Wednesday, March 31, 2021

WACKY WEDNESDAY: It's National Tater Day!


Happy National Tater Day! Here's a holiday that deserves more attention -- as well as more butter and sour cream. 

National Tater Day has been celebrated since before the civil war according to holidayscalendar.com.

This holiday was first celebrated as simple Tater Day in Benton, Kentucky in 1843. It was originally a celebration of the spring season, and participants would come together to trade sweet potato “slips.” Potato slips at the time are what farmers called the slips that were used to grow potatoes. Eventually, this holiday morphed into one of the oldest continuous trade days in the entire U.S. On this day, participants would buy and sell livestock, tobacco, livestock, and yes, even potato slips. Over the years, this holiday also featured parades, floats, clowns, marching bands, and even vintage cars. 

Oh to be a clown in a Tater Day parade!

Important note: Don't get National Tater Day confused with National Potato Day, Aug. 19. Play it safe. Celebrate both!

But to honor this noble tradition on this music blog, let's celebrate National Tater Day in song. Here's Dede Sharp with a tuberous tune from my youth. (It also can be played on National Gravy Day, if there is one.)


Around the same time in the early 60s, Joey Dee & The Starliters shared their recipe for "Hot Pastrami and Mashed Potatoes."


Here's Fats Waller with "All That Meat and No Potatoes." This culinary crime had Fats singing, "I'm steamin'. I'm really screamin'.  ..."


Devo loved their taters.


Tater Day in Kentucky originally was in honor of the sweet potato, which Kevin "Shinyribs" Russell calls "my favorite root vegetable."


The late New Mexico state Senator John Pinto used to sing a Navajo Potato song on the Senate floor at least once a year.


And I've been know to sing my own potato song


So Happy National Tater Day. Hope your party will never be a dud!



Tuesday, March 30, 2021

BIG ENCHILADA 153: Kooky Kantina

THE BIG ENCHILADA
 
Howdy friends and neighbors, welcome to the new hillbilly episode of The Big Enchilada. We're going to down a drink or six at the Kooky Kantina, where the liquor is cheap and Wicked Felina says things like, "Vamoose! José's on his way!"
 

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Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Stony Island Stomp by Dan Whitaker & The Shinebenders)
Dead or Alive by Titty Bingo with Willie Nelson
When I Was a Cowboy by Peter Case
Cantina Carlotta by Terry Allen
The Lovells Stockade Blues by Rachel Brooke
All Night Cowboy by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
(Background Music: Everybody Stomp by The Hoosier Hotshots)

Cantina by Piñata Protest
Jesus Malverde by Joe "King" Carrasco
All I Wants a Honky Tonk by Sarah Gayle Meech
Give That Love to Me by Ray Campi
Sure Fire Kisses by Goldie Hill & Justin Tubb
Kiss Me Baby by Laura Lee Perkins
Swingin' by Peter Stampfel
(Background Music: Blue Bonnet Rag by Don Helms & The Drifting Cowboys)

Johnston County by Eric Hisaw
This Morning at Nine by Bill Hearne
Through the Hole by The Dad Horse Experience
We Move on by Ramblin' Deano
Neath a Cold Gray Tomb of Stone by Knoxville Girls
(Background Music: Bob Wills Two-Step by Luke Wills' Rhythm Busters)


Play it below:






Sunday, March 28, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, March 28, 2021
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Lula Baby by The A-Bones
Dirty Robber by The Wailers
Hot Coffee by Andre Williams & The Goldstars
Black Mold by Nots
Why Can't We Be Like the Satelliters by Wild Evel & The Trashbones
Buc-Ee's Got a Problem by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
Put Me Dowen Like A Dog by Mean Motor Scooter
Bumble Bee by Peter Case
The Hurdy Gurdy Gurdy Man by Butthole Surfers

The Devil Lives in My Husband's Body by Pulsallama
Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness) by The Raconteurs
Sex Bomb by Flipper 
Don't Look Now by The Sires
Midnight Blues by The Detroit Cobras
Teaching You the Fear by The Bellrays
You Better Pray by Hamell on Trial

