David "Honeyboy Edwards" died Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 96.
Honeyboy was a Mississippi native, born in Shaw, Miss. in 1915, and authentic Delta bluesman.
He first left home as a teen to travel with Big Joe Williams. He was a pal of Little Walter. But he's most famous for his association with Robert Johnson. He was said to have been playing with Johnson the night he was poisoned in 1938.
I was lucky enough to see him at the Thirsty Ear Festival in 2006. As I blogged back then, Honeyboy perhaps was "the last one standing who's played with Son House and Charlie Patton back in the old days, and he's still a joy to hear and behold."
He played a simple, no-frills set accompanied on harmonica by his manager Michael Frank and on some songs by guitarist Louisiana Red.
His obit is HERE. A tribute in Time Out Chicago is HERE.
Below is some music and a radio interview.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
More on Spotify
Yes, Spotify has become a weird obsession.
I just discovered this groovy little site called ShareMyPlaylists.com that gives you a central place to post all your playlists.
So I did.
All 17 are HERE Check it out.
I just discovered this groovy little site called ShareMyPlaylists.com that gives you a central place to post all your playlists.
So I did.
All 17 are HERE Check it out.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, August, 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
Dirty Nightgown by Dave Alvin
Bite the Bed by Glambilly
Wasted Life by Stiff Little Fingers
Clever Way to Crawl by Persian Claws
Puss 'n Boots by New York Dolls
You Give Me Nothing To Go On by The Fleshtones
Jailhouse Tattoo by The Tombstones
Cryin' for My Baby by Pete McKinney
I'm Gonna Bring A Watermelon To My Girl Tonight by The Savoy Havana Band
Senator by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
Spit on a Stranger by Pavement
The Best Liqour Store by The Hickoids
Get Down (and Get Stupid!) by The Del-Gators
For the Love of Ivy by The Gun Club
Old Folks Boogie by Jack Oblivion
Jungle Drums by Dex Romweber Duo
Endless Sleep by The Frantic Flintstones
Te Vas Amor by El Coyote y Su Banda Tierra Santa
Directly From My Heart to You by Frank Zappa featuring Don "Sugarcane" Harris
Heart Attack by Don & Dewey
Raise Your Hand by Janis Joplin
C'est Pas Facile by The Come N' Go
Deborah Lee by BBQ
Ritalin by Sonic Reverends
The Pimps Don't Like It by The Juke Joint Pimps
Shout Bama Lama by The Detroit Cobras
Ballad Of Jimmy Tanks by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Lipstick Vogue by Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Cry Cry Cry (In The U.S.A.) by The Scrams
Alligator River by Lothar
Slow Lightning by Junior Kimbrough
Peaches Falling by L.C. Ulmer
My Juanita by Johnny Maestro & Brooklyn Bridge
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
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
Dirty Nightgown by Dave Alvin
Bite the Bed by Glambilly
Wasted Life by Stiff Little Fingers
Clever Way to Crawl by Persian Claws
Puss 'n Boots by New York Dolls
You Give Me Nothing To Go On by The Fleshtones
Jailhouse Tattoo by The Tombstones
Cryin' for My Baby by Pete McKinney
I'm Gonna Bring A Watermelon To My Girl Tonight by The Savoy Havana Band
Senator by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
Spit on a Stranger by Pavement
The Best Liqour Store by The Hickoids
Get Down (and Get Stupid!) by The Del-Gators
For the Love of Ivy by The Gun Club
Old Folks Boogie by Jack Oblivion
Jungle Drums by Dex Romweber Duo
Endless Sleep by The Frantic Flintstones
Te Vas Amor by El Coyote y Su Banda Tierra Santa
Directly From My Heart to You by Frank Zappa featuring Don "Sugarcane" Harris
Heart Attack by Don & Dewey
Raise Your Hand by Janis Joplin
C'est Pas Facile by The Come N' Go
Deborah Lee by BBQ
Ritalin by Sonic Reverends
The Pimps Don't Like It by The Juke Joint Pimps
Shout Bama Lama by The Detroit Cobras
Ballad Of Jimmy Tanks by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Lipstick Vogue by Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Cry Cry Cry (In The U.S.A.) by The Scrams
Alligator River by Lothar
Slow Lightning by Junior Kimbrough
Peaches Falling by L.C. Ulmer
My Juanita by Johnny Maestro & Brooklyn Bridge
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Friday, August 26, 2011
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, August 26, 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
Outlaw You by Shooter Jennings
Carlene by Robert Earl Reed
Hillbilly Monster by James Richard Oliver
Satellite of Love by DM Bob & The Deficits
Zombified by Southern Culture on the Skids
Music City's Dead by Joe Buck Yourself
Kiss My Ass Goodbye by David Allan Coe & 3rd Generation Country
Ain't No Bard in Heaven by T. Tex Edwards & The Swingin' Kornflake Killers
Crucifix Jewelry by Rick Broussard
Two Bottles Of Wine by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Suzie Anna Riverstone by The Imperial Rooster
Strut My Stuff by Slim Redman, Donnie Bowshier & The Junior Melody Boys
You Can't Teach a Caveman 'bout Romance by The 99ers
Tell Me Twice by Eleni Mandell
Roll Me a Song by Arty Hill
Six Nights a Week by Peter Case
Tell it to the Judge by Jimbo Mathus
Whatever Kills Me First by Joey Allcorn
Honky Tonk Carnie by Lone Wolf OMB
Down and Out by Honky Tonk Hustlas
Hams and Peas by L.C. Ulmer
Shake Shake Mama (Cherry Ball) by Mance Lipscomb
Great Shakin' Fever by Ray Condo & The Ricochets
Wake Up Sinners by The Dirt Daubers
Monkey On The Doghouse by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
Honky Tonk Devil by Andy Vaughan & The Driveline
(The first three songs from the above set and the first one below are from the Southern Independent Volume 2 Collection. Download that for free HERE)
Codeine by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
Do You Know Thee Enemy? by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Keg Party at the Muldoon Farm (ultimate mix) by Joe West
Thunderstorms & Neon Signs by Wayne Hancock
Payphone by Eric Hisaw
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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
Outlaw You by Shooter Jennings
Carlene by Robert Earl Reed
Hillbilly Monster by James Richard Oliver
Satellite of Love by DM Bob & The Deficits
Zombified by Southern Culture on the Skids
Music City's Dead by Joe Buck Yourself
Kiss My Ass Goodbye by David Allan Coe & 3rd Generation Country
Ain't No Bard in Heaven by T. Tex Edwards & The Swingin' Kornflake Killers
Crucifix Jewelry by Rick Broussard
Two Bottles Of Wine by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Suzie Anna Riverstone by The Imperial Rooster
Strut My Stuff by Slim Redman, Donnie Bowshier & The Junior Melody Boys
You Can't Teach a Caveman 'bout Romance by The 99ers
Tell Me Twice by Eleni Mandell
Roll Me a Song by Arty Hill
Six Nights a Week by Peter Case
Tell it to the Judge by Jimbo Mathus
Whatever Kills Me First by Joey Allcorn
Honky Tonk Carnie by Lone Wolf OMB
Down and Out by Honky Tonk Hustlas
Hams and Peas by L.C. Ulmer
Shake Shake Mama (Cherry Ball) by Mance Lipscomb
Great Shakin' Fever by Ray Condo & The Ricochets
Wake Up Sinners by The Dirt Daubers
Monkey On The Doghouse by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
Honky Tonk Devil by Andy Vaughan & The Driveline
(The first three songs from the above set and the first one below are from the Southern Independent Volume 2 Collection. Download that for free HERE)
Codeine by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
Do You Know Thee Enemy? by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Keg Party at the Muldoon Farm (ultimate mix) by Joe West
Thunderstorms & Neon Signs by Wayne Hancock
Payphone by Eric Hisaw
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
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
The August Big Enchilada is a Honky Tonk Hoedown!
It's time for a good backwoods hoedown. Join me in Podunk Holler for an hour's worth of honky-tonk, cow-punk, scuzzgrass, white-lightnin' hillbilly hell-raising Big Enchilada style.
DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE| SUBSCRIBE TO ALL | FACEBOOK | ITUNES
Here's the playlist:
(Background Music: Green Apples by Red Allen)
Hoe Down Boogie by Red Perkins
They Call Me Country by D.M. Bob & The Deficits
Bachelor Man from Del Gaucho by Lucky Tubb **
I Ain't Drunk by Whitey Morgan & The 78s *
The Night That Porter Wagoner Came to Town by Tabby Crabb
Farmer Had Him Rats by Black Jake & The Carnies *
The Love-In by Ben Colder
(Background Music: Blue Guitars by the Light Crust Doughboys)
One Helluva Weekend by T. Tex Edwards & The Swingin' Kornflake Killers
Pappy by Ugly Valley Boys
Federales by Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns
Prayer by Slackeye Slim
Whatever Kills Me First by Joey Allcorn *
Peace and Love (Blind Man's Penis) by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America (vocals by Ramsey Kearney)
(Background Music: Bosco Stomp by The Cajun Playboys)
Fred the Rabbit by Rick Broussard
Girl on the Billboard by Eddie Spaghetti
How Mountain Girls Can Love by Peter Stampfel & The Worm All-Stars
Devil Came a Knockin' by Liquorbox **
Country Girl With Hotpants On by Leona Williams
Let's Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
(Background Music: Sally Goodin by David Bromberg)
* These selections are part of the Southern Independent Volume 2 collection, which you can download for free at Give Me My XXX
** These selections from the free 2011 Muddy Roots Festival compilation, which you can download HERE.
You like this hillbilly stuff? If so, then you'll probably like some of my previous episodes like:
Episode 36: Sweathog of the Rodeo
Episode 31: Below Tobacco Road
Episode 26: Hillbilly Pigout
Episode 22: Honky in a Cheap Motel
Episode 16: Hillbilly Heaven
Episode 10: More Santa Fe Opry Favorites
Episode 8: Santa Fe Opry Favorites Vol. 2
Episode 2: Santa Fe Opry Favorites
Play it here:
Thursday, August 25, 2011
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Malkmus' Mirror
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 26, 2011
Remember the fabulous 1990s? After Kurt Cobain’s ghastly departure, there was a time when bands like Pavement and strange singer-songwriters like Beck ruled the hearts and minds of hip fans of what was called “alternative rock” — the ones who didn’t care for Limp Bisquick or Linkin Parking Garage and the other lunkhead rubbish they played on commercial alternative-rock stations.
