Friday, December 30, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


Friday, December 30, 2011 
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


OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Future on Ice by The Last Mile Ramblers
Hang Your Head and Cry by Scott H. Biram
Always Late With Your Kisses by Merle Haggard
Havin' a Ball by Kim Lenz
Don't Give a Damn by Honky Tonk Hustlas
Victoria's Secret is Safe With Me by Arty Hill
The Cat Never Sleeps by Mama Rosin with Hipbone Slim & The Knee Trembers
Me Not Calling by Rock Brousard & Two Hoots and a Holler
California Hippie Murders by Red River Dave

Let's Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Broken Man by The Goddamn Gallows
Hesitation Boogie by Hardrock Gunter
No Banker Left Behind by Ry Cooder
We're Gonna Bop by Alvadeen Coker
Gambling Barroom Blues by Steve Forbert
A Song Called Love by Slackeye Slim
Big Rock Candy Mountain by Jimmie Dale Gilmore with The Wronglers
Livin' on Pabst Blue Ribbon by Hellbound Glory
You're Bound to Look Like a Monkey by The Great Recession Orchestra

Thy Will Be Done by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Fare Thee Long by Black Eyed Vermillion
Death Don't Have No Mercy by Black Eyed Vermillion with Andy Gibson
The Barnyard by Rachel Brooke
Jesus Was a Wino by Lydia Loveless
Go-Go Boots by Drive-By Truckers
American Trash by Betty Dylan

31st December by Robert Earl Reed
Think of Me by Dex Romweber Duo
Shotgun by Anthony Leon & The Chain
The Sun by The Imperial Rooster
Powerlines by The Ugly Valley Boys
Black Rose of Texas by Dave Alvin
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Thursday, December 29, 2011

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BEST of 2011

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Dec. 30, 2011


Here are my favorite albums of 2011. Do yourself a favor and go buy as many of these as possible, including — nay, especially — the ones you haven’t heard of.

*  Bad as Me by Tom Waits. In these difficult economic and political times, hearing music this excellent from an old master — who is well along the road to senior citizenship — is a sweet and welcome beacon in the fog, even when much of the music is dark and threatening. It’s reassuring that Waits is awake and creating, making music that still matters, growling with the alley cats, and bellowing like an immortal. Waits is such a monster that he attracts a whole boatload of star performers as sidemen, and yet you never once forget that Bad as Me is a Tom Waits album, not a guest-star extravaganza.


*  Wild Flag. This isn’t the rebirth of Sleater-Kinney, but it is definitely some of the most satisfying rock ’n’ roll I heard in 2011. Guitarist/singer Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney are together again in this self-titled album. But wait, as the late-night TV ads say, there’s more! This band also includes singer/guitarist Mary Timony, who fronted a 1990s indie band called Helium, and Rebecca Cole of The Minders. Like S-K, Wild Flag makes wild and timeless rock ’n’ roll with brawn and brains.



*  Is That You in the Blue? by Dex Romweber Duo. Like this duo’s previous album, this is a minimalist masterpiece basically consisting of Romweber (formerly of The Flat Duo Jets, a pioneering roots-punk twosome) on vocals and guitar and his sister Sara Romweber bashing away on drums, subtly aided by other instruments in certain spots — an organ here, a sax there, standup bass here and there. There are lots of rocking stompers here, but my favorites are the slow, spooky ones highlighting Dex’s haunting croon.



*  Down in the Barnyard by Rachel Brooke. She’s the Wednesday Addams of country music. Her voice is sweet, almost cute. On most songs, the accompaniment is spare and simple -- mostly just her guitar. But listen to the lyrics on some of the songs on this unassuming little album, and you’ll realize she’s got a twisted, evil side. Like my favorite folk songs, these tunes are full of murder, sex, and mystery.



*  Savage Kings by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages. After a quarter decade, East Coast R & B and soul shouter Barrence Whitfield reunited last year with the core of his original band, The Savages, a move instigated by his old guitarist Peter Greenberg, now a Taos resident. Besides rereleasing their first self-titled album, Barrence and the boys recorded a mighty new album full of wild delights including The MC5’s “(Your Love Is Like a) Ramblin’ Rose”; “Willie Meehan,” a tale of an old boxing champ written by Greenberg and Taos crony Mike Mooney; and my personal favorite, the Lightnin’ Slim dirty-blues classic “It’s Mighty Crazy.”


*  Simon Stokes and The Heathen Angels. This self-titled album has everything I like about Simon Stokes — boozy biker rock, some credible honky- some mad folk-inspired ballads that would make your typical folkie wet his pants in fear. “Hey You” is an instant Stokes classic dealing with a confrontation between a man on edge who is basically irate with the world and someone who looks at him wrong. “Let’s Do Wrong Tonight,” a duet with Annette Zilinskas (formerly of The Bangles), is a 100-proof honky-tonker. And “Down for Death” is what Fairport Convention would have sounded like had the group been fronted by a homicidal motorcycle outlaw.



*  Rat City by Jack Oblivian. Memphis rocker Jack Yarber has played in respected outfits like The Compulsive Gamblers and, of course, The Oblivians, whence he got his stage name. This album is full of sweet, sweaty rockers, many of which are graced with understated pop sensibility. The title song is a crunchy blues-punk workout, while “Old Folks Boogie” sounds like John Lee Hooker filtered through a meat grinder. “Girl With the Bruises,” about an abused woman, could almost be a lost Paul Westerberg song. And there’s even a good-time version of Billy Swan’s “Lover Please.”


*  Unentitled by Slim Cessna’s Auto Club. This Denver band delivers that backwoods hellfire old-time religion on this album. The best songs are dark and spooky. “Hallelujah Anyway” is a twisted tale of an arranged wedding. “United Brethren” is an emotional song about a preacher losing his congregation to another church, which also happened to his great-grandfather. It’s not a problem most of us will ever face, but when singer Jay Munly pleads “Lord have mercy upon us” at the end of the song, in his lonesome tenor with just an autoharp behind him, only the most hard-hearted heathen would be unmoved.


*  Scandalous by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. Black Joe and his band from Austin gave one of the best live shows in Santa Fe this year and released one of the best albums. This sophomore rock ’n’ soul effort will glaze your ham. It’s got more hard rock and electric blues packed in its grooves than the group’s first album, Tell ’em What Your Name Is. The whole album is a blast, but the most fun has to be “Mustang Ranch,” a tale of a visit to the famous Nevada cathouse.


*  Cannibal Courtship by Dengue Fever. For the uninitiated, Dengue Fever sprang from the crazy, psychedelic music that flourished in Cambodia in the pre-Pol Pot years. But Dengue isn’t about faithfully recreating that music, which was brutally driven underground by the Khmer Rouge during the Killing Fields era. Fronted by Cambodian singer Chhom Nimol, this California band builds upon the music of artists like Pan Ron, Ros Sereysothea, and Sinn Sisamouth — the same way The Rolling Stones built upon the foundation laid down by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry.