Look Me in the Eye by Rick Holstrom
What I Like About Miami by Charlie Pickett
Swingin' by Peter Stampfel
Memories of El Monte by The Mothers of Invention
My True Story by The Jive Five
I'll Go Crazy by James Brown
Yankin' My Chain by Joe "King" Carrasco
White Glove Service by The Grannies
In the Garden by Homer Henderson

This Wondrous Day by The William Loveday Intention
White Dress by Honshu Wolves
Ghosts on Mars by Harvey McLaughlin
Old Kentucky Home by Loretta Lynn
Undecided Love by Rachel Brooke
Passin' Through by Gary Heffern
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page


Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight? Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this. CLICK HERE

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

Thursday, March 25, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Pardon My French, It's Chanson D'Amour

 


Just a couple of weeks ago in a Throwback Thursday post about Lawrence Welk, I included a video of Sandi Griffith and a bevy of Welk beauties singing an old pop hit "Chanson D'Amour," cracking wise that "My sources in the Drug Culture community warn that it's NOT SAFE to view when you're stoned!"

I'm such a card!

But in all seriousness, this is about a song that's haunted me since I was a little kid. It seemed so foreign, alluring, with an undercurrent of danger hiding behind false wholesomeness. And the recurring "ra da da da da" is just this side of sinister.

I have a very distant and very vague memory of seeing the song performed on my mom's old black and white tv. I don't know who was singing it. Maybe it was the unforgettable, but largely forgotten Art & Dotty Todd, the first to record "Chanson" in 1958. Their video below did seem to jog some memories. However, for most of my life I assumed the singers were French. 

But that's incorrect. Art & Dotty were American lounge singers. And while the title is French, the song is not from France. Songwriter Wayne Shanklin was born in Joplin, Missouri. "Chanson D'Amour" is as American as French toast.

Here's Art & Dotty's version, introduced by Dick Clark on horseback!

Though the Todds were the first to record "Chanson," a group called The Fontane Sisters, a New Jersey group,  recorded it almost immediately after Art & Dotty. Both were released in March 1958. Here's the Fontanes' version:


By the mid 1960s, the song had been passed around and recorded by many of that era's major monsters of schmaltz: The Lettermen, Sadler & Young, Ray Coniff ... Even The Mills Brothers took a stab at the "Song of Love":

Apparently "Chanson" even made it to ... France. Here's Edith Piaff:

In the mid-'70s, "Chanson" was revived by the retro popsters Manhattan Transfer. The single was big in Europe, though didn't make much of a splash in the U.S., where cynics scoffed, "They're no Art & Dotty!"

I was hoping to uncover some obscure R&B or bluegrass or polka or zydeco or speed metal versions of "Chanson D'Amour" but came up empty-handed. However I did find  this gem by The Muppets!


But hey, R&B, bluegrass, polka, zydeco and speed metal musicians, the song is still there ... hint hint!

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

Sunday, March 21, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, March 21, 2021
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Justine by The Blasters
Lil Lobo by Joe "King" Carrasco with Patricia Vonne
Baby Doll by The Del Moroccos
Ain't Your Choir by Churchwood
Before the World Blows Up by The Electric Mess
Frog Went a Courtin' by Flat Duo Jets
The Model by Big Black
It's Trash by The Cavemen
My Way by The Darts


All I'm Saying by Alien Space Kitchen
Bowdlerize by Danger Cutterhead
Travelin' Riverside Blues by Hindu Love Gods
Cape by Jon Spencer
Talent Show by The Replacements
Say Goodbye to a Dream by The Woggles
I Am Gonna Unmask the Batman by Lacy Gibson with Sun Ra
Coming to Take Me Away by Tiny Tim

Sophisticated Boom Boom by The Knoxville Girls
Parts Unknown by Kid Congo Powers with Lydia Lunch & Die Haut
Down the Road by Dead Moon
Snickersnee by Thee Oh Sees
Scumbag by Frank Zappa with John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Crazy Train / Monkey Town by Degurutieni

Hot Pastrami with Mashed Potatoes by Joey Dee & The Starliters
It's a Jungle Out There by Randy Newman
Geeshie by The Mekons
I'm a Suspect by Lonnie Holley
How Great Thou Art by Homer Henderson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page


     Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this. CLICK HERE

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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