Pavement, which never quite became the cultural force many of its fans predicted or at least hoped for, broke up in 1999. And Beck — let’s just say his records became less and less interesting. The most recent Beck album that I still listen to is Midnite Vultures from 1999. (Most critics hated it, but they’re wrong.)
But Pavement fans and probably even some Beck fans should appreciate the new album Mirror Traffic by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.
It’s not really a Lollapalooza 1995 reunion, but Pavement frontman Malkmus teams up here with Beck, who produced the album. And it sounds a whole lot like Pavement in its heyday.
Admittedly, I haven’t heard all the Malkmus/Jicks albums, which have been released at a steady rate since 2001 (my favorite title being 2003’s Pig Lib). But out of curiosity I did listen to a few selections from those records, including a good chunk of Malkmus’ previous album, Real Emotional Trash (thank God for Spotify!), before writing this column.
Real Emotional Trash features all sorts of lengthy tunes that some critics have compared, not entirely unjustly, to jam-band music. (It also has one song, “Gardenia,” that reminds me of The Partridge Family, while “Elmo Delmo” may have roots in Jethro Tull.)
But after hearing some of the older albums, it would appear that the return to the rubbery, sometimes meandering Pavement sound was a conscious decision. Perhaps it’s a natural development following the Pavement reunion tour last year.
After that cool event, the band’s Bob Nastanovich told Spin that while future Pavement shows could be a possibility, it wasn’t likely that they would be doing any albums or writing new material. “It doesn't seem like a realistic possibility that any new music would be made,” he said. “At this point, Stephen does not write songs for Pavement anymore, or songs in the Pavement mind-set. I think he considers that part of his juvenilia, which is his own prerogative. He’s left that era behind him.”
Mirror Traffic may be proof that Malkmus wanted to prove his old bandmate wrong. The album begins with “Tigers,” one of the catchiest songs Malkmus has done since Pavement’s “Cut Your Hair.” It starts off with Malkmus singing, “I caught you streaking in your Birkenstocks<2009>/<2009>A scary thought in the 2Ks.” Is this the singer’s sly way of saying, “I’m too old to be here”? If so, he shouldn’t worry about it. Streak away, Stephen!
Another song is “Forever 28,” which, in Malkmus’ own words, is “from a jaded hipster perspective of someone who is above it all and making fun of things.” At the risk of sounding like some mystic numerologist, 28 is the year after 27, when self-destructive rock stars (Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Jimi, Jim, and Janis) tend to die. It’s got a bouncy beat that suggests Motown, though the song doesn’t really sound like it. (Malkmus claims he borrowed it from Hall & Oates.)
One of my favorite songs, perhaps because of my main job as a political reporter, is “Senator.” Malkmus tells us what some senator wants — and it’s not a seat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. This isn’t likely to get any commercial radio play in its present form, so Matador Records had a contest for suggestions to replace the phrase "blow job" for a FCC-friendly version of the song. (Sorry, the deadline's already passed.)
Another track I like is “Tune Grief,” which, despite its sad-sack title, is probably the most rocking tune on the record, though “Spazz” gives it a run for its money in that department. Beck’s influence really shows on “All Over Gently,” which starts off with an acoustic blues guitar riff.
And speaking of jam bands, the song “Brain Gallop” reminds me a little bit of The Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood era. It’s got a long guitar jam and sounds great to these ears.
A few songs are just a little too soft-core for me. “Fall Away” is a pretty song, but it’s a snoozer. “Long Hard Book” is much the same. But I like the steel guitar. And the song is essentially redeemed by the truly weird, chaotic guitar solo at the end.
The ’90s are gone, and Malkmus definitely won’t remain forever 28. But Mirror Traffic shows he’s still quite capable of making enigmatic and fun music.
August 26, 2011
Remember the fabulous 1990s? After Kurt Cobain’s ghastly departure, there was a time when bands like Pavement and strange singer-songwriters like Beck ruled the hearts and minds of hip fans of what was called “alternative rock” — the ones who didn’t care for Limp Bisquick or Linkin Parking Garage and the other lunkhead rubbish they played on commercial alternative-rock stations.
Pavement, which never quite became the cultural force many of its fans predicted or at least hoped for, broke up in 1999. And Beck — let’s just say his records became less and less interesting. The most recent Beck album that I still listen to is Midnite Vultures from 1999. (Most critics hated it, but they’re wrong.)
But Pavement fans and probably even some Beck fans should appreciate the new album Mirror Traffic by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.
It’s not really a Lollapalooza 1995 reunion, but Pavement frontman Malkmus teams up here with Beck, who produced the album. And it sounds a whole lot like Pavement in its heyday.
Admittedly, I haven’t heard all the Malkmus/Jicks albums, which have been released at a steady rate since 2001 (my favorite title being 2003’s Pig Lib). But out of curiosity I did listen to a few selections from those records, including a good chunk of Malkmus’ previous album, Real Emotional Trash (thank God for Spotify!), before writing this column.
Real Emotional Trash features all sorts of lengthy tunes that some critics have compared, not entirely unjustly, to jam-band music. (It also has one song, “Gardenia,” that reminds me of The Partridge Family, while “Elmo Delmo” may have roots in Jethro Tull.)
But after hearing some of the older albums, it would appear that the return to the rubbery, sometimes meandering Pavement sound was a conscious decision. Perhaps it’s a natural development following the Pavement reunion tour last year.
After that cool event, the band’s Bob Nastanovich told Spin that while future Pavement shows could be a possibility, it wasn’t likely that they would be doing any albums or writing new material. “It doesn't seem like a realistic possibility that any new music would be made,” he said. “At this point, Stephen does not write songs for Pavement anymore, or songs in the Pavement mind-set. I think he considers that part of his juvenilia, which is his own prerogative. He’s left that era behind him.”
Mirror Traffic may be proof that Malkmus wanted to prove his old bandmate wrong. The album begins with “Tigers,” one of the catchiest songs Malkmus has done since Pavement’s “Cut Your Hair.” It starts off with Malkmus singing, “I caught you streaking in your Birkenstocks<2009>/<2009>A scary thought in the 2Ks.” Is this the singer’s sly way of saying, “I’m too old to be here”? If so, he shouldn’t worry about it. Streak away, Stephen!
Another song is “Forever 28,” which, in Malkmus’ own words, is “from a jaded hipster perspective of someone who is above it all and making fun of things.” At the risk of sounding like some mystic numerologist, 28 is the year after 27, when self-destructive rock stars (Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Jimi, Jim, and Janis) tend to die. It’s got a bouncy beat that suggests Motown, though the song doesn’t really sound like it. (Malkmus claims he borrowed it from Hall & Oates.)
One of my favorite songs, perhaps because of my main job as a political reporter, is “Senator.” Malkmus tells us what some senator wants — and it’s not a seat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. This isn’t likely to get any commercial radio play in its present form, so Matador Records had a contest for suggestions to replace the phrase "blow job" for a FCC-friendly version of the song. (Sorry, the deadline's already passed.)
Another track I like is “Tune Grief,” which, despite its sad-sack title, is probably the most rocking tune on the record, though “Spazz” gives it a run for its money in that department. Beck’s influence really shows on “All Over Gently,” which starts off with an acoustic blues guitar riff.
And speaking of jam bands, the song “Brain Gallop” reminds me a little bit of The Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood era. It’s got a long guitar jam and sounds great to these ears.
A few songs are just a little too soft-core for me. “Fall Away” is a pretty song, but it’s a snoozer. “Long Hard Book” is much the same. But I like the steel guitar. And the song is essentially redeemed by the truly weird, chaotic guitar solo at the end.
The ’90s are gone, and Malkmus definitely won’t remain forever 28. But Mirror Traffic shows he’s still quite capable of making enigmatic and fun music.
XXX COUNTRY & GARAGEPUNK COMPILATIONS
Two new compilations of cool tunes came out this week.
Today, Shooter Jennings unleashed Volume Two of his Southern Independent XXX Country collection. Among the 14 tracks are songs by The North Mississippi Allstars, Black Oak, Arkansas (that group's first recording in more than a decade), John Carter Cash, Whitey Morgan, Honky Tonk Hustlas, Joecephus & The George Jones Town Massacre and more.
And hey, New Mexico, The Imperial Rooster from Espanola, N.M. is there too, right between Jason Isbell and Joey Allcorn,
Also there is "Hootchie Kootchie Man" by true-life outlaw Jerry McGill. This was recorded years ago at Sun Studio with a band including Waylon Jennings and Jim Dickinson.
It's all free. Just go HERE and download away. And if you don't have Volume 1, it's still available. Just scroll down.
But wait, there's more!
Earlier this week the latest volume of the infamous GaragePunk Hideout compilation series was released. This is Hidden Tracks: The Best of the GaragePunk Hideout Vol. 5.
Like the previous volumes, this has a wide variety of trashy sounds from all over the world. There's several artists who have graced The Big Enchilada podcast as well as Terrell's Sound World, including Persian Claws, Lothat and The Laundramats, plus many more. 22 tracks in all.
This is free to active members of The GaragePunk Hideout. And for those who don't want to join a club that would accept someone like me, you can buy it at the usual download joints at a reasonable price. (Hint, Amazon sells it for $6.99, while iTunes is $9.99.)
Click HERE to get info on joining the GaragePunk Hideout and HERE for the track listing.