Honorable mention:
*  Gorilla Rose by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds 
*  El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa by Slackeye Slim
*  Ersatz GB by The Fall
*  Bad Ingredients by Scott H. Biram
*  Crazy Clown Time by David Lynch
*  Go-Go Boots by Drive-By Truckers
*  Louisiana Sun by Mama Rosin and Hip Bone Slim
*  Eleven Eleven by Dave Alvin 
* Decent People by The Imperial Rooster
* Boogie the Church Down by Juke Joint Pimps/Gospel Pimps

Sunday, December 25, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 25, 2011 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Suddenly It's Christmas by Loudon Wainwright III
Cheap Thrills by Ruben & The Jets
At Last by Richard Berry & The Dreamers
Dog Food by Iggy Pop
The Lover's Curse by The A-Bones
Gloria by Elastica
Ship Sailed at 6 by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Taking Off by The Fall
After You Die by Tom Waits
Eggnog by The Rockin' Guys

Hobo Babylon by Deadbolt
Desire by The Hickoids
Blues for Joe by The Monsters
Kidnapper by Jack Oblivian
She's Lookin' Good by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack
Black Santa by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Little Mary Christmas by Jack Christian
Work Me Baby by Junior Kimbrough
Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope by Sonic Youth

Jingle Bells by The Electric Prunes
One Night of Sin by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Racehorse by Wild Flag
Mr. Bubbles by Dengue Fever
South Street by The Orlons
Snowman by Thee Fine Lines
Santa Fuzz by The Marshmallow Overcoat
Gimme Dat Ding by The Pipkins
I'm Weak by The New Bomb Turks
The Scrambler by The Civil Tones

Lonely Boy by The Black Keys
Jeepster by T Rex
Christmas 1979 by Wild Billy Childish & bThe Musicians of the British Empire
Call Me #1 by The Reigning Sound
A Christmas Duel by The Hives with Cyndi Lauper
Lonely Christmas Call by George Jones

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, December 23, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, December 23, 2011 
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

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
If We Make It Through December by Merle Haggard
Remember Me by Willie Nelson
Bluebird by The Watzloves
Just Lookin' Pretty by Josie Kruetzer
Drinking Friends by Fifth on the Floor
Santa Can't Stay by Dwight Yoakam
When Sin Stops by Waylon Jennings & Buddy Holly
Will I Ever by Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
Rootin' Tootin' Santa Claus by The Buckerettes

Merry Christmas from the Family by Robert Earl Keen
I Gotta Date to Cut a Cake by Deke Dekerson
Get What's Comin' by The Defibulators
You're a Loser by Delaney Davidson
That Good Ol' Mountain Dew by Gamala Beat
Run Rudolf Run by Rev. Horton Heat
Miller, Jack and Mad Dog by Wayne Hancock
High on Jesus by Kinky Friedman
Up on the Housetop by Conway Twitty & Twitty Bird

Old Toy Trains by Roger Miller
You'll Never Be Mine Again by Levon Helm
He Calls That Religion by Maria Muldaur
The Sheik Of Araby by The Jim Kweskin Jug Band
Truckin' Trees for Christmas by Red Simpson
Strangler In The Night by T.Tex Edwards & Out On Parole
Don't Hold Me Back by Honky Tonk Hustlas
Eyeball You Later by Southern Culture on the Skids
Just Another River by Scott H. Biram
Good-Bye Sweet Liza Jane by Charlie Poole

Shootin' Snowmen by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Lousiana Bayou Christmas by Crankshaft & The Gear Grinders
Heavy Rescue by Broomdust Caravan
Redemption by Dex Romweber Duo
Payphone by Eric Hisaw
Jumping the Sharks by Carter Falco
Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy by Buck Owens
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

R.I.P. David Prince

I just received some terrible news. David Prince, a fellow music writer, sometimes DJ and all-around music fanatic, died last night at his Santa Fe home after a lengthy bout with emphysema. He had been in hospice for some time, I'm not sure how long, so his death wasn't unexpected. But it's still terrible.

Our mutual friend Al Faaet, who informed me of his death, said Prince was 65.

Prince's musical passions and mine have intersected several times during the past 20 years or so, He had a at least a couple of long-standing gigs writing music reviews and features for Pasatiempo, The New Mexican's arts and entertainment magazine (where Terrell's Tune-Up is published). The most recent stint ended in late 2007.

He had a column there in the mid '90s called "Take 505." Prince also wrote for The Santa Fe Reporter and was music editor for the long defunct local paper Crosswinds. For a few years we were both contributors to the Village Voice's annual  Pazz & Jop poll.

And he was a DJ at KSFR. In fact my show, The Santa Fe Opry, took over Prince's Friday night slot where his show Flight 505 aired for several years. I got to sub for him on his show fLight 505 a couple of times. He also did radio shows for KUNM and a short-lived jazz show for KBAC.

Prince was at KSFR back in the weird old days, when the station had a "fine arts" format that permitted very little crazy rock 'n' roll. Here's what writer Jason Silverman wrote about Prince's show in Pasatiempo in 1994:
Prince plays a range of music over Flight 505 . The show also includes readings and comedy, linking styles and influences ranging from Ornette Coleman to Joseph Heller, from Captain Beefheart to Lenny Bruce, from the two-tone of the 1910s to Tom Waits.
Prince, who covers music for Pasatiempo, has been on the radio on and off since the late '60s, when he was a jock on the Ithaca College station. Public radio, he said, affords him a freedom that commercial radio doesn't.
``On oldies stations you can't play Jimi Hendrix, because he's too rock 'n' roll, '' he said. ``And on classic rock stations you can't play The Drifters, because they're oldies. That's just ridiculous, because all of these people influenced each other, all of them cross-pollinated.''
Which reminds me of how I first got to know Prince. It was in 1989 or '90 and I'd been sick for several days. I was flipping around the radio dial on a Friday night and stumbled upon KSFR. I forget what song it was, but I liked it and was surprised to hear it on a station that normally played classical music.

And I liked the song after that, and the one after that, and the one after that ... This, I later learned was Prince's fLight 505.

Of course I didn't always agree with Prince's musical opinions. But I always had to concede that his knowledge of music was far wider than mine. He knew far more about jazz than I ever will. And the same is true for classical music.

A few years later, I was listening to a classical show one weekend afternoon. Now, I'm a complete rube when it comes to classical music. I don't even remember much about the piece I was hearing, but the DJ talked about it enthusiastically  in easy to understand language and it really added to my appreciation. This, of course, was Prince, who I think was substituting for the regular host. Sometimes classical DJs seem so snooty and effete, but not Prince.

I think the last time I saw Prince he was working at The Candyman a few years ago, back when they sold records and CDs. Until I heard about his illness recently I wasn't even sure if he was still in town. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.

All I can say now is that Santa Fe has lost a true champion for music.

Update 11:45 a.m.: I added the fact that Prince suffered from emphysema.

Update 8 a.m. Dec. 25: CLICK HERE for Prince's obit by Craig Smith in The New Mexican.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Gorilla My Dreams

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Dec. 23, 2011


I love Kinky Friedman, but something he said at his Santa Fe Sol Stage & Grill concert a couple of weeks ago irritated me. (Hey, if the Kinkster doesn’t irritate everyone in the audience at least a little, he’s not doing his job.)

