Call by Drywall
Weakling by TAD
Lava by Brothers of the Sonic Cloth
Down on the Street by The Stooges
I Shot All the Birds by The Blind Shake
How to Fake a Lunar Landing by Alien Space Kitchen
The Other Two by Mark Sultan
Bounce Your Boobies by Rusty Warren

Don't Worry About Me (Opus 17) by The Four Seasons
Stay Lover Strong by Stephanie Hatfield
Up in Flames by Julee Cruise
Still Around by Scott H. Biram
Changes by Charles Bradley
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP Scott H. Biram and The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

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

“I’m here to tell you about something that just might save your life..” 

Those are the first intelligible words you hear on The Bad Testament, the new album by Scott H. Biram — that dirty old one-man band from Austin — right after a few seconds of ambient radio noise and when the first song, “Set Me Free” actually begins. 

I can’t honestly say this album saved my life or will save yours. But it sure won’t hurt. The important thing is, this might be the best Biram album yet.

While it boasts the basic Biram sound — his rough-edged voice over acoustic guitar and foot-stomping — as a songwriter, Biram just keeps improving. He can still rock hard and crazy, the best examples here being “TrainWrecker” and “Hit the River,” a wild instrumental. He’s not afraid to get obscene if the spirit says so, as he proves on “Swift Driftin’.” 

And he has always had a way with good-time drinking songs like “Red Wine.” (One can easily imagine Texas honky-tonker Dale Watson singing this one.) But what Biram really has going for him is a knack for writing downright pretty blues-soaked country songs, and The Bad Testament has plenty of those.

“Still Around” is a minor-key song of a scorned lover, proud and defiant: “Go ahead and throw me down, I might be broke, I’m still around,” he sings. “I’m the weapon in your hand/I’m the stone that drags you down/I am the rock on which you stand/I am the one who hangs around.” The lyrics provide few clues as to what led to the singer’s angry words (“I have never been your friend/I’m just worn down by wind”), but the pain is audible. Plus there’s some pretty fancy near-flamenco fingerpicking in a couple of places here.

“Crippled & Crazy” could very well be autobiographical. Nearly 15 years ago Biram survived an auto accident — a head-on collision with a pickup truck — that basically broke every bone in his body. Those wounds apparently still haunt him, as do others.

 With a sad electric organ adding a little texture, Biram sings of being “crippled and crazy and out of control” as well as being “sober and stupid” and “sold down the river.” On the heart-wrenching bridge he cries, “Calling all angels, all heartaches and demons, calling all lovers that left for no reason, down through the chamber that echoed the screamin’; twisted and turnin’ I just quit believin’ in love.’’

“Righteous Ways,” with its own sweet fingerpicking, sounds as if Biram has been listening to some Mississippi John Hurt. It’s an introspective number on which he yearns for a spirituality he knows he may never achieve. “I struggle all the time in my mind and in my heart,” he sings. “There’s just never enough time for righteous ways.”

But later on the album he makes a stab at righteousness, with “True Religion,” an a cappella tune that goes back at least as far as Leadbelly (and I suspect further). Biram’s probably being tongue-in-cheek here, seeing how the song is sandwiched between crazy religious radio samples. But in light of “Righteous Ways,” I suspect there’s a grain of earnestness too. 

Biram may seem a little bit touched at times, but I think the angels are among those who touched him. 


Also recommended:

 Front Porch Sessions by The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. This “big damn band” consists of exactly three people: Josh Peyton on vocals and guitar; his wife, Breezy Peyton, on washboard and background vocals; and drummer Maxwell Senteney — three people and no more. So it might seem odd to describe this album as more stripped-down than previous albums, but that’s what it is. 

The record wasn’t really recorded on Peyton’s front porch. But it sounds as if it might have been. It could be the soundtrack of a great summer barbecue, where the music is as tasty as the ribs.

There are not as many hard-chugging songs as on most of the albums by this Indiana trio. In some ways, Front Porch resembles the 2011 album Peyton on Patton, which was a solo album in which the Reverend played songs by blues pioneer Charley Patton. 

The new album has several covers of blues greats as well: Furry Lewis’ “When My Baby Left Me,” Blind Willie Johnson’s gospel stomper “Let Your Light Shine,” and “When You Lose Your Money,” which is based on Lewis’ version of the classic bad-man ballad “Billy Lyons & Stack O’ Lee.”