Today, Shooter Jennings unleashed Volume Two of his Southern Independent XXX Country collection. Among the 14 tracks are songs by The North Mississippi Allstars, Black Oak, Arkansas (that group's first recording in more than a decade), John Carter Cash, Whitey Morgan, Honky Tonk Hustlas, Joecephus & The George Jones Town Massacre and more.
And hey, New Mexico, The Imperial Rooster from Espanola, N.M. is there too, right between Jason Isbell and Joey Allcorn,
Also there is "Hootchie Kootchie Man" by true-life outlaw Jerry McGill. This was recorded years ago at Sun Studio with a band including Waylon Jennings and Jim Dickinson.
It's all free. Just go HERE and download away. And if you don't have Volume 1, it's still available. Just scroll down.
But wait, there's more!
Earlier this week the latest volume of the infamous GaragePunk Hideout compilation series was released. This is Hidden Tracks: The Best of the GaragePunk Hideout Vol. 5.
Like the previous volumes, this has a wide variety of trashy sounds from all over the world. There's several artists who have graced The Big Enchilada podcast as well as Terrell's Sound World, including Persian Claws, Lothat and The Laundramats, plus many more. 22 tracks in all.
This is free to active members of The GaragePunk Hideout. And for those who don't want to join a club that would accept someone like me, you can buy it at the usual download joints at a reasonable price. (Hint, Amazon sells it for $6.99, while iTunes is $9.99.)
Click HERE to get info on joining the GaragePunk Hideout and HERE for the track listing.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The Roots of Picnic Time For Potatoheads
Here's a fun little exercise in self indulgence.
I've put together a Spotify playlist of songs that were parodied, stolen, alluded to, mentioned in passing in or somehow have a spiritual connection with songs on my 1981 album Picnic Time For Potatoheads. If the album actually ever had been successful, here are some of the lawsuits I would have faced.
Spotify members can find it The rest of you, get with it! Get yerself to Spotify and request an invitation. Once you're in, you can find my profile and all my playlists at spotify:user:robotclaw .
I came up with most of these while driving to Austin, Texas. It's a long drive.
Here's a list of those songs:
* "Teddy Bear's Picnic" by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It's obvious that the title song of the album was inspired by this children's classic. But the arrangement was heavily influenced by The Dirt Band's chaotic late-'60s version. Back when I was in junior high in Oklahoma, my band, The Ramhorn City Go-Go Squad & Uptight Washtub Tub Band, covered this tune, trying to imitate the NGDB.
* "El Mosquito" by Eddie Dimas. This is where David Borrego's guitar solo in "Cook Yer Enchiladas" comes from. My old college roommate Dave Vigil and I used to play this song when we crashed parties. He played lead, I played rhythm.
* "Louisiana Man" by Doug Kershaw. Doug launched countless Cajun clones.
* "Endless Sleep" by Jody Reynolds. I envisioned "I Lost My Baby to a Satan Cult" as a cross between this song and "Pumpin' " by Patti Smith, though by the time we recorded it, the song had evolved into a quasi-Canned Heat-style boogie. Back when I used to gig a lot, I'd sometimes slow "Satan Cult" down to the spooky, swampy Jody Reynolds rhythm.
* "Holding Things Together" by Merle Haggard. Several of those who reviewed Potatoheads caught the fact that the title song came from "Teddy Bears Picnic" and "Satan Cult" sprang from "Endless Sleep." Fewer recognized the huge debt "Solar Broken Home" owes to this song, which should have been a bigger hit for Hag.
* "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals. I think the Wolfboy's tattooed-lady mother used to work out of the House of the Rising Sun.
* "Donald and Lydia" by John Prine. Prine's song provided the basic structure for "Silly Sally and the Phantom of the Opera." The characters in my song were based on actual street people who were hanging out in Santa Fe in the late '70s. I actually did see them both at the same time in Sambo's on Cerrillos Road late one night circa 1979. They weren't together, at least while I was there.
* "Miracle Man" by Elvis Costello. This song was on heavy rotation on my personal Pandemonium Jukebox when I wrote "The Bozo Buck Stops Here." And by the way, Costello's "Goon Squad" inspired the melody of my "Nuclear Powered Castle," (which I never recorded.)
* "Heart Like a Wheel" by Linda Rondstadt. This is the song I was making fun of on the spoken interlude on "Bozo Bucks." But I have to admit, as hard as I may try, I'll never sing like Linda Rondstadt either.
* "Edwin" by Steeleye Span. "Child of the Falling Star" is a sweet song I wrote for my daughter a few days after she was born. (Yes, I did see a crazy big falling star while driving her mother to the hospital a few hours before she arrived.) "Edwin" is an old British folk song about a poor sailor who gets his head chopped off by his girlfriend's crazy parents. The two songs don't really have anything in common -- except one little four-note guitar riff.
* "My True Story" by The Jive Five. This song itself didn't directly inspire "The Green Weenie," but it's part of the great Doo-Wop Collective Consciousness that did. (I was disappointed that the Frank Zappa catalogue is not on Spotify. My first choice would have been a Ruben & The Jets tune in honor of the late Jimmy Carl Black, who played on "The Green Weenie.")
* "Love Will Keep Us Together" by The Captain & Tennille. This is the song Taffy the peep-show girl hums in "Naked Girls."
* "Shake Your Booty" by K.C. & The Sunshine Band. Those naked girls go for the cheesy sounds. They don't feel any guilt. Besides the songs alluded to in the lyrics, what really dates this song is the fact that when I wrote it, $2.50 a beer was a little ourageous.
I've put together a Spotify playlist of songs that were parodied, stolen, alluded to, mentioned in passing in or somehow have a spiritual connection with songs on my 1981 album Picnic Time For Potatoheads. If the album actually ever had been successful, here are some of the lawsuits I would have faced.
Spotify members can find it The rest of you, get with it! Get yerself to Spotify and request an invitation. Once you're in, you can find my profile and all my playlists at spotify:user:robotclaw .
I came up with most of these while driving to Austin, Texas. It's a long drive.
Here's a list of those songs:
* "Teddy Bear's Picnic" by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It's obvious that the title song of the album was inspired by this children's classic. But the arrangement was heavily influenced by The Dirt Band's chaotic late-'60s version. Back when I was in junior high in Oklahoma, my band, The Ramhorn City Go-Go Squad & Uptight Washtub Tub Band, covered this tune, trying to imitate the NGDB.
* "El Mosquito" by Eddie Dimas. This is where David Borrego's guitar solo in "Cook Yer Enchiladas" comes from. My old college roommate Dave Vigil and I used to play this song when we crashed parties. He played lead, I played rhythm.
* "Louisiana Man" by Doug Kershaw. Doug launched countless Cajun clones.
* "Endless Sleep" by Jody Reynolds. I envisioned "I Lost My Baby to a Satan Cult" as a cross between this song and "Pumpin' " by Patti Smith, though by the time we recorded it, the song had evolved into a quasi-Canned Heat-style boogie. Back when I used to gig a lot, I'd sometimes slow "Satan Cult" down to the spooky, swampy Jody Reynolds rhythm.
* "Holding Things Together" by Merle Haggard. Several of those who reviewed Potatoheads caught the fact that the title song came from "Teddy Bears Picnic" and "Satan Cult" sprang from "Endless Sleep." Fewer recognized the huge debt "Solar Broken Home" owes to this song, which should have been a bigger hit for Hag.
* "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals. I think the Wolfboy's tattooed-lady mother used to work out of the House of the Rising Sun.
* "Donald and Lydia" by John Prine. Prine's song provided the basic structure for "Silly Sally and the Phantom of the Opera." The characters in my song were based on actual street people who were hanging out in Santa Fe in the late '70s. I actually did see them both at the same time in Sambo's on Cerrillos Road late one night circa 1979. They weren't together, at least while I was there.
* "Miracle Man" by Elvis Costello. This song was on heavy rotation on my personal Pandemonium Jukebox when I wrote "The Bozo Buck Stops Here." And by the way, Costello's "Goon Squad" inspired the melody of my "Nuclear Powered Castle," (which I never recorded.)
* "Heart Like a Wheel" by Linda Rondstadt. This is the song I was making fun of on the spoken interlude on "Bozo Bucks." But I have to admit, as hard as I may try, I'll never sing like Linda Rondstadt either.
* "Edwin" by Steeleye Span. "Child of the Falling Star" is a sweet song I wrote for my daughter a few days after she was born. (Yes, I did see a crazy big falling star while driving her mother to the hospital a few hours before she arrived.) "Edwin" is an old British folk song about a poor sailor who gets his head chopped off by his girlfriend's crazy parents. The two songs don't really have anything in common -- except one little four-note guitar riff.
* "My True Story" by The Jive Five. This song itself didn't directly inspire "The Green Weenie," but it's part of the great Doo-Wop Collective Consciousness that did. (I was disappointed that the Frank Zappa catalogue is not on Spotify. My first choice would have been a Ruben & The Jets tune in honor of the late Jimmy Carl Black, who played on "The Green Weenie.")
* "Love Will Keep Us Together" by The Captain & Tennille. This is the song Taffy the peep-show girl hums in "Naked Girls."
* "Shake Your Booty" by K.C. & The Sunshine Band. Those naked girls go for the cheesy sounds. They don't feel any guilt. Besides the songs alluded to in the lyrics, what really dates this song is the fact that when I wrote it, $2.50 a beer was a little ourageous.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Video Tribute to Jerry Lieber
Leiber on the left, Stoller on the right, some singer they apparently worked with in the middle. |
Two out of three of those were written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. As the years went by, I realized Leiber & Stoller were perhaps the greatest songwriter team to ever grace popular music. They had soul, they had humor, and they wrote songs that still stand today.
Leiber died Monday at the age of 78. If there's a Heaven, Leiber and Carl Gardner of The Coasters, who died in June are causing a lot of yakety yak.
Here's the New York Times obit
And below are some of his immortal compositions.