Kid Congo & Pink Monkey Birds at Knitting Factory
Brooklyn, NY, 2010
He basically said that the only musical acts worth seeing these days are “geezers” like Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Iggy Pop, and Levon Helm (and, I suppose, by extension, Kinky Friedman.) He said something similar in his recent interview with my distinguished colleague Rob DeWalt.

I’m willing to cut Kinky some slack. After all, he’s 67 years old, and I’m just a kid of 58. But, jeez, when he talks like that, he sounds like the crotchety old goats of my youth. He should be tied up and forced to listen to nothing but Allan Sherman’s “Pop Hates the Beatles” for 72 straight hours.

The truth is, our modern world is full of great musical artists. I try to spotlight them nearly every week in this column. It’s fair to say that few, if any, of them will get the mainstream recognition of Dylan and the others. But to those with ears to hear, the underground is spilling over with crazy talent making timeless sounds.

This little rant got going in my head the other day when I was driving to work listening to Gorilla Rose, the latest album by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds. Brian Tristan, aka Kid Congo Powers, plays some of the most interesting sounds being produced today. It’s a wild mix of mutated ’60s Chicano rock, surf, garage, and spooky, noirish R & B.

This album (which is named for an L.A. performance-art character Powers met as a lonesome teenage punk) is a worthy follow-up to his previous work, Dracula Boots, which took similar paths into bizarre dimensions. It’s full of cool-groove instrumentals and weird tales that Powers recites.

I don’t think I’ve ever read any article or review of Kid Congo that didn’t mention his impressive résumé. And I won’t break precedent here. He was the original lead guitarist in the pioneering punk-blues band The Gun Club. And he also served time in The Cramps and Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds. This, friends and neighbors, is what you call credentials. When I saw him and the PMBs play in New York last year, they did some great Cramps covers (”Goo Goo Muck” and “I’m Cramped”) and an even better cover of Gun Club’s “Sex Beat.”

Gorilla Rose starts off with a jamming little instrumental called “Bo Bo Boogaloo.” It sounds as if it came out of some archetypal mod à go-go teen dance club in a 1960s spy thriller. There’s a snaky, sinister organ that reminds me of early ’70s Nigerian music and some serious distorted guitar. The next song, “Goldin Browne,” is driven by a throbbing funky bass lead, while Powers recites “Dark colors, black leather/Stray pets, bad habits/Medicine cabinets, Chairman Mao/Aladdin Sane, Goldin Browne.” And then he repeats it.

The words to the slow, slinky “Catsuit Fruit” are even more mysterious — basically, he lists a bunch of fruits. “Cherries, bananas, lemon, grape, peach, lime ...”

Then there’s “Our Other World,” in which Powers tells a story about being a kid working in a Hollywood record store. He recalls seeing Rick James losing his temper and breaking copies of Parliament’s Gloryhallastoopid as a drag-queen shoplifter ODs in the jazz section.

In “Bunker Mentality,” Powers and The Monkey Birds do a pretty good impersonation of The Fall. Powers even sounds like Mark E. Smith. And, truth be told, I can’t understand a word he’s saying; though I don’t care, because I like the music — jungle drums and repeated cranked-up guitar riffs.

Meanwhile, “Hills of Pills,” with its falsetto vocals backing Powers’ spoken word, reminds me of The Black Lips. The music is dominated by a basic blues-riff slide guitar (hinting at Mickey & Sylvia’s “Love Is Strange”). And this tune should win the prize for Best Use of Kazoo in a Non-Jug-Band Setting.

“Lullaby in Paradise” starts out like some lost Lou Reed song, perhaps the ugly cousin of “Perfect Day.” It’s a slow tune lead by a wistful, almost jazzy electric guitar (with some weird grating distortion in the background). Then the tempo picks up as the guitar attacks a basic soul riff before slowing down again.

Kid Congo is full of surprises. He’ll take a simple neo-punk song like “At the Ruin of Others” and go into different dimensions with a crazy discordant guitar solo that would make Sonic Youth blush. And a little later, just for a few moments, there’s a pseudo East-Indian or Arabic guitar part that sounds like the early days of psychedelia. But then it fades, never to return — leaving a listener to wonder, “Did I imagine that?”

That’s basically how I feel about much of this crazy good album.

Also recommended:
*  El Camino by The Black Keys. Now here’s a decent 21st-century band that might actually have a decent chance of achieving a level of popularity and (gulp!) fame.

Granted, I liked them better in their early days — not that long ago — when they were just a couple of nerdy blues geeks from Ohio who would give up everything just to touch the hem of the garment of T-Model Ford.

These days singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney sound like they’re searching for the ghost of Mark Bolin. This album, produced by Danger Mouse, has a glam-rock sheen. When I saw them live nearly a decade ago, they reminded me of the old proto-metal monsters Blue Cheer. Listening to the new album, I wonder how that could have been so.

The Keys are a lot slicker now than their days of bashing out their high-volume blues as a two-man band, but don’t get me wrong. They’re still rocking. “Lonely Boy,” with its fuzzy, rubbery guitar hook, is nothing short of a gas. And “Gold on the Ceiling” has a healthy blues crunch, even though the main riff is played by some sort of keyboard instead of a guitar, while the minor-key “Mind Eraser” is downright soulful.

So don’t begrudge them their success or their efforts to evolve. I just hope that, as they progress, The Black Keys don’t forget why we liked them in the first place.


Blog Bonus: Here's a song from the Kid Congo Powers show I saw in New York last year. (I didn't shoot this, but I'm pretty sure I was standing right next to the person who did.)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Barrence & Savages Live on WFMU

BARRENCE WHITFIELD & THE SAVAGESIf you missed Barrence Whitfield & The Savages cool set on WFMU's Cherry Blossom Clinic a couple of weeks ago, never fear. You can listen right here (Courtesy of WFMU's Free Music Archive.)

And if you like it, you can download any or all of the songs (and even the interview with Terre T) right HERE.

Ow! Ow! Ow!

 

Sunday, December 18, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 18, 2011 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

 OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Six Bullets for Christmas by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Dumpster Dive by The Black Lips
Keep it Simple Stupid by The King Khan Experience
American Wedding by Gogol Bordello
Can't Hold On by Reigning Sound
I'll Be Your Santa by Rufus Thomas
If You Could Hang Your Wash Like You Hang Your Lines by Duster Bennett
Sleigh Bells, Reindeer and Snow by Rita Faye Wilson

Strawberry Soda by The Bastard Winos
When I'm a Grown Up by The Monsters
Something's Coming by Dee & Tee
Secret Agent Man by Frontier Circus
Yakov the Polka Reindeer by The Polkaholics
Nate Will Not Return by The Fall
Future Crimes by Wild Flag
What a Way to Die by The Pleasure Seekers
Fat Daddy by Fat Daddy

If It Doesn't Snow on Christmas by Joe Pesci
Trash by The New York Dolls
I'm a Loner by The Jaybees
Happy Birthday Jesus (A Child's Prayer) by Little Cindy
Hang Your Balls on the Christmas Tree by Kay Martin & Her Body Guards
Loretta by The Senators
Cardiac Party by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack
Until You Get Enough of Me by The Revelations featuring Tre Williams
Run Rudolf Run by Keith Richards

Johnny Ace is Dead by Dave Alvin
A Johnny Ace Christmas by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Kiss Me by Tom Waits
Me and the Devil Blues by Dead Meadow
All Alone on Christmas by Darlene Love
White Christmas by Otis Redding
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Merry Christmas From the Big Enchilada!