Peyton’s originals are worthy as well. The sweet opening cut, “We Deserve a Happy Ending,” sung with Breezy, is a moderate tempo blues, accented by the Reverend’s slide, about marital joy. “Even when we’re losing, it feels like we are winning,” the couple sing. 

The mood shifts with “What You Did to the Boy Ain’t Right,” on which the singer scolds, “I don’t want to fight, but what you did to the boy ain’t right.” It’s never spelled out what exactly was done to whom. We just know the Reverend don’t like it. 

Then there is the slow “One Bad Shoe,” which works an existential metaphor about traveling unprepared, knowing there’s a good chance you won’t make it to your destination.

In the tradition of previous Reverend Peyton food songs — like “Pot Roast and Kisses,” “Born Bred Corn Fed,” and “Mama’s Fried Potatoes” — the final track on Front Porch Sessions is “Cornbread and Butterbeans.” Here Peyton celebrates “eatin’ beans and makin’ love as long as I am able.” It’s a well-deserved feast.


Let's see some videos

First, a couple from The Bad Testament




And now, Rev. Peyton

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Remembering Cindy Walker

One of country music's finest songwriters from the 1940s through the 1950s died on this date in 2006.

I'm talking of course about Cindy Walker.

This little lady from Mart, Texas wrote so many classics it's uncanny.

And still today I'm frequently surprised when I realize that a song I love was one of Cindy's.

And actually it's unfair to pigeon hole her as only a country songwriter. Her songs have been covered by pop, rock and jazz stars as well.

In fact she got a recording contract after pitching a song -- "Lone Star Trail" to none other than Bing Crosby.

As a gutsy 22-year-old on a trip to Los Angeles with her parents, she walked into Crosby's office determined to get the song to Der Bingle. And she did.

Below are several Cindy Walker songs, some well-known, some not so much. Each one is a jewel.

Woody Guthrie's not the only one who wrote Dustbowl ballads. This is an early song by Cindy, ritten in the 1930s when she was a teenager. Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys recorded it in 1941.



Some of Wills' most famous songs were written by Cindy, including this one:



She wrote this singing cowboy tune for Gene Autry. I first heard the version by The Byrds on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.



This Vietnam era recording by Jim Reeves is as moving now as it was in 1966. This is one that was loved by doves as well as hawks. Cindy's lyrics cut to the heart.



Ernest Tubb did "Warm Red Wine"



I recently posted a video of Webb Pierce doing this song, which was a hit for him the '60s. Here's a more recent version by Ricky Skaggs.



She even wrote a song for Spike Jones, "Barstool Cowboy from Barstow."



Finally, this last song probably is my favorite Cindy Walker songs -- and one of my favorite songs in general. I'm still partial to Ray Charles' version from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. But Cindy's own version is wonderful as well. 

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday Rusty !

Monday was the 87th birthday of Ilene Goldman, better known in the Free World as Rusty Warren.

She was a comedian and a nightclub singer. And even though she graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, this brassy broad became the undisputed Queen Mother of what they used call "party records."

Or as she puts it, "I was one of the first loud-mouthed women who would admit we liked sex."

Rusty's off-color, sex-obsessed act managed to sell tons of records--  even though radio wouldn't touch albums with titles like Songs of Sin, Bottoms Up, Sin-Sational, Banned in Boston and -- her most famous -- Knockers Up! 

Here is a trailer for a DVD Rusty was hawking a few years ago:



This one probably is her best-known song. Liberal talk-show host Randi Rhodes used to play it every Friday on her show.


I'm not sure why this video features a photo of busty Asian woman, but who am I to argue?

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 19. 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
Leave the Capitol by The Fall
Who Will Save Rock 'n' Roll by The Dictators
You're Gonna Miss Me by Dog Sahm & Sons
Staubsauger Baby by Blind Butcher
Fate of a Gambler by Laino & Broken Seeds
What They Tell Me by Mission of Burma
I Wanted Everything by The Ramones
On Broadway by Esquerita

Trainwrecker by Scott H. Biram
Corpse on a Roof by The Blind Shake
It's Fun by Lynx Lynx
Coyote Conundrum by Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkeybirds
Don't Look in the Basement by The Devils
We Repel Each Other by Reigning Sound
Pony Tail and a Black Cadillac by King Automatic
Hollywood Swinging by Kool & The Gang

R.I.P. Chuck Berry
1926-2017

Hail Hail Chuck Berry!