On a hitchhiking trip in the summer of 1975 I visited my pals Dick and Joe who were in Kansas City. I convinced them to take me to the corner of 12th Street and Vine. Unfortunately, it didn't exist. Vine intersected with other nearby numbered streets, but there was a housing project where the intersection of 12th and Vine should have been. (I later forgave Leiber & Stoller for that.) Now there's some kind of park there commemorating the song and the hot jazz scene that was centered there all those decades ago.
Shout out to the Twin Eagle Drum Group of Zuni Pueblo, NM who appear on this.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, August 14, 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
Suspect Device by Stiff Little Fingers
Little Girl by Hollywood Sinners
I Must Be the Devil by Glambilly
I Hate My Job by Butthole Surfers
I Wanna Know About You by The International Noise Conspiracy
I Had A Dream by The Gibson Bros.
Nights in White Satin by The Dickies
Slow Lightning by Junior Kimbrough & The Soul Blues Boys
Green Eyed Lady by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Juke Joint In The Sky by The Juke Joint Pimps
Stop Using Me by Howlin' Wolf
Stop Trying to Break Me Down by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Cannibal Girl by The Hydes
Born With a Tail by The Supersuckers
Rock City by Joe Buck Yourself
Bulldog by Doo Rag
My Shark by King Automatic
Nobody But You by The Dead Heats
Wild About That Thing by Sharon Jones
Noc-a-homa by The Black Lips
Scrap Collectin' Man by Crankshaft & The Geargrinders
Bomb Squad by Gas Huffer
The Dozens by Eddie "One String" Jones
Devil's Motorcycle by The Chocolate Watchband
Savior City by Death of Samantha
Bingo Master by The Fall
I've Got The Devil Inside by Rev. Beat-Man
Seasons in the Sun by Too Much Joy
West Of The Wall by Toni Fisher & The Wayne Shanklin Orchestra
Ballad Of Dwight Fry/Sun Arise by Alice Cooper
The Throne by The Pussywarmers
Ngol Jimol by Afrisippi
It's Not My Birthday by They Might Be Giants
Lucky Day by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
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
Suspect Device by Stiff Little Fingers
Little Girl by Hollywood Sinners
I Must Be the Devil by Glambilly
I Hate My Job by Butthole Surfers
I Wanna Know About You by The International Noise Conspiracy
I Had A Dream by The Gibson Bros.
Nights in White Satin by The Dickies
Slow Lightning by Junior Kimbrough & The Soul Blues Boys
Green Eyed Lady by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Juke Joint In The Sky by The Juke Joint Pimps
Stop Using Me by Howlin' Wolf
Stop Trying to Break Me Down by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Cannibal Girl by The Hydes
Born With a Tail by The Supersuckers
Rock City by Joe Buck Yourself
Bulldog by Doo Rag
My Shark by King Automatic
Nobody But You by The Dead Heats
Wild About That Thing by Sharon Jones
Noc-a-homa by The Black Lips
Scrap Collectin' Man by Crankshaft & The Geargrinders
Bomb Squad by Gas Huffer
The Dozens by Eddie "One String" Jones
Devil's Motorcycle by The Chocolate Watchband
Savior City by Death of Samantha
Bingo Master by The Fall
I've Got The Devil Inside by Rev. Beat-Man
Seasons in the Sun by Too Much Joy
West Of The Wall by Toni Fisher & The Wayne Shanklin Orchestra
Ballad Of Dwight Fry/Sun Arise by Alice Cooper
The Throne by The Pussywarmers
Ngol Jimol by Afrisippi
It's Not My Birthday by They Might Be Giants
Lucky Day by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Saturday, August 13, 2011
My Spotify Playlists
I was just getting used to the Amazon and Google music clouds when along comes Spotify. For the past couple of weeks or so, this is where I've been listening to most of my music.
And creating playlists has become one of the most addictive internet time-wasters I've ever indulged in.
Basically Spotify allows you to stream about 15 million (!) songs. The whole song, not just 30-second clips. And not just well known groups -- lots of bitchen obscurities.
If you're on the free plan, which I am at this point,you have to endure an occasional audio ad. (Most of these currently are house ads telling you about various features of Spotify and urging you to upgrade to a pay plan. A few spots by record companies turn up
Other people have written better beginners' guides to Spotify than I could do. (Here's one).
I just wanted to post links to my playlists. Subscribe to your favorites. Most of them will be evolving as new stuff is added. Here they are:
* Big Enchilada Super Smashes: A sampling of songs that have been played on The Big Enchilada podcast.
* Psychedelic '60s: An hour or so of late '60s psychedelia, mainly stuff they played on the radio in 67-68.
* Psychobilly Madness: Greasy punks with stand-up basses. Hotrods! Switchblades! Zombies!
* Rock 'n' Soul: Everywhere I go from Kansas City up to Maine, Rock 'n' Soul Music's driving people insane!
* Frank Furter's Fave: A tribute to the American hotdog.
* The Great Country Albums: From Marty Robbins to The Waco Brothers, some of my favorite country albums of all time. (No "greatest hits" compilations here. These are all albums that were meant to be heard as such.) 11 hours of music here!
* Country Underground : Call it underground country, call it XXX country, call it the music Nashville does NOT want you to hear (hey, that sounds familiar!) Here's an hour or so of the stuff
* '70s Country Jukebox: An hour's worth of country classics (and some shoulda-been classics) that they actually used to play on AM country stations.
* Alt Country, The First Generation: This is country rock from the mid '60s through the mid 70s.
* Gospel Glory: I went nuts with this one. Six hours of Lord-praising, soul-saving Black gospel, mostly from the 40s and 50s, though I've got some great Staples Singers tunes in here.
* Remember the Fabulous '90s: Grunge and more. Mostly early '90s stuff.
* Songs I Heard on My Transistor Radio: I almost called this my "Measles Mix" because when I caught the measles in the early '60s (I was in third grade) I found solace and discovered a whole new world of music in a little transistor radio my mom gave me. It wasn't much bigger than my iPod is now. At first it was just a way to escape the boredom of having to stay home from school but being too sick to hang out with friends. The music became an obsession. Come to think of it, it still is. Here are some of the songs from the pre-Beatles '60s that led me to become the rock 'n' roll maniac I am today.
Update: 8-14-2011 I just created Waiting for Waits, a collection of Tom Waits covers. (Unfortunately the Richie Cole song of that name wasn't available on Spotify)
And creating playlists has become one of the most addictive internet time-wasters I've ever indulged in.
Basically Spotify allows you to stream about 15 million (!) songs. The whole song, not just 30-second clips. And not just well known groups -- lots of bitchen obscurities.
If you're on the free plan, which I am at this point,you have to endure an occasional audio ad. (Most of these currently are house ads telling you about various features of Spotify and urging you to upgrade to a pay plan. A few spots by record companies turn up
Other people have written better beginners' guides to Spotify than I could do. (Here's one).
I just wanted to post links to my playlists. Subscribe to your favorites. Most of them will be evolving as new stuff is added. Here they are:
* Big Enchilada Super Smashes: A sampling of songs that have been played on The Big Enchilada podcast.
* Psychedelic '60s: An hour or so of late '60s psychedelia, mainly stuff they played on the radio in 67-68.
* Psychobilly Madness: Greasy punks with stand-up basses. Hotrods! Switchblades! Zombies!
* Rock 'n' Soul: Everywhere I go from Kansas City up to Maine, Rock 'n' Soul Music's driving people insane!
* Frank Furter's Fave: A tribute to the American hotdog.
* The Great Country Albums: From Marty Robbins to The Waco Brothers, some of my favorite country albums of all time. (No "greatest hits" compilations here. These are all albums that were meant to be heard as such.) 11 hours of music here!
* Country Underground : Call it underground country, call it XXX country, call it the music Nashville does NOT want you to hear (hey, that sounds familiar!) Here's an hour or so of the stuff
* '70s Country Jukebox: An hour's worth of country classics (and some shoulda-been classics) that they actually used to play on AM country stations.
* Alt Country, The First Generation: This is country rock from the mid '60s through the mid 70s.
* Gospel Glory: I went nuts with this one. Six hours of Lord-praising, soul-saving Black gospel, mostly from the 40s and 50s, though I've got some great Staples Singers tunes in here.
* Remember the Fabulous '90s: Grunge and more. Mostly early '90s stuff.
* Songs I Heard on My Transistor Radio: I almost called this my "Measles Mix" because when I caught the measles in the early '60s (I was in third grade) I found solace and discovered a whole new world of music in a little transistor radio my mom gave me. It wasn't much bigger than my iPod is now. At first it was just a way to escape the boredom of having to stay home from school but being too sick to hang out with friends. The music became an obsession. Come to think of it, it still is. Here are some of the songs from the pre-Beatles '60s that led me to become the rock 'n' roll maniac I am today.
Update: 8-14-2011 I just created Waiting for Waits, a collection of Tom Waits covers. (Unfortunately the Richie Cole song of that name wasn't available on Spotify)
Friday, August 12, 2011
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, August 12, 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
Look at That Moon by Carl Mann
FBI Top 10 by DM Bob & The Deficits
Tobacco Road by Tav Falco
Drop What I'm Doing by The Gourds
Jesse James Boogie by Jesse James
The Gold Rush is over by Hank Snow
I Want Some Lovin' Baby by Jimmy & Duane
Good Country Girls by Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three
Bachelor Man From Del Gaucho by Lucky Tubb
City Lights by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Road to Hattiesberg by Robert Earl Reed
Silver City by Ugly Valley Boys
Don't Lose Your Mind by Lukas Nelson
Country Girl With Hot Pants On by Leona Williams
You Drive Me Crazy by Ray Scott
Crystal Chandeliers by Charlie Pride
Bulldozers and Dirt by Drive-By Truckers
Lead Me On by Conway & Loretta
Uh-Huh-Honey by Autry Inman
Goin' Down to Kessler's by Joe West
Devil Came A Knockin' by Liquorbox
Tomorrow Morning's Gonna Come by Slackeye Slim
Farmer Had Him Rats by Black Jake & The Carnies
My Brand of Blues by Bloodshot Bill
Hillbilly Fever by Little Jimmy Dickens
Mad by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
Buick City by Whitey Morgan & The 78s
Take Advantage of Your Chances by Bob Livingston
Girl on the Billboard by Eddie Spaghetti
Moonshine Man by Alford's Band of Bullwinkles
Honey Don't by Mike Cullison
Is That You In The Blue by Dex Romweber Duo
Honky Tonkin' by The The
Nails in the Pine by Poor Boy's Soul
Feel Like Goin' Home by Charlie Rich
Get Along Little Cindy by L.C. Ulmer
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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
Look at That Moon by Carl Mann
FBI Top 10 by DM Bob & The Deficits
Tobacco Road by Tav Falco
Drop What I'm Doing by The Gourds
Jesse James Boogie by Jesse James
The Gold Rush is over by Hank Snow
I Want Some Lovin' Baby by Jimmy & Duane
Good Country Girls by Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three
Bachelor Man From Del Gaucho by Lucky Tubb
City Lights by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Road to Hattiesberg by Robert Earl Reed
Silver City by Ugly Valley Boys
Don't Lose Your Mind by Lukas Nelson
Country Girl With Hot Pants On by Leona Williams
You Drive Me Crazy by Ray Scott
Crystal Chandeliers by Charlie Pride
Bulldozers and Dirt by Drive-By Truckers
Lead Me On by Conway & Loretta
Uh-Huh-Honey by Autry Inman
Goin' Down to Kessler's by Joe West
Devil Came A Knockin' by Liquorbox
Tomorrow Morning's Gonna Come by Slackeye Slim
Farmer Had Him Rats by Black Jake & The Carnies
My Brand of Blues by Bloodshot Bill
Hillbilly Fever by Little Jimmy Dickens
Mad by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
Buick City by Whitey Morgan & The 78s
Take Advantage of Your Chances by Bob Livingston
Girl on the Billboard by Eddie Spaghetti
Moonshine Man by Alford's Band of Bullwinkles
Honey Don't by Mike Cullison
Is That You In The Blue by Dex Romweber Duo
Honky Tonkin' by The The
Nails in the Pine by Poor Boy's Soul
Feel Like Goin' Home by Charlie Rich
Get Along Little Cindy by L.C. Ulmer
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
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Thursday, August 11, 2011
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: ROOTS PUNK RENEGADES
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 12, 2011
Many of us — fans and critics alike — have groaned for decades about the fact that the music the general public calls “country” has grown more slick and corporate. At the same time, the blues has lost much of its original gutbucket raunch, becoming smoother, safer, and mainstream-friendly.
One natural antidote to the corporatization of American roots music has come from country punks and blues punks. Call it “roots punk.” Various strains of it have been around for years and years. The term “cowpunk,” for instance, has been around since the late 1970s. The Cramps deserve a big hunk of credit for this. And people have been calling The Gun Club “punk blues” since its first album, Fire of Love, was released in 1981.
Besides The Gun Club, this crazy trail was blazed by pioneers like The Meat Puppets, Jason & The Scorchers, Flat Duo Jets, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Gories, and many others.
My favorite paradox of roots punk is that while it was healthily irreverent, playing upon and making fun of the negative stereotypes associated with country and blues, it seemed far less "sacrilegious" than most of the “country” and most of the “blues” that you hear on commercial radio or see on television.
Punk country and blues are still rocking the juke joints and honky-tonks of the underground, judging by a couple of recent records out of Europe from bands that take the raw, primitive essence of American music — one a “country” band of sorts, the other a “blues” unit — and spit it out with a little punk fire and good-time slop.
* They Called Us Country by DM Bob & The Deficits. Robert Tooke, aka DM Bob, is an American, a native of Louisiana. I’m not sure why, but he immigrated to Germany years ago. (The “DM” stands for Deutsche mark.)
He formed The Deficits in the mid-’90s. The band lasted until about 2002. It was a trio that included DM on guitar and vocals, a woman named Reinhardt — reportedly the grand-niece of Gypsy-jazz great Django Reinhardt — on slide guitar, and a drummer named Tank Top.
This album, a collection of unreleased material from The Deficits’ heyday, begins with the song that inspired the title of this collection. “They Call Me Country” is about some hillbilly picker who makes it big: “I only get my hair cut once a year, and they call me country / If I did any work, it ain’t been around here, and they call me country.”
It sounds like a close relative of “Dang Me.” In fact, I assumed it was an obscure Roger Miller tune until I checked the credits and learned that it was written by Lee Hazlewood. It was originally recorded by an Oklahoma country singer named Sanford Clark in the 1960s, and his version sounds like Miller too.
Hazlewood, who wrote “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ ” and most of Nancy Sinatra’s other hits, is also responsible for another song on this album, “Dark in My Heart.”
Another songwriter is represented by two songs on this album. Glen Sherley is best known for writing the song “Greystone Chapel” for Johnny Cash’s classic At Folsom Prison album. At the time Cash recorded it, Sherley was in the audience serving time for armed robbery. (He recorded an album while still in prison and later toured with Cash after his release. But, ultimately, music didn’t provide salvation. Sherley committed suicide in 1978.)
The Deficits cover Sherley’s “(Step Right This Way) I’m Your Man,” a joyful little love song. But even better is “FBI Top 10,” a crime song about a sexy fugitive. “She’s free to kiss but she heads the list of the FBI’s Top 10.”
DM and pals do a sweet, harmonica-honking take on Buck Owens’ “Yearn ’n Burn ’n Heart.” And they do a surprisingly good country version of Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love.” I’ll bet the legendarily cranky Reed would chuckle if he heard this.
After The Deficits, DM Bob went on to play drums with the Watzloves, a fun German group that specializes in trashy Cajun-flavored tunes. They Call Us Country, however, shows why DM needs to be in the forefront of a band.
* Boogie the Church Down by The Juke Joint Pimps featuring The Gospel Pimps. Don’t be confused. This is only one band, a dynamic duo from Cologne, Germany, featuring singer/guitarist T-Man and drummer/harmonica man Mighty Mike. The title of the album is a play on the title of their 2008 debut, Boogie the House Down Juke Joint Style.
As the title implies, many of the songs on this new album have elements of old-time gospel music. In the title track, T-Man imitates an old-time preacher. “I want to make love,” he says, “and I’m gonna make love to all you sisters!”
There’s “The Pimps Don’t Like It,” which was inspired by Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “God Don’t Like It,” and “Juke Joint in the Sky,” which has the simple refrain “I’m going home to the juke joint in the sky, juke joint in the sky when I die.”
One of my favorite songs here is “Sweetest Hymns,” which has a sound similar to another song by a punk blues duo, “Stack Shot Bill The Black Keys. In the grand rock ’n’ roll tradition of self-referential songs (going back at least to “Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkeys”), the Pimps sing,
“The angels have the greatest sound / But they don’t play it down in the ground. ...The angels singin’ the sweetest hymns / But I prefer the Juke Joint Pimps.”
Not all the tracks have gospel overtones. “I Feel Guilty” sounds like it’s built around a stray Howlin’ Wolf riff. At the end of each line, a background chorus does an eerie falsetto moan that sounds like a police siren.
When I reviewed the group’s first album, I noted that blues purists “undoubtedly will turn up their snoots.” That goes double for gospel purists with the new album. In fact, if these guys weren’t so far below the radar of popular consciousness, this blasphemous boogie would probably spark a few (literal) bonfires from religious groups.
But like I said about the earlier work, this music has spirit.
August 12, 2011
Many of us — fans and critics alike — have groaned for decades about the fact that the music the general public calls “country” has grown more slick and corporate. At the same time, the blues has lost much of its original gutbucket raunch, becoming smoother, safer, and mainstream-friendly.
One natural antidote to the corporatization of American roots music has come from country punks and blues punks. Call it “roots punk.” Various strains of it have been around for years and years. The term “cowpunk,” for instance, has been around since the late 1970s. The Cramps deserve a big hunk of credit for this. And people have been calling The Gun Club “punk blues” since its first album, Fire of Love, was released in 1981.
Besides The Gun Club, this crazy trail was blazed by pioneers like The Meat Puppets, Jason & The Scorchers, Flat Duo Jets, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Gories, and many others.
My favorite paradox of roots punk is that while it was healthily irreverent, playing upon and making fun of the negative stereotypes associated with country and blues, it seemed far less "sacrilegious" than most of the “country” and most of the “blues” that you hear on commercial radio or see on television.
Punk country and blues are still rocking the juke joints and honky-tonks of the underground, judging by a couple of recent records out of Europe from bands that take the raw, primitive essence of American music — one a “country” band of sorts, the other a “blues” unit — and spit it out with a little punk fire and good-time slop.
* They Called Us Country by DM Bob & The Deficits. Robert Tooke, aka DM Bob, is an American, a native of Louisiana. I’m not sure why, but he immigrated to Germany years ago. (The “DM” stands for Deutsche mark.)
He formed The Deficits in the mid-’90s. The band lasted until about 2002. It was a trio that included DM on guitar and vocals, a woman named Reinhardt — reportedly the grand-niece of Gypsy-jazz great Django Reinhardt — on slide guitar, and a drummer named Tank Top.
This album, a collection of unreleased material from The Deficits’ heyday, begins with the song that inspired the title of this collection. “They Call Me Country” is about some hillbilly picker who makes it big: “I only get my hair cut once a year, and they call me country / If I did any work, it ain’t been around here, and they call me country.”
It sounds like a close relative of “Dang Me.” In fact, I assumed it was an obscure Roger Miller tune until I checked the credits and learned that it was written by Lee Hazlewood. It was originally recorded by an Oklahoma country singer named Sanford Clark in the 1960s, and his version sounds like Miller too.
Hazlewood, who wrote “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ ” and most of Nancy Sinatra’s other hits, is also responsible for another song on this album, “Dark in My Heart.”
Another songwriter is represented by two songs on this album. Glen Sherley is best known for writing the song “Greystone Chapel” for Johnny Cash’s classic At Folsom Prison album. At the time Cash recorded it, Sherley was in the audience serving time for armed robbery. (He recorded an album while still in prison and later toured with Cash after his release. But, ultimately, music didn’t provide salvation. Sherley committed suicide in 1978.)
The Deficits cover Sherley’s “(Step Right This Way) I’m Your Man,” a joyful little love song. But even better is “FBI Top 10,” a crime song about a sexy fugitive. “She’s free to kiss but she heads the list of the FBI’s Top 10.”
DM and pals do a sweet, harmonica-honking take on Buck Owens’ “Yearn ’n Burn ’n Heart.” And they do a surprisingly good country version of Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love.” I’ll bet the legendarily cranky Reed would chuckle if he heard this.
After The Deficits, DM Bob went on to play drums with the Watzloves, a fun German group that specializes in trashy Cajun-flavored tunes. They Call Us Country, however, shows why DM needs to be in the forefront of a band.
* Boogie the Church Down by The Juke Joint Pimps featuring The Gospel Pimps. Don’t be confused. This is only one band, a dynamic duo from Cologne, Germany, featuring singer/guitarist T-Man and drummer/harmonica man Mighty Mike. The title of the album is a play on the title of their 2008 debut, Boogie the House Down Juke Joint Style.
As the title implies, many of the songs on this new album have elements of old-time gospel music. In the title track, T-Man imitates an old-time preacher. “I want to make love,” he says, “and I’m gonna make love to all you sisters!”
There’s “The Pimps Don’t Like It,” which was inspired by Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “God Don’t Like It,” and “Juke Joint in the Sky,” which has the simple refrain “I’m going home to the juke joint in the sky, juke joint in the sky when I die.”
One of my favorite songs here is “Sweetest Hymns,” which has a sound similar to another song by a punk blues duo, “Stack Shot Bill The Black Keys. In the grand rock ’n’ roll tradition of self-referential songs (going back at least to “Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkeys”), the Pimps sing,
“The angels have the greatest sound / But they don’t play it down in the ground. ...The angels singin’ the sweetest hymns / But I prefer the Juke Joint Pimps.”
Not all the tracks have gospel overtones. “I Feel Guilty” sounds like it’s built around a stray Howlin’ Wolf riff. At the end of each line, a background chorus does an eerie falsetto moan that sounds like a police siren.
When I reviewed the group’s first album, I noted that blues purists “undoubtedly will turn up their snoots.” That goes double for gospel purists with the new album. In fact, if these guys weren’t so far below the radar of popular consciousness, this blasphemous boogie would probably spark a few (literal) bonfires from religious groups.
But like I said about the earlier work, this music has spirit.
Monday, August 08, 2011
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, August 7, 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
The Ways of a Man by Guitar Shorty
I Feel Guilty by The Juke Joint Pimps
He Sure Could Hypnotize by The A-Bones
Talkin' Bout You by The Animals
Shades by Pierced Arrows
Swing The Big Eyed Rabbit by The Cramps
Baby Doll by The Del Moroccos
Underdog by The Dirtbombs
Kickboxer Girl by Black Smokers
Ride by The Gun Club
Nightmare by Big Mama Thornton
Tricky Dick (Was A Rock-n-Rolla) by The Dick Nixons
City of Angels by Glambilly
Drug Train by Joe Buck Yourself
Bang Your Thing at the Ball by Bob Log III
Junk by T-Model Ford
Barefoot Susie by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two Headed Love Child by Mojo Nixon
Calling All Cows by The Blues Rockers
Suicide in a Bottle by The Evil Idols
Fire on the Moon by The Bell Rays
You Can’t Judge A Book by Bo Diddley
Screwdriver by The Bell Rays
Up Side by ? & The Mysterions
Naked Party by Ross Johnson with the Gibson Bros.
Come Back Lord by Rev. Beat-Man
Seething Psychosexual Conflict Blues by Figures Of Light
Shakin' it Up by The Obsidians
Shombolar by Sheriff & The Ravens
Scene Unseen by Piñata Protest
Symbol of Heaven by Little Julian Herrera
Don't Step on the Grass, Sam by Steppenwolf
Uku by Dengue Fever
Me And The Devil by Gil Scott-Heron
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill by The Bostweeds
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
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
The Ways of a Man by Guitar Shorty
I Feel Guilty by The Juke Joint Pimps
He Sure Could Hypnotize by The A-Bones
Talkin' Bout You by The Animals
Shades by Pierced Arrows
Swing The Big Eyed Rabbit by The Cramps
Baby Doll by The Del Moroccos
Underdog by The Dirtbombs
Kickboxer Girl by Black Smokers
Ride by The Gun Club
Nightmare by Big Mama Thornton
Tricky Dick (Was A Rock-n-Rolla) by The Dick Nixons
City of Angels by Glambilly
Drug Train by Joe Buck Yourself
Bang Your Thing at the Ball by Bob Log III
Junk by T-Model Ford
Barefoot Susie by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two Headed Love Child by Mojo Nixon
Calling All Cows by The Blues Rockers
Suicide in a Bottle by The Evil Idols
Fire on the Moon by The Bell Rays
You Can’t Judge A Book by Bo Diddley
Screwdriver by The Bell Rays
Up Side by ? & The Mysterions
Naked Party by Ross Johnson with the Gibson Bros.
Come Back Lord by Rev. Beat-Man
Seething Psychosexual Conflict Blues by Figures Of Light
Shakin' it Up by The Obsidians
Shombolar by Sheriff & The Ravens
Scene Unseen by Piñata Protest
Symbol of Heaven by Little Julian Herrera
Don't Step on the Grass, Sam by Steppenwolf
Uku by Dengue Fever
Me And The Devil by Gil Scott-Heron
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill by The Bostweeds
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Saturday, August 06, 2011
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, August 5, 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
They Called Me Country by DM Bob & The Deficits
Manhattan Hotel by Joe Buck
Four Letter Word by Lucas Nelson
Is Zat You Myrtle? by The Carlisles
Get What's Coming by The Defibulators
Texas Rose by Possessed by Paul James
I Remember Darling by Dex Romweber Duo
Wolf Call by Elvis Presley
She Said by Hasil Adkins
Free Mexican Airforce by Peter Rowan
Cuttin' Up Onions by Stew Moss
I Like the Way by The Imperial Rooster
54 Ways by Poor Boy's Soul
Mahatma Ghandi & Sitting Bull by Bob Livingston
Hepcat Baby by Eddy Arnold
I Am a Pilgrim by Coco Robicheaux
Vengeance Gonna Be My Name by Slackeye Slim
The Ominous Antropophagous Slackeye Slim by The Misery Jackals
Leo and Leona by Joe Ely
Down to My Last Dime by Johnny Paycheck
Some Rowdy Women by Shooter Jennings
Meanest Jukebox In Town by Whitey Morgan
Shombolar by Peter Stampfel & The Worm All-Stars
Ding Dong Mama From Tennessee by Jimmy Myers
Shoot My Baby by Tracy Nelson
Gary, Indiana 1959 by Dave Alvin
Old Moon by Bloodshot Bill
Three Bloodhounds Two Shepherds One Fila Brasileiro by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Outfit by Drive-By Truckers
Burnin' Flame by Stevie Tombstone
Your Old Gearbox by Michael Hurley
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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
They Called Me Country by DM Bob & The Deficits
Manhattan Hotel by Joe Buck
Four Letter Word by Lucas Nelson
Is Zat You Myrtle? by The Carlisles
Get What's Coming by The Defibulators
Texas Rose by Possessed by Paul James
I Remember Darling by Dex Romweber Duo
Wolf Call by Elvis Presley
She Said by Hasil Adkins
Free Mexican Airforce by Peter Rowan
Cuttin' Up Onions by Stew Moss
I Like the Way by The Imperial Rooster
54 Ways by Poor Boy's Soul
Mahatma Ghandi & Sitting Bull by Bob Livingston
Hepcat Baby by Eddy Arnold
I Am a Pilgrim by Coco Robicheaux
Vengeance Gonna Be My Name by Slackeye Slim
The Ominous Antropophagous Slackeye Slim by The Misery Jackals
Leo and Leona by Joe Ely
Down to My Last Dime by Johnny Paycheck
Some Rowdy Women by Shooter Jennings
Meanest Jukebox In Town by Whitey Morgan
Shombolar by Peter Stampfel & The Worm All-Stars
Ding Dong Mama From Tennessee by Jimmy Myers
Shoot My Baby by Tracy Nelson
Gary, Indiana 1959 by Dave Alvin
Old Moon by Bloodshot Bill
Three Bloodhounds Two Shepherds One Fila Brasileiro by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Outfit by Drive-By Truckers
Burnin' Flame by Stevie Tombstone
Your Old Gearbox by Michael Hurley
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
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Friday, August 05, 2011
Pinata Protest in Espanola
I’ve called Piñata Protest: the Chicano Pogues and San Antonio’s answer to Gogol Bordello.
Call 'em what you want, they're coming to Española tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 6) for a free show on the Plaza (706 Bond St.).
I understand Amarillo bluesman Stew Moss is playing also. And I know Espanola's beloved Imperial Rooster opens.
The show starts at 7 p.m.
Here's a review I wrote of Pinata's album Plethora last year. CLICK HERE.
And below is a bitchen video
Call 'em what you want, they're coming to Española tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 6) for a free show on the Plaza (706 Bond St.).
I understand Amarillo bluesman Stew Moss is playing also. And I know Espanola's beloved Imperial Rooster opens.
The show starts at 7 p.m.
Here's a review I wrote of Pinata's album Plethora last year. CLICK HERE.
And below is a bitchen video
Thursday, August 04, 2011
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: Dark & Savage plus Fun & Goofy
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 5, 2011
Holy Red Headed Stranger, Batman! It’s a cosmic concept album set in the Old West.
And just like Willie Nelson’s classic musical parable, El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa, the new album by Joe Frankland, who goes by the name of Slackeye Slim, is a low-key, minimally produced work that tells a story of a loner whose religious faith is tested and remolded by his gun.
You can easily imagine Slackeye’s Drake Savage, “the Chosen One,” crying like a baby and screaming like a panther — like the Preacher in Red Headed Stranger.
Both anti-heroes chalk up notable body counts. But unlike Nelson’s Stranger, Slackeye’s Chosen One never seems to find his Denver, never quite gets his hand on the wheel. Pistola is a much darker story.
“Come one! Come all! And listen to a tale of a gun that came from heaven.” This invitation comes early in Slackeye’s story. It sounds like a pitch from a medicine-show huckster. It’s obvious that the gun from heaven is going to send a bunch of people to hell.
Slackeye, who lives in rural Wisconsin and is pursuing a degree in engineering, recorded this album in some unusual locales — a junkyard, a cabin, an abandoned radio station, a fine-arts museum, and an old mansion — in Montana. Singer Graham Lindsey, like Slackeye, a Farmageddon recording artist, collaborated on some of the tunes on Pistola. The album is Slackeye’s second.
In an online interview last month on the It Burns When I Pee podcast, Slackeye explained, “It’s basically about this guy whose family is really really religious, and they push it on him really really hard, and that obviously will push him away from it. So he turns his back on God and people in general and hates the world and does all this evil shit.”
Finding the “Pistola Piadosa,” young Drake realizes he must carry out Judgment Day.
I won’t give away the whole plot here, but by the lovely dirge “Tomorrow Morning’s Gonna Come,” Savage finds his way to his boyhood home, where he says, “I’ve forgotten all the nightmares here/ I remember all the dreams.” And in the next song, “The Chosen One (Part III),” he repeatedly growls, “I’ve got some killin’ to do” during the last half of the song.
Musically, there’s a definite mariachi/spaghetti-Western feel on much of Pistola. I’ve already noted in this column that the song “Introducing Drake Savage” (which is part of the free Southern Independent XXX, Vol. 1 compilation I reviewed here a couple of weeks ago) reminds me a lot of Calexico. That’s true of several songs on the album, such as “Vengeance Gonna Be My Name,” in which I keep expecting Mexican trumpets to come in. They don’t, but there’s a tasty overheated guitar solo toward the end.
I also hear a lot of Nick Cave in this album, especially in the moody minor-key numbers. Slackeye’s voice is deep, as is Cave’s, but it’s more scratchy and not quite as rich. It’s perfectly suited for a surreal song cycle about God’s gunslinger.
El Santo Grial: La Pistola is available as a download at Slackeye's website. A CD version allegedly is in the works.
Also recommended:
* A Sure Sign of Something by Peter Stampfel & The WORM All-Stars. It must be Wisconsin week here at “Terrell’s Tune-Up.” Although I normally associate Stampfel with New York bohemia, I realized after I started writing this that he was born in the Dairy State. This album is as goofy as Slackeye’s is grim.
So, on Wisconsin!
A Sure Sign of Something sounds like Stampfel and a group of friends fooling around and having fun with a bunch of weird songs, both familiar and unknown — which, I believe, is the true definition of “folk music,” despite the uptight, self-absorbed connotations that the concept of folk music has unfortunately taken on.
For the uninitiated, Stampfel, 72, is best known as founder and perpetrator of The Holy Modal Rounders, a group that played folk music through a psychedelic filter. He and fellow Rounder Steve Weber were also members of The Fugs. I don’t remember the name of the critic who described Stampfel’s voice as resembling that of a chicken who just won the lottery, but he or she was spot on.
This isn’t an essential Stampfel album by any means, but it’s full of strange joys. It was recorded with several musicians from the WORM art collective Stampfel met in Rotterdam a few years ago.
The album starts off with a joyful little tune, "Fucking Sailors in China Town," written by Stampfel’s ex-wife Antonia, This first-person story of a prostitute who doesn’t charge sailors has been in Stampfel's repertoire for years. Critic Robert Christgau once wrote that this song would never be recorded. He was wrong.
Stampfel and his WORM pals romp through standards like “Peg and Awl,” The Stanley Brothers’ “How Mountain Girls Can Love,” the old fiddle tune “Wake Up Jacob,” and an irreverent version of “Because, Just Because.” I first heard this song on Elvis Presley’s Sun Sessions. Stampfel writes in the liner notes he first heard it played by a Milwaukee polka band in the ’40s.
And there’s an insane cover of a crazy doo-wop song called “Shombolar,” recorded in the ’50s by a group called Sheriff & The Ravens, though Stampfel said it was written by Aki Leong and is based on an African work song.
Stampfel’s knack for rediscovering and reinterpreting gems like this is a major reason we all should love him.
August 5, 2011
Holy Red Headed Stranger, Batman! It’s a cosmic concept album set in the Old West.
And just like Willie Nelson’s classic musical parable, El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa, the new album by Joe Frankland, who goes by the name of Slackeye Slim, is a low-key, minimally produced work that tells a story of a loner whose religious faith is tested and remolded by his gun.
You can easily imagine Slackeye’s Drake Savage, “the Chosen One,” crying like a baby and screaming like a panther — like the Preacher in Red Headed Stranger.
Both anti-heroes chalk up notable body counts. But unlike Nelson’s Stranger, Slackeye’s Chosen One never seems to find his Denver, never quite gets his hand on the wheel. Pistola is a much darker story.
“Come one! Come all! And listen to a tale of a gun that came from heaven.” This invitation comes early in Slackeye’s story. It sounds like a pitch from a medicine-show huckster. It’s obvious that the gun from heaven is going to send a bunch of people to hell.
Slackeye, who lives in rural Wisconsin and is pursuing a degree in engineering, recorded this album in some unusual locales — a junkyard, a cabin, an abandoned radio station, a fine-arts museum, and an old mansion — in Montana. Singer Graham Lindsey, like Slackeye, a Farmageddon recording artist, collaborated on some of the tunes on Pistola. The album is Slackeye’s second.
In an online interview last month on the It Burns When I Pee podcast, Slackeye explained, “It’s basically about this guy whose family is really really religious, and they push it on him really really hard, and that obviously will push him away from it. So he turns his back on God and people in general and hates the world and does all this evil shit.”
Finding the “Pistola Piadosa,” young Drake realizes he must carry out Judgment Day.
I won’t give away the whole plot here, but by the lovely dirge “Tomorrow Morning’s Gonna Come,” Savage finds his way to his boyhood home, where he says, “I’ve forgotten all the nightmares here/ I remember all the dreams.” And in the next song, “The Chosen One (Part III),” he repeatedly growls, “I’ve got some killin’ to do” during the last half of the song.
Musically, there’s a definite mariachi/spaghetti-Western feel on much of Pistola. I’ve already noted in this column that the song “Introducing Drake Savage” (which is part of the free Southern Independent XXX, Vol. 1 compilation I reviewed here a couple of weeks ago) reminds me a lot of Calexico. That’s true of several songs on the album, such as “Vengeance Gonna Be My Name,” in which I keep expecting Mexican trumpets to come in. They don’t, but there’s a tasty overheated guitar solo toward the end.
I also hear a lot of Nick Cave in this album, especially in the moody minor-key numbers. Slackeye’s voice is deep, as is Cave’s, but it’s more scratchy and not quite as rich. It’s perfectly suited for a surreal song cycle about God’s gunslinger.
El Santo Grial: La Pistola is available as a download at Slackeye's website. A CD version allegedly is in the works.
Also recommended:
* A Sure Sign of Something by Peter Stampfel & The WORM All-Stars. It must be Wisconsin week here at “Terrell’s Tune-Up.” Although I normally associate Stampfel with New York bohemia, I realized after I started writing this that he was born in the Dairy State. This album is as goofy as Slackeye’s is grim.
So, on Wisconsin!
A Sure Sign of Something sounds like Stampfel and a group of friends fooling around and having fun with a bunch of weird songs, both familiar and unknown — which, I believe, is the true definition of “folk music,” despite the uptight, self-absorbed connotations that the concept of folk music has unfortunately taken on.
For the uninitiated, Stampfel, 72, is best known as founder and perpetrator of The Holy Modal Rounders, a group that played folk music through a psychedelic filter. He and fellow Rounder Steve Weber were also members of The Fugs. I don’t remember the name of the critic who described Stampfel’s voice as resembling that of a chicken who just won the lottery, but he or she was spot on.
This isn’t an essential Stampfel album by any means, but it’s full of strange joys. It was recorded with several musicians from the WORM art collective Stampfel met in Rotterdam a few years ago.
The album starts off with a joyful little tune, "Fucking Sailors in China Town," written by Stampfel’s ex-wife Antonia, This first-person story of a prostitute who doesn’t charge sailors has been in Stampfel's repertoire for years. Critic Robert Christgau once wrote that this song would never be recorded. He was wrong.
Stampfel and his WORM pals romp through standards like “Peg and Awl,” The Stanley Brothers’ “How Mountain Girls Can Love,” the old fiddle tune “Wake Up Jacob,” and an irreverent version of “Because, Just Because.” I first heard this song on Elvis Presley’s Sun Sessions. Stampfel writes in the liner notes he first heard it played by a Milwaukee polka band in the ’40s.
And there’s an insane cover of a crazy doo-wop song called “Shombolar,” recorded in the ’50s by a group called Sheriff & The Ravens, though Stampfel said it was written by Aki Leong and is based on an African work song.
Stampfel’s knack for rediscovering and reinterpreting gems like this is a major reason we all should love him.
eMusic August
* Blind James Campbell And His Nashville Street Band. Here's another fine Arhoolie recording. Just like the title implies, Campbell and his cohorts played in the streets of Nashville. Much like Howard Armstrong's bands, (I downloaded Louie Bluie, the soundtrack to the wonderful documentary about Armstrong, a few months ago), Campbell played a wide range of music -- blues, country, gospel, jazz, old folk songs).
Campbell, who was left blind after an accident at a fertilizer plant, started the band in 1936. Arhoolie's Chris Strachwitz recorded them in 1962 and '63.
On most songs Campbell, who played guitar, mandolin and percussion, is accompanied by Beauford Clay and Bell Ray on guitar. Some songs feature a two-man horn section (George Bell on trumpet and Ralph Robinson on tuba).
Campbell doesn't have the strong personality of Howard Armstrong, but still, I can't think of a street corner in America that wouldn't be improved by having a band like this.playing on it.
But here's some bad news. It looks like I nabbed this one just in the nick of time. Sometime after I downloaded this a few weeks ago, it disappeared from eMusic. And it's not even available on Amazon. I'm not sure what the story is here.
* Feed the Family by Possessed by Paul James. I'm not sure how I missed this album when it was released last year, but I'm glad I found it now. I first became a fan of this one man band (that one man's real name being being Konrad Wert) three years ago when his album, Cold and Blind came out on Voodoo Rhythm.
Wert was born and raised in an Amish-Mennonite family in Immokalee, Florida. “Paul James” is a combination of his father’s and grandfather’s names. He plays plays guitar, banjo, fiddle and percussion. And as I said in my review of that previous album, he "sounds as if he’s emerged from some primordial swamp where every shadow might be a demon. As he shouts and yelps ... you can imagine him as some sinner in the hands of an angry God."
Feed the Family probably is more accessible to a newcomer than his previous work. It's more melodic. There's some downright pretty country songs like "Shoulda Known Better" and "Texas Rose." And then there's, "The Color of My Bloody Nose," a nasty little break-up song that shares a special kinship with Harry Nilsson's "You're Breaking My Heart."
Still, my favorites are the stompers, the ones with the most fire and brimstone -- the opening track "Four Men from the Row," which sounds like a banjo apocalypse and the fiddle-driven title song.
For a cool interview with Konrad Wert on Outlaw Radio Chicago CLICK HERE.
Plus
* The 90 (!) or so tracks I didn't get last month from Fats Domino & The Rhythm & Blues Friends. As I noted before, this is a strange compilation featuring a bunch of Domino live tracks plus scores of great old R&B and blues tunes that have no apparent relation with Domino.
The sound quality isn't great on a few tracks here. But for less than a dime a track (if you download the whole collection), this is a true bargain-basement treasure.
There's songs from people you'll recognize -- Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner, Louis Kordan, Big Maybelle, Lightnin' Hopkins, Rufus Thomas, Lowell Fulson, Big Mama Thorton.
And there's some I'd never heard of -- Hop Dixon, Elmo Nixon, H-Bomb Ferguson, The Arabians.
Some standouts here include "Chitlin' Ball" a west-coast jump blues by King Porter; "Everything is Cool" an early rock 'n' roll obscurity by a guy simply known as "Pork Chop"; "My Rough and Ready Man," featuring some sexy scat from Annie Laurie; and "Sad Head Blues" by some sad sack who went by the name "Mr. Sad Head."
This album provided a couple of selections for my most recent Big Enchilada podcast: "But Officer" by Sonny Knight and "Wine O Wine" by a band called The Gators.
*Six songs from Girl Happy by Elvis Presley. Girl Happy for years has been my favorite guilty-pleasure Elvis movie. But there's nothing to feel guilty about in loving this soundtrack.
A few of these songs -- "Puppet on a String," "Do the Clam" and the title tune -- I already had from the compilation Command Performances, The Essential Sixties Masters. But this is the first time I've had digital copies of under-rated, overlooked songs like "Spring Fever," "Wolf Call" and the dangerously tacky "The Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce." You know a song that starts out "Girls on the beach, they commit a sin/They don't show yards and yards of skin" is going to be a kick. The Cramps did a great version of "Do the Clam," but I'd have loved to have heard Lux Interior croon "Ft. Lauderdale."
I had the LP as a kid in the mid- 60s. Loved it then. Love it now.
* Two songs from The Early Years, 1930-1934, Volume 1 by Cab Calloway. "Happy Feet" and "Aw You Dawg" to be exact (which is a version of another song on this collection, "You Dog," which I downloaded a few years ago.) I've been gnawing away at this 3-disc collection for years. Sometimes when I have just a few tracks to get before the end of a month, I'll snach a few from this. I never get tired of Cab.
* "Psychopath of Love" by The Dusty Chaps. A fiend recently requested I play something by The Dusty Chaps on the Santa Fe Opry a few weekes ago. I found this on eMusic on a compilation called Boppin' in Canada. Turns out it was the wrong group. My friend wanted a band from Tucson from the '70s. These are Canadians from a few decades later. Oh well, it's a cool little Cannuck-a-billy tune. These Chaps aren't as wil as Bloodshot Bill or Ray Condo, but it's a snazzy little tune.
Campbell, who was left blind after an accident at a fertilizer plant, started the band in 1936. Arhoolie's Chris Strachwitz recorded them in 1962 and '63.
On most songs Campbell, who played guitar, mandolin and percussion, is accompanied by Beauford Clay and Bell Ray on guitar. Some songs feature a two-man horn section (George Bell on trumpet and Ralph Robinson on tuba).
Campbell doesn't have the strong personality of Howard Armstrong, but still, I can't think of a street corner in America that wouldn't be improved by having a band like this.playing on it.
But here's some bad news. It looks like I nabbed this one just in the nick of time. Sometime after I downloaded this a few weeks ago, it disappeared from eMusic. And it's not even available on Amazon. I'm not sure what the story is here.
* Feed the Family by Possessed by Paul James. I'm not sure how I missed this album when it was released last year, but I'm glad I found it now. I first became a fan of this one man band (that one man's real name being being Konrad Wert) three years ago when his album, Cold and Blind came out on Voodoo Rhythm.
Wert was born and raised in an Amish-Mennonite family in Immokalee, Florida. “Paul James” is a combination of his father’s and grandfather’s names. He plays plays guitar, banjo, fiddle and percussion. And as I said in my review of that previous album, he "sounds as if he’s emerged from some primordial swamp where every shadow might be a demon. As he shouts and yelps ... you can imagine him as some sinner in the hands of an angry God."
Feed the Family probably is more accessible to a newcomer than his previous work. It's more melodic. There's some downright pretty country songs like "Shoulda Known Better" and "Texas Rose." And then there's, "The Color of My Bloody Nose," a nasty little break-up song that shares a special kinship with Harry Nilsson's "You're Breaking My Heart."
Still, my favorites are the stompers, the ones with the most fire and brimstone -- the opening track "Four Men from the Row," which sounds like a banjo apocalypse and the fiddle-driven title song.
For a cool interview with Konrad Wert on Outlaw Radio Chicago CLICK HERE.
Plus
* The 90 (!) or so tracks I didn't get last month from Fats Domino & The Rhythm & Blues Friends. As I noted before, this is a strange compilation featuring a bunch of Domino live tracks plus scores of great old R&B and blues tunes that have no apparent relation with Domino.
The sound quality isn't great on a few tracks here. But for less than a dime a track (if you download the whole collection), this is a true bargain-basement treasure.
There's songs from people you'll recognize -- Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner, Louis Kordan, Big Maybelle, Lightnin' Hopkins, Rufus Thomas, Lowell Fulson, Big Mama Thorton.
And there's some I'd never heard of -- Hop Dixon, Elmo Nixon, H-Bomb Ferguson, The Arabians.
Some standouts here include "Chitlin' Ball" a west-coast jump blues by King Porter; "Everything is Cool" an early rock 'n' roll obscurity by a guy simply known as "Pork Chop"; "My Rough and Ready Man," featuring some sexy scat from Annie Laurie; and "Sad Head Blues" by some sad sack who went by the name "Mr. Sad Head."
This album provided a couple of selections for my most recent Big Enchilada podcast: "But Officer" by Sonny Knight and "Wine O Wine" by a band called The Gators.
*Six songs from Girl Happy by Elvis Presley. Girl Happy for years has been my favorite guilty-pleasure Elvis movie. But there's nothing to feel guilty about in loving this soundtrack.
A few of these songs -- "Puppet on a String," "Do the Clam" and the title tune -- I already had from the compilation Command Performances, The Essential Sixties Masters. But this is the first time I've had digital copies of under-rated, overlooked songs like "Spring Fever," "Wolf Call" and the dangerously tacky "The Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce." You know a song that starts out "Girls on the beach, they commit a sin/They don't show yards and yards of skin" is going to be a kick. The Cramps did a great version of "Do the Clam," but I'd have loved to have heard Lux Interior croon "Ft. Lauderdale."
I had the LP as a kid in the mid- 60s. Loved it then. Love it now.
* Two songs from The Early Years, 1930-1934, Volume 1 by Cab Calloway. "Happy Feet" and "Aw You Dawg" to be exact (which is a version of another song on this collection, "You Dog," which I downloaded a few years ago.) I've been gnawing away at this 3-disc collection for years. Sometimes when I have just a few tracks to get before the end of a month, I'll snach a few from this. I never get tired of Cab.
* "Psychopath of Love" by The Dusty Chaps. A fiend recently requested I play something by The Dusty Chaps on the Santa Fe Opry a few weekes ago. I found this on eMusic on a compilation called Boppin' in Canada. Turns out it was the wrong group. My friend wanted a band from Tucson from the '70s. These are Canadians from a few decades later. Oh well, it's a cool little Cannuck-a-billy tune. These Chaps aren't as wil as Bloodshot Bill or Ray Condo, but it's a snazzy little tune.
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TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
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