THE BIG ENCHILADA





Waging the War on Christmas since 2008, here's the FOURTH annual Big Enchilada Christmas Special. Enjoy holiday cheer from The Fleshtones, King Salami, El Vez, The Polkaholics  and so many more.

The Big Enchilada used to be part of the GaragePunk Podcast Network, But now it's part of GaragePunk Pirate Radio. So Ho ho ho and Yo ho ho!

Thank you once again for making The Big Enchilada part of your Yuletide tradition.


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Here's the playlist:
(Background Music: O Come All Ye Faithful by Los Straitjackets)
Hooray for Santa Claus by The Fleshtones
Santa Fuzz by Marshmallow Overcoat
Snowman by Thee Fine Lines
Merry Christmas Baby by The Revelations Featuring Tre Williams
Santa Claus is Sometimes Brown by El Vez
Merry Christmas Elvis by Michelle Cody
Drinkin' With Santa by The Polkaholics

(Background Music: Joy to the World by The Klezmonauts)
Jingle Bell Rock by The Fall
It's Christmas Time by The Qualities
Louisiana Bayou Santa by Crankshaft & The Geargrinders
Merry Christmas Loopy Lu by The Kaisers
Santa Came in on a Nuclear Missile by Heather Noel
Bang Bang Baby Bang Bang Merry Christmas by Angry Johnny

(Background Music: Frosty the Snowman by Liquid Mice)
C'Mon Dance with Santa Claus by Micragirls
Christmas Lights by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of The British Empire
Sock it Me Santa by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
A Christmas Duel by The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
Christmas Spirit by Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends
Background Music: What Child Is This by The Reverend Horton Heat)

Play it here:


Ghosts of Christmas Podcasts Past
2010
2009
2008

Spend all your Christmas money at The Big Enchilada Podcast Zazzle Store.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

eMusic December

Here's my latest batch of downloads from eMusic:

* Poultry in Motion by Hasil Adkins. This concept album by the Wild Man of West Virginia has been on my eMusic "Saved" list for a couple of years now. I was inspired to finally download it after hearing The Chicken Album by O Lendário Chucrobillyman, a Brazilian one-man band who has to be influenced by Hasil..

Chucrobillyman's crazy record has several songs about chickens, but all 15 tracks from this Norton Records compilation are about the birds.

You have "Chicken Hop," "Chicken Flop," "Chicken Shake," "Chicken Walk" "Chicken Run" ... and of course, the "Chicken Hunch."

Many of the songs go back to the Haze's early days in the '50s and early '60s. Some are from earlier Norton albums Adkins recorded in the '80s and '90s and some were recorded especially for this album -- or at  least first emerged on this album.

What can you say? The man loved his chicken.

* Ersatz GB by The Fall I never thought that first (and only) time I saw The Fall in concert, back in the early ’80s, that 30 years later I would a) be reviewing a brand new Fall album and b) find that fact reassuring.

But here we are in 2011, and Smith is still leading a band called The Fall. The group’s new album, Ersatz GB, is a rocking joy — even though I can’t pretend to really understand it any more than I did that show at the old El Paseo Theater back in the summer of 1981. Like that El Paseo show, this album is somewhat confusing and, yes, a little threatening.

But that just makes me like it more.

For more of my deep thoughts on this album, check out my recent review in my Terrell's Tune-up column.


Gorilla Rose by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds. Brian Tristan, aka Kid Congo Powers. plays some of the most interesting sounds being produced today. It's a wild mix of  mutated '60s Chicano rock, surf, garage and spooky noirish  R&B.

This album (which is named for an L.A. performance-art character Powers met as a lonesome teenage punk) is a worthy followup to his previous work, Dracula Boots, which followed similar paths into bizarre dimensions.

It's full of instrumentals and weird tales that Powers recites. Did he work in a Hollywood record store and see Rick James lose his temper and start breaking copies of Gloryhallastoopid? Who cares, it's a great story.

Hey, I'm going to write more on this album in an upcoming Terrell's Tune-up. Stay tuned,

Plus ...


* The three bonus tracks from Bad as Me by Tom Waits. I actually talked about these in the column a few weeks ago.

* "Desperadoes Waiting for theTrain" by Jerry Jeff Walker. My favorite version of my favorite Guy Clark song. I actually downloaded this to play on my Santa Fe Opry tribute set for the late Kell Robertson a few weeks ago. Between guest host Mike Good and I, there was way more material than we could use that night, so the song didn't make it on that night. But I still think of that old desperado  Kell when I hear the tune.

* "The Way it Goes" by Gillian Welch.  This is the best song from Gillian's latest album. I heard Tom Adler play it when he substituted for The Santa Fe Opry recently and I knew I had to play  it myself. I'll probably get around to downloading the rest of The Harrow & The Harvest one of these days.

Friday, December 16, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, December 16, 2011 
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
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Before All Hell Breaks Loose by Kinky Friedman & The Texas Jewboys
Red Brick Wall by The Waco Brothers
Life's A Pissing In The Wind by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Good Gracious Gracie by The Light Crust Dough Boys
Yearnin' Burnin' Heart by DM Bob & The Deficits
Done Gone by Ray Condo & The Ricochets
Greasy Creek by Legendary Shack Shakers
Pappy by The Ugly Valley Boys
Driftwood 40-23 by The Hickoids
Santa's Big Parade by The Louvin Brothers

I Cried and Cried the Day that Doug Sahm Died by Rick Brousard & Two Hoots and a Holler
Who Were You Thinking Of  by The Texas Tornados
Guacamole by Freddy Fender with Augie Meyers
Seven Cups of Coffee, 14 Cigarettes by Cornell Hurd
One Day A Week by Johnny Paycheck
Huntsville by Merle Haggard
Swingin' from Your Crystal Chandeliers by The Austin Lounge Lizards
Hesitation Boogie by Hardrock Gunter
Pretty Paper by Roy Orbison

Here Comes Santa Claus/Up on the Rooftops by Jerry Jeff Walker
Rainy Day Woman by Waylon Jennings
Lead Me On by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn
Walk Through This World With Me by George Jones
A Man Like Me by Roger Miller
This Old House by Willie Nelson
Apple Core Baltimore by Billy Kaundart
My Baby Makes Me Gravy by Dale Watson & The Texas Two
Homo Truck Drivin' Man by David Allen Coe
Lovely Christmas by Jason Ringenberg with Kristi Rose

Never Cold Again by The Imperial Rooster
Would You Die For Love by Stevie Tombstone
Hallelujah Anyway by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Don't Forget Me When I Die by Rachel Brooke
Feel Like Goin' Home by Charlie Rich
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Just Another Reason to HATE THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

Are you one of the filthy pirates who has violated copyright laws by using your favorite music in a wedding video?

Shame! Shame! Shame!

Well, the valiant patriots of the Music Industry will track you down and punish you.

I'm serious. They're cracking down on music in wedding videos!

Check out this report from ABC News a few days ago:


It may have started with the wedding of Tony Romo, the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback, to Candice Crawford in May. People magazine said the five-minute video they had made "hit the Internet looking more like a blockbuster movie trailer than nuptial footage" -- and soon it went viral on YouTube, complete with Coldplay's "Fix You" as theme music.
Now it's gone -- and so, apparently, are many wedding videos celebrating less-famous couples. The videographer who shot the Romo-Crawford video was threatened with a lawsuit for using music to which he had not bought the rights. He's settled, and agreed not to talk about it, and a chill has settled across the nice, warm world of weddings.
"Please don't use my name," said one wedding photographer who spoke to us. "We're just small fish. I don't want to be in the spotlight. They might just aim at me."
This photographer said he has now removed all the videos he previously posted on YouTube, Vimeo, or his own website with well-known music in the background. He said he can buy generic music for $50 for a three-minute track, but it cuts into his profits and his newlywed clients don't like it as much.
"We're just scared," he said. "We don't know what is going to happen to us."
Okay, here's the deal: Anyone who wants to use any song from Picnic Time for Potatoheads on a video at their next wedding, can do so for FREE. (And hell, it's better than Coldplay!)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Let's Spend Some Time Together

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Dec. 16, 2011



Sunday, Oct. 25, 1964. It was just eight months after The Beatles had turned the U.S.A. on its head with their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. And now another musical act from overseas was on the very same stage before an audience of screaming teenagers, appearing to be headed for pop immortality.
The Fabulous Kim Sisters

The Kim Sisters! Two sisters from South Korea (Sue and Aija Kim) and their cousin Mia Kim, wearing sexy, sparkly black dresses, came out and sang the hell out of an American gospel song, “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.”

Then they did a medley of bagpipe tunes, starting out, for reasons I’m still not sure of, with “This Old Man” and finishing with “The Marines’ Hymn.” By the end of the number, they were backed by a kilted piper band from Long Island.

It’s all on a new Sullivan Show DVD set. That night on Sullivan in 1964 was a star-studded occasion. In addition to The Kim Sisters, there were classical violinist Itzhak Perlman and a one-legged tap dancer named “Peg Leg” Bates. There were some major comics of the day —  Phyllis Diller, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, and London Lee. Laurence Harvey read “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” And, of course, there were some amazing acrobats: the fabulous Berosinis from Austria.

And, oh yeah, the band that performed right before The Kim Sisters — a group from England called The Rolling Stones.

Don’t get me wrong. I love The Stones as much as the next guy, especially the period documented in the new two-disc DVD set All 6 Ed Sullivan Shows: The Rolling Stones.

But even though technically, Mick Jagger and company are the stars of these discs, for me the real treat is watching entire the episodes of Sullivan’s “really big show” with all the Borscht Belt comedians, jugglers, Shakespearean thespians, puppets, brassy belters, Romanian folk dancers, opera singers, circus animals, and so on.

Just like the Sullivan DVD set starring The Beatles, which was released a few years ago, entire episodes are shown — with commercials.

(Consumer alert! There is a slightly cheaper DVD set called 4 Ed Sullivan Shows: The Rolling Stones, released just a few weeks before All 6 Ed Sullivan Shows, which, for reasons only known to some marketing genius, leaves out the first and last shows. Avoid it.)

Sullivan, a former boxer who later became a sportswriter and entertainment columnist for a few New York papers, ran his show like a slightly upscale vaudeville venue. Though the Sullivan Show was the best of its time, it was the norm for variety shows of the ’50s and ’60s to actually feature variety. Before the demographic goons took over prime-time network television, Sullivan and other shows like his actually attempted to have something for everyone in the family.

As seen on The Rolling Stones discs, many popular-music giants appeared on Sullivan’s show: Ella Fitzgerald was on the same evening as The Stones in 1969.

A few years before, they were on the same program as Louis Armstrong. I always wondered if Satchmo talked with Jagger, Keith Richards, or maybe jazz fiend Charlie Watts backstage.

(Of course, I wondered the same thing about the group of 44 Benedictine nuns from Pennsylvania who sang “Kumbaya” on the same 1967 show in which The Rolling Stones sang “Ruby Tuesday” and something called “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.” Did the Stones try to spend some time with the singing nuns?)

There were early appearances by Jim Henson and some pre-Piggy Muppets. When he appeared on a 1966 show, Sullivan introduced him with these words: “Jim Newsom and his puppets.”

And in 1969, Rodney Dangerfield got some respect on the same show in which The Stones sang “Gimme Shelter” and “Honky Tonk Women.”

"Now about those lyrics, Mr. Jagger..."
Jamming with Edward (Sullivan): My favorite Stones performances on these DVDs are the earliest ones, that 1964 show and the one from May 2, 1965 (which also included appearances by soulful Brits Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones). Both of these programs captured in living black-and-white The Stones’ gritty blues, soul, and early rock sounds.

Among the tunes they performed on these shows were Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around” (though I prefer The Animals’ version from the same period), Irma Thomas’ “Time Is on My Side” (the first Stones song I ever heard), and a hearty version of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Little Red Rooster” with Brian Jones playing slide.

In the later shows, some of The Stones’ performances were pre-recorded, and I strongly suspect some of the music was too. For instance, when they did “Gimme Shelter” on that 1969 show, you hear Merry Clayton, or some similar background singer doing Clayton’s part. But you don’t see her. And on “Ruby Tuesday,” you can clearly hear an acoustic guitar, but nobody is playing guitar on stage. Jones is playing a recorder, Richards appears to be playing harpsichord, and bassist Bill Wyman is on cello.

The Jan. 15, 1967, show is the infamous performance in which some squeamish producer or nitwit network suit demanded the group change the lyrics of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.”

The Stones complied. Jagger sarcastically rolled his eyes when he sang the bowdlerized lyrics, and The Stones ripped into the song like jackals making a kill. Despite the clean lyrics, the version performed that night on TV was far more intense than the recorded version.

And after that, there was a Geritol commercial.

The Stones didn’t do the Sullivan Show for nearly three years after that. When they returned in Nov. 1969, Brian Jones was dead, replaced by guitarist Mick Taylor.

It’s great that these shows are available after more than 40 years. But consider this: The Kim Sisters appeared on Sullivan 20 times. I’m waiting for that DVD set.

Blog Bonus:
How I love ya, how I love ya!

 

Sunday, December 11, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December , 2011 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Mind Eraser by The Black Keys
Laptop Dog by The Fall
Knock Me Off My Feet by The King Khan Experience
Hills of Pills by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Linda Lou by Augie Rios
Corn Foo Fighting by The Hickoids
Hit Me by The Fleshtones
Poison by Hundred Year Flood
Willie the Pimp by The Jim & Jack Show

T-Model Boogie by Rosco Gordon
Raised Right Men by Tom Waits
Georgia Slop by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Boob Scotch by Bob Log III
Drinkin' by Freddie Coaster With Standels
Rockin' Renegades Roll by The Frontier Circus
Can't Stay Here by Howlin' Wolf
Everything I Do Is Wrong by The Reigning Sound
Black Beard by The Universals
When I'm Grown Up by The Monsters


Howard Tate Tribute
Ain't Nobody Home
Jemima Surrender
Don't Need No Monkey on My Back
Little Volcano
Stalking My Woman
Look at Granny Run, Run
She May Be White But She Be Funky
She's a Burglar
Get It While You Can

Cardiac Party by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack
One Reason to Stay by The Revelations Featuring Tre Williams
How'd Ya Like to Be King by The Civil Tones
Hell of a Woman by The Impalas
For Your Precious Love by Jerry Butler
Tight Spot by Paul & The Four Most
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, December 09, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, December, 2011 
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
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Why Baby Why by Willie Nelson
Wild Hog Hop by Bennie Hess
Drinkin' With My Friends by Honky Tonk Hustlas
Moonshine by Montie Jones
Gothenberg Train by Dale Watson
Shadow My Baby by Ray Condo & The Ricochets
Roll Me a Song by Artie Hill
Your Friends Think I'm the Devil by The Imperial Rooster
Over My Head in Blue by Rick Brousard & Two Hoots and a Holler
I'm Buggin' Out Little Baby by Donny Lee Moore

Shotgun by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Freight Train Boogie by Doc & Merle Watson
Cut Across Shorty by Eddie Cochran
Red Velvet by The Kirby Sisters
Go Away Don't Bother Me by The Collins Kids
A Girl Don't Have to Drink to Have Fun by Jane Baxter Miller & Kent Kessler
If You Play With My Mind by Cornell Hurd
Dollar Dress by The Waco Brothers
More Time With My Family by Jim Terr

Nashville Casualty and Life by Kinky Friedman & His Texas Jewboys
Before All Hell Breaks Loose by Asleep at the Wheel
Broken Engagement by Webb Pierce
Bright Lights & Blonde Haired Women by Ray Price
Memories of You Sweetheart by Scott H. Biram
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate by The Hoosier Hot Shots
Beedle Um Bum by The Jim Kweskin Jug Band
The Laughing Song by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
I Told a Secret by Delaney Davidson

Alotta Guns by Ugly Valley Boys
Does My Ring Burn Your Finger by Solomon Burke
I'm Not Drunk Enough by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me) by Wayne Hancock
Luxury Liner by Jeff Lescher & Janet Beveridge Bean
Moonglow, Lamp Low by Eleni Mandell
Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow by Mitch & Mickey
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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TERRELL'S TUNEUP: HONKY TONK TALES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Dec. 10, 2011


By the time The Pistol, the Bottle, and Shaded Pastures was released earlier this year, fans of Anthony Leon & The Chain were familiar with most, if not all, of the songs on the group’s first CD. But that’s OK. It’s great to have these tunes available to play any time you want.

Leon, a native of Virginia, has only been in New Mexico a few years. But it didn’t take him long to become a local favorite. For this album, not only did Leon have a batch of great songs under his arm, he gives an intense live performance, greatly aided by his crack rhythm section — Carlos Rodriguez on bass and drummer Daniel Jaramillo.

Sometimes the Chain gang is joined by other superb local musicians who add new dimensions to the sound. But that trio of Leon, Rodriguez, and Jaramillo provides an unbeatable foundation.

Santa Fe has lots of good bands playing country and country-flavored music, but what sets Leon & The Chain apart is the huge rockabilly influence that permeates much of the group’s material. No fake Happy Days nostalgia here, just a tough strain of American music that informs the band’s sound. As the first song on the album says, he’s a brand new model honky-tonk man.

Anthony Leon & The Chain
At Frogfest 2010
When I first got my hands on this CD, I skipped to “Shotgun,” the fifth track. Leon has several tunes that hang around in my head, but this one’s my favorite. It’s a rocker about a jealous man warning some funky dude messing with his woman. It’s got a memorable refrain: “I’ve got a shotgun; tell you what I’m going to do/I’m gonna stick this 3-inch mag right up your wazoo.”

What can I say? I’m a sucker for poetry.

Almost as good is “White Dress,” another fast-paced song about a jealous lover. His ire is directed at his philandering sweetie, who’s got “10 other boys just like me cursing your sins.”

Another standout is “Uncle Sam,” a rockabilly choogler about a kindly dope peddler. I love when the beat slows down to a gospel-like bridge in which Leon and guest singer Felecia Ford sing, “Oh doctor, won’t you please ... his prescription for me,” over a heavy organ (played by Gary Miller).

My only complaint is that one of my favorite Leon and Chain songs (I forget the title, but it has to do with the devil and a saloon called Red’s), wasn’t included. The only consolation is that the band’s version of “Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which the group performed live last week on KSFR’s The Twisted Groove, also wasn’t included. Sorry, guys!

Leon — without The Chain — opens for Kinky Friedman at Santa Fe Sol Stage & Grill (37 Fire Place on Saturday.

More noises from the country:
*  Double Down by Ugly Valley Boys. The debut album by this Salt Lake City duo (singer/ guitarist/drummer Ryan Eastlyn and standup bassist Braxton Brandenburg) is a doozy.

The first song, “Pappy,” is a celebration of a moonshiner. It sounds like Eastlyn, who has a low, gruff voice, has been drinking his pappy’s product since he was a baby. “Sure did his best to keep the town from going dry,” he sings. “Cops said, ‘Hell, that’s the fastest man alive.’” It’s not quite in the same league as Robert Mitchum’s “The Ballad of Thunder Road,” but it’s one of the better moonshiner songs in recent decades and a good way to set the tone for the rest of the album.

There are several songs overflowing with Johnny Cash chunka-chunka and outlaw attitude. One of my favorites is “Clickity Clack,” an upbeat minor-key tune about a guy who has upset his girlfriend and perhaps everyone around him: “If you won’t get out of the way, I won’t step aside/If you got something to say, well get in line.”

“Ugly” might be in the group’s name, but these guys write some really pretty melodies. “Alota Guns” is about a man who brags that he has, well, a lot of guns — at least symbolically. The refrain (“Oh-oh, I gotta lotta guns and each one’s loaded with a different memory”) is an irresistible hook that will stick in your mind.

And even better is the melody of “Power Lines,” a lonesome-road tune with a happy if world-weary melody.

I don’t think Eastlyn and Brandenburg have fired all their guns yet. I’m looking forward to more. And, hey guys, New Mexico’s not that far from Utah. Come on down!

Honky Tonk Hustlas
*  South of Nashville by Honky Tonk Hustlas. When I first saw this band’s name I feared it might be some crappy alt-country/hip-hop fusion group. But then I heard one of Honky Tonk Hustlas’ songs on Outlaw Radio Chicago and realized these guys, who come from Montgomery, Alabama, sound a lot more like Wayne “The Train” Hancock than they do Cowboy Troy.

And actually, they sound a bit like the Ugly Valley Boys. too. Like the UVB, the Hustlas is a two-man band — except when others join in. The permanent members are singer and guitarist T. Junior and Stemp on standup bass. The sound is acoustic-based traditional country with lots of fiddle, mandolin, and dobro.

Even if country radio still played good country music (and it doesn’t), it would never play the Hustlas. That’s not just because of the band’s occasional use of profanity, or because the song “Corporate Man” might hurt the feelings of the soulless suits who run commercial radio. It’s because the lyrics to some of the songs are so dark and stark. “My Worst Enemy,” “Pray I Won’t Wake Up,” and even the upbeat “Never Gonna Quit” deal frankly with self-destructive urges. And the chilling “Death’s Cold Sting” reminds me a lot of Hank Williams’ “Alone and Forsaken” — which wasn’t exactly a big radio hit for Williams.

Not all the Hustlas’ songs are grim. The title song is a fiddle-driven toe-tapper, while “Drinkin’ With My Friends” is just a good honky-tonk tune.

However, in the context of some of the other songs, you might worry that after a night of drinking with his friends, the narrator could end up sitting on the edge of his bed in a lonely room with a gun in one hand and a whiskey bottle in the other singing “Death’s Cold Sting.”

Thursday, December 08, 2011

R.I.P. HOWARD TATE

Soul singer Howard Tate died last week at the age of 72 following a bout with cancer.

I loved the man's music.

I'm not sure what it was back in the summer of 1975 that led me to buy that LP by a soul singer I'd never heard before in the bargain bin of some Albuquerque discount store. The singer's cool pompadour probably had something to do with it. And the 79-cent price tag sealed the deal.

But I bought that album by Howard Tate and it quickly became a favorite. At the time I didn't even realize that this was original version of Janis Joplin's swan song, "Get it While You Can." There was no copyright date, so I mistakenly assumed he was covering Janis.

There were some songs I associated with B.B. King — “Every Day I Have the Blues, ” “How Blue Can You Get?” and “Ain’t Nobody Home” as well as other electric blues like the song “Part Time Lover.”

But the basic sound was horn-driven, gospel-rooted soul. The Georgia-born, Philadelphia-raised singer had more in common with Sam Cooke than B.B. There were funny tunes like “How Come My Bulldog Don’t Bark” and “Look at Granny Run Run." And there were powerful soul-on-fire pleas like “I Learned It All the Hard Way” and the title song. The primary songwriter, as well as producer, was Jerry Ragovoy, whose songwriting credits include the classic tunes “Time Is on My Side” and “Piece of My Heart” as well as “Get It While You Can.” (Ragovoy died earlier this year.)

Around the same time I discovered Tate in the cut-out bin, Tate had said goodbye to the music industry and was about to embark on a decades-long descent into the shadows.

Here's what I wrote about that in my review of his 2003 comeback album Rediscovered:

Frustrated with his lack of success, Tate turned to selling insurance for a living about that time. For years none of his old friends in the music industry knew what had happened to him. Ragovoy tried to locate Tate in the early ’80s because European promoters wanted to book him.

As recently as 1995, a CD reissue of Get It While You Can put it this way: “Sometime in the 1970s, he disappeared into legend.”

Disappeared into hell is more like it. Tragedy struck the Tate family in 1976. There was a fire at his home, and his 13-year-old daughter was killed.

A few years later he was divorced and, in his own words, “started hanging out with the wrong crowd.” Years of drugs, drink and destitution followed.

Those hellish years continued until 1994, when Tate found religion. Eventually he started his own ministry in Philadelphia, The Gift of the Cross Church.

It wasn’t until 2001 that Howard Tate was rediscovered. Ron Kennedy, one of Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes, saw Tate at a supermarket in New Jersey. Seems that a local DJ, Phil Casden, inspired by the CD release of Get It While You Can, had periodically been asking listeners to help find Tate. This fortunate encounter led to the new album. Tate hooked up with Casden and reunited with Ragovoy, and the Internet helped spread the good news.
So Howard got his comeback. He never became a household word like Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett, he  made some fine records in his final years. I'll play some of those on a tribute Sunday on Terrell's Sound World.

Here's a nice piece in the great Funky 16 Corners blog.

And enjoy the videos below.

s

Sunday, December 04, 2011

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December, 2011
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 

10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Lyin' Girl by The Reigning Sound
White Rabbit by The Frontier Circus
Plastic Fantastic Lover by The Jefferson Airplane
I'm Not Like Everyone Else by The Rockin' Guys
Bob Log Stomp by The King Khan Experience
Shake a Little, Wiggle It and Jiggle It Too by Bob Log III
Happi Song by The Fall
Cherry Red by Lorette Velvette

Dream On (Little Dreamer) by Hunx And His Punx
Bunker Mentality by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Twój Mój Czas by Kult
I Got a Right by iggy & The Stooges
Stop by The Dirtbombs
Inside Looking Out by Eric Burdon & The Animals
Little Suzie by Harmonica Lewinski
Mystic Eyes by Them
Skull and Crossbones by Sparkle Moore
Hubert with Howlin' Wolf

R.I.P. Hubert Sumlin

Backdoor Man by Howlin' Wolf
Iodine in My Coffee by Hubert Sumlin
Going Down Slow by Howlin' Wolf
This is the End, Little Girl by Hubert Sumlin

Wonderful Girl by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack
Stay Free by The Revelations featuring Tre Williams
Stop Trying to Break Me Down by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Willie Meehan by Manby's Head

Strange and Unproductive Thinking by David Lynch
Hoodoo Party by Tabby Thomas
Don't Change on Me by Ray Charles
God's Mighty Hand by Rev. Utah Smith
Last Leaf on the Tree by Tom Waits with Keith Richards
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis


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Saturday, December 03, 2011

Terrell's Sound World Now Has Its Own Facebook Page Too

Yes, less than 24 hours after I stunned the world by creating a Facebook page for The Santa Fe Opry, I made good on my threat to create such a page for Terrell's Sound World too, Just click HERE.


Just like the Opry page,this is the place to share news and links about the music we like, to communicate during the show itself and to request songs on the show (remember, I bring almost all my own music to the station, so the earlier you request, the more likely it will be played. Tell your friends!)

For the uninitiated TSW is the home of Freeform Weirdo Radio. You're going to hear a lot of wild old R&B, surf, psychedelic, garage, gutter blues, psychobilly and sweaty soul music. I play vicious punks, happy drunks ... and sometimes I drift into world music, gospel, jazz from various dimensions ... I play whatever I'm in the mood for. And I get in some weird moods sometimes.

Sound World airs Sunday nights 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR, 101.1 FM and streaming live on the web.

And of course my Big Enchilada podcast has been on Facebook for some time now.

Don't just like them at home. Go to Facebook and LIKE them all!

Friday, December 02, 2011

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, December 2, 2011
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

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
I'm Movin' On by Willie Nelson
Down on the Corner of Love by Buck Owens
Funnel of Love by T. Tex Edwards
Ain't Got A Clue by Josie Kreuzer
A Date With Jerry by Wanda Jackson
New Mexico by Jay Cawley
Peroxide Blonde by Deke Dekerson
Barstool Mountain by The Frontier Circus
Western Union Wire by Kinky Friedman & The Texas Jewboys

Gas Station Women by Phil Ochs
Don't Give a Damn by Honky Tonk Hustlas
My Boy Elvis by Janis Martin
Down On The Farm by Kim Lenz
Honky Tonk Man by Sleepy LaBeef
Burn Your Bra Baby by Benny Johnson
Over the Mountain by Anthony Leon & The Chain
My Rifle My Pony and Me by Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson
John Hardy by The Gun Club
Cold Beer, Hot Women and Cool Country Music by The Derailers

Jesus Is My Pusher by Margie Singleton
It Won't Be Long (And I'll Be Hating You) by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
Who's Julie? by Mel Tillis
More Like Them by Lydia Loveless
The Little Monster by Russ "Big Daddy" Blackwell
Hallelujah Anyway by Slim Cessna & The Auto Club
The Wayward Wind by Jackie "Teak" Lazar

In Tall Buildings by John Hartford
Big Dark Worls of Hate and Lies by Graham Lindsey
The Man In the Bed by Dave Alvin
Pappy by The Ugly Valley Boys
Weakness In A Man by Waylon Jennings
Little Valleys by Broomdust Caravan
Judgment Day by Slackeye Slim
Tryin' to Get Myself Home by Stevie Tombstone
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Santa Fe Opry Now Has Its Own Facebook Page


It was bound to happen! Yes, I've created a new Facebook page for the Santa Fe Opry. Check it HERE

This is the place to share news and links about the music we like, to communicate during the show itself and to request songs on the show (remember, I bring almost all my own music to the station, so the earlier you request, the more likely it will be played. Tell your friends!)

The Santa Fe Opry airs Friday nights 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR, 101.1 FM and streaming live on the web .

I'll soon be creating a Facebook page for my Sunday night radio show, Terrell's Sound World.

And of course my Big Enchilada podcast has been on Facebook for some time now. It's HERE

Thursday, December 01, 2011

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Enjoy The Winter With The Fall

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Dec. 2, 2011


I never thought that first (and only) time I saw The Fall in concert, back in the early ’80s, that 30 years later I would a) be reviewing a brand new Fall album and b) find that fact reassuring.

Although Fall guy Mark E. Smith was surprisingly open and friendly when I interviewed him over a couple of beers at Evangelo’s that night — until then I thought I might be the only person outside my small circle of friends who loved both Johnny Cash and Captain Beefheart — The Fall’s concert was confusing and even a little threatening.

As I wrote at the time, I felt like Dylan’s Mr. Jones. I knew something was happening there, but I just didn’t know what it was. It took me a couple of years to appreciate and eventually love The Fall, though I’ve never really understood them.

Here we are in 2011, and Smith is still leading a band called The Fall. The group’s new album, Ersatz GB, is a rocking joy — even though I can’t pretend to really understand it any more than I did that show at the old El Paseo Theater back in the summer of 1981. The album is somewhat confusing and, yes, a little threatening. It’s one of the band’s better efforts in the last decade or so.

Then again, I probably said that about other recent Fall studio efforts — including last year’s Your Future Our Clutter and 2007’s Reformation Post T.L.C. I believe the band is on a roll.

Mark E. Smith
Worth inserting here is a tongue-in-cheek — I think — summation of Ersatz GB from The Fall’s online forum: “The Falls’ 531st line-up release their 608th album of Smith’s curmudgeonly grumpy put-downs and slurred one-liners.”

“Cosmos 7,” the opening song, kicks off with a throbbing bass, madman drums, and almost tentative one-finger synth gurgles. Then comes the obligatory Smith rant, inaudible at first, rising from the frantic music. “Rat’s head! Cosmos! / For awaits Cosmos 7 / A mythical medical European lifestyle.”

What he said!

Things slow down just a bit for the next song “Taking Off.” But The Fall roars back with abandon on “Nate Will Not Return” and the warped psychobilly riffs of the subsequent “Mask Search.”

Fall keyboardist (and Smith’s wife) Elena Poulou takes lead vocals on “Happi Song,” in which the melody and the organ sound like a mutated update of The Doors’ epic “The End.” Then on “Greenway,” the band turns to Sabbath-era heavy-metal riffs as Smith chants, “It’s good enough for me / It’s good enough for you.” I assume it’s named for the latest Fall guitarist Pete Greenway, though allegedly it’s based on a song called “Gameboy” by a Greek metal band.

A frequent flaw on Fall albums is including at least one lengthy monotonous track. Here it’s the eight-minute “Monocard,” which features more metal riffs and sci-fi synth squiggles. If it were half its length I probably wouldn’t complain.

Of course, Smith thrives on irritation. He wouldn’t be Mark E. Smith otherwise.

Also recommended:

* A Little Bit Psycho ... A Little Bit Western by The Frontier Circus. Back in the 1990s, thanks to a former co-worker from the Land of Opportunity, I became a fan of an obscure band from Arkansas called The Rockin’ Guys.

I’m pretty sure the Guys — led by one Danny Grace, aka “Rockin’ Dan” — had broken up before I ever heard them, but they resurfaced in 2007 with an impressive album called Performance Art Miscreants, featuring versions of songs by Jonathan Richman, The Cramps, Johnny Paycheck, Kim Fowley, and others.

Rockin’ Dan, who by day is a professor of theater arts in Arkansas, has now taken the guise of Frontier Dan, heading a group called The Frontier Circus. They sound very similar to the good old Rockin’ Guys with similar sources of material (including The Velvet Underground and Roky Erickson) — just a little more country. In fact, they sound like an unholy collision of or collusion between the Angry Samoans and T. Tex Edwards.

This album consists mainly of irreverent covers of a variety of artists. There are versions of honky-tonk classics like Paycheck’s “Barstool Mountain,” Merle Haggard’s “The Bottle Let Me Down,” and Webb Pierce’s “There Stands the Glass” with Grace drawling the lyrics over screaming feedback.

There are also classic ’60s hits from psychedelia and beyond — “White Rabbit,” Erickson’s “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” and “Secret Agent Man.”

One of my favorites is “Glorious Heroin,” a strange melding of the classic Velvet Underground song with Them’s “Gloria.” And while I’ve always loathed America’s lame Neil Young rip-off “Horse With No Name,” The Frontier Circus, calling it “Horse With No Water,” weaves in The Sons of the Pioneers’ “Cool Water” and makes it something weird and wondrous.

This album is available only on limited-edition orange vinyl and digital download. See www.maxrecordings.com.

* Raw Power Live: In the Hands of the Fans by Iggy & The Stooges. This is a recording of one of those concerts where a band plays a classic album in its entirety decades later.

Lou Reed got away with it on his recent live version of Berlin, as Pere Ubu did with The Modern Dance,  Patti Smith with Horses and Dinosaur Jr. with Bug. And let’s not forget the fabulous Pixies, who came to Santa Fe last month to play the entire Doolittle album. So why not Iggy?

The original 1973 Raw Power has been remixed, repackaged, and regurgitated so many time it’s hard to keep track. The 2010 version includes a live disc from a 1973 concert in Atlanta featuring half of the Raw Power songs.

This latest version of the album is available as a DVD featuring high-definition video recorded by several fans who had won some sort of contest. The music is available on vinyl as well as digital downloads from all the usual online spots. (The digital version has a bonus track, “I Got a Right.”)

Raw Power Live was recorded last year at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in New York with a Stooges lineup that featured original Raw Power ax man James Williamson on guitar. He’s a welcome addition.

Iggy and the other surviving original Stooges are in their mid-60s now (bassist Mike Watt, who’s been a Stooge on recent outings, is the baby of the group. He’s only in his 50s). Even so, they rock like young bucks half their age.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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