You Can't Catch Me by Chuck Berry
Around and Around by The Animals
Too Much Monkey Business by Chuck Berry
Roll Over Beethoven by The Beatles
The Promised Land by Chuck Berry
Johnny B. Goode by Jimi Hendrix
Sweet Little Rock and Roller by Chuck Berry
Berry Rides Again by Steppenwolf
C.C. Rider by Chuck Berry with the Steve Miller Band
Carol by The Rolling Stones
You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry
Brown Eyed Handsome Man by Jerry Lee Lewis
Havana Moon by Chuck Berry
Whatever Happened to Jesus (and Maybellene) by Terry Allen
School Days by Chuck Berry

Something's Broken in the Promised Land by Wayne Kramer
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Questionable Spawn of Big Bad John

Back before he became known mostly for his sausage, Jimmy Dean was a country / pop singer famous mostly for creating a modern legend in the form of a mysterious coal miner named Big John.

Every mornin' at the mine you could see him arrive
He stood six-foot-six and weighed two-forty-five
Kinda broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip
And everybody knew ya didn't give no lip to big John

Released in September, 1961 at the height  of country music's "faux-folksong" craze (think Marty Robbins' "El Paso," Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans," Lefty Frizzell's "Long Black Veil," Bobby Bare's "Miller's Cave," etc.) Dean became the ultimate white rapper with his hip, finger poppin' delivery on "Big Bad John."  The subject of the song was a bigge-than-life Paul Bunyan / John Henry style hero who captured the nation's imagination by selflessly sacrifcing his own life to save his fellow workers in a mining disaster.

Then came the day at the bottom of the mine
When a timber cracked and men started cryin'
Miners were prayin' and hearts beat fast
And everybody thought that they'd breathed their last, 'cept John
Through the dust and the smoke of this man-made hell
Walked a giant of a man that the miners knew well
Grabbed a saggin' timber, gave out with a groan
And like a giant oak tree he just stood there alone, big John ...

Here is Jimmy performing the song on his own TV show a couple of years after it became his biggest hit.



But Jimmy couldn't just leave Big John at the bottom of that pit. A few months later, in January, 1962, he released a sequel about Big John's long lost lover, the Cajun Queen.

But this song just didn't have the same magic. In fact, in 2013, the Cracked website used "The Cajun Queen" to lead off its list of "4 Songs You Didn't Know Had Sequels (That Ruin The Original)."

All that gritty realism from the original is tossed out the window. In its place we get a bullshit tall tale that, if you told it to your grandchildren, they would immediately ask your doctors to up your meds. And they'd be right; clearly you need it.

Basically Queenie has so much magical sex appeal she has the power to raise the dead with her kiss.

Listen for yourself ...



Cracked concludes that "Jimmy Dean should have left poor John to rot alone in the mines, instead of artificially resurrecting him for the sake of a happy-dappy-sappy ending."

Maybe Jimmy agreed. In June 1962 he released a second sequel about the bastard spawn of Big John and the Cajun Queen, "Little Bitty Big John." And it was as if the magical resurrection that took place in "The Cajun Queen" never happened.



But Big John also made a gratuitous cameo appearance in another Jimmy Dean hit, "PT-109" which mythologized the World Wart II exploits of John F. Kennedy, who was president at the time. Check the very end of this song (which actually was released a couple of months before "Little Bitty Big John.")



But that's not the last we heard of Big Bad John or his woman.  Dottie West released this "answer song" in 1964. It's a re-imaging of the Cajun Queen story.



Fortunately the next place the legend of Big Bad John played out in the tacky world of homophobic parody. A guy named Steve Greenberg turned the legendary coal miner into a swishy hairdresser named "Big Bruce"



Similarly, Ben Colder -- the comic persona of Sheb Wooley who was best known for the novelty tune "The Purple People Eater" -- turned the heroic coal miner into "Big Sweet John." Colder's hero not only was gay, but a hippie also well. A real knee-slapper.



A more worthy successor is Hank Penny's 1970 "Big Bad John" inspired song of racial understanding called "The Strong Black Man," who not only saves his fellow minors from a cave-in, but makes the narrator see the errors of his racist thinking.




For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook