Friday, November 28, 2014

R.I.P. Kenny "Canuto" Delgado


I just learned that Santa Fe's number one music fan died yesterday on Thanksgiving day. He was 59.
Kenny Delgado, who most people probably know as "Canuto," was a longtime member of the Santa Fe Bandstand Committee, which is responsible for the free music program on the Plaza every summer. But most important, he was a constant presence at concerts. I always looked for him when I went to a show in Santa Fe. He loved music. He'd babble about music joyfully for as long as I knew him. He loved ZZ Top, he loved Concrete Blonde, he loved Santana, he loved Guitar Shorty. He loved a lot of music. And thinking back on it, he rarely talked about music he hated. I don't think Kenny hated much music.

Kenny was Santa Fe rock 'n' roll!

He frequently would call me at KSFR when I was doing a radio show. I always knew it was Canuto because he'd start the conversation exclaiming "Picnic Time!" (an odd musical in-joke we shared.) Then he'd talk about some song I'd just played or some show he'd just seen.

The calls became less frequent in the past three or four years since he became sick. Canuto struggled with cardiac problems during that time. But anytime I saw him, he remained positive. He mostly wanted to yack about some band he'd just seen.

I guess it's appropriate that the last time I actually saw Kenny was at a Santa Fe Bandstand show. Was it The Imperial Rooster? Joe "King" Carrasco? The Handsome Family? All of the above? It doesn't matter. His spirit was always at a Bandstand concert even if he wasn't physically there.
I always looked for Kenny whenever I went to a concert in Santa Fe. I probably will do that for years to come.



Thursday, November 27, 2014

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Thanksgiving from 1942!

Happy Thanksgiving, music fiends!

This week's Throwback Thursday goes back to 1942, when a funny little musical ensemble called The Schnickelfritz Band appeared in this wacky little clip I found when looking for something else on the old Youtube,

This is what you call your basic "soundie," which was the music video of the 1940s.

I think you'll recognize the tune.

Behold this little gem, produced Sam Coslow and directed by Josef Bern:





So who are these Schnickelfritzers?

According to a column in The Winona Post up in Minnesota by a writer named Frances Edstrom, they were  the house band at a Winona joint called the Sugar Loaf Tavern, "near the intersection of Hwy. 43 and Homer Road in West Burns Valley."

Edstrom writes:


Schnickelfritz was the moniker adopted by Freddie Fisher, a musician originally from Iowa. Freddie and his band, a forerunner of the Spike Jones type of entertainers, combining music with comedy routines, some rather irreverent ...

Schnickelfritz and the band worked with New York agents, had a recording contract with Decca Records, and were billed as "America's Most Unsophisticated Band!" and "Still the Biggest Novelty Recording Attraction."

After some time, Schnickelfritz and his band moved up to St. Paul, where they played at the Midway ...  It was in St. Paul that an agent of singing and movie star Rudy Vallee caught the Schnickelfritz show. He brought Rudy to see the band, and they signed Schnickelfritz to a contract for a movie.

The band appeared in several movies, as well as "soundies."

Fischer left Hollywood in the early '50s and moved to Aspen, Colorado, where, Edstrom said he "ran a novelty shop and played at the popular night club, the Red Onion."

xxxxxx

OK, that was the fun part of this post. Stop reading now if you don't want your Thanksgiving to be free of controversy and poltiics.

As for the song itself, it was a subject of controversy earlier this year when NPR did a story on its website about the minstrel show origins of the tune:

"There is simply no divorcing the song from the dozens of decades it was almost exclusively used for coming up with new ways to ridicule, and profit from, black people," writer Theodore R. Johnson wrote.

The story focuses on the use of the song by ice cream trucks. That's because a racist "coon song" in 1916 ("Nigger Loves His Watermelon" by Harry C. Browne, a popular purveyor of racist ditties in his day) refers to watermelon as the "colored man's ice cream."

Nasty stuff indeed.

The New Republic's John McWhorter responded to the NPR piece:

In pop culture of the early twentieth century, that tune is eternally associated with either its inoffensive, nonsensical lyrics or, when performed instrumentally, with farm animals and rural settings. For example, the man who scored Looney Tunes, Carl Stalling, used “Turkey in the Straw” constantly in scenes on farms and especially with chickens and the like. To grow up watching these cartoons was to have the tune hammered into one’s head, especially by Foghorn (“I say, that’s a joke, son!”) Leghorn. 

So, what evidence supports the idea that in the 1920s, when these ice cream trucks became established, publicity executives were actually thinking of anti-“darky” doggerel when deciding what song the trucks would play? 

I'm sure this fight will continue. But I'm pretty sure that The  Schnickelfritz Band wasn't thinking about racist stereotypes when they filmed their version of  the song.

Whatever, may there be no straw in your turkey today.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Why Did Pop Hate the Beatles?

In 1964, I loved The Beatles. Probably was obsessed with The Beatles and many of the groups that followed in their wake.

But I also loved a singer named Allan Sherman, a singer of novelty songs. Although most commentary about Sherman these days talks about how his parodies reflected American Jewish culture, I'll attest to the universal appeal of his humor. I was an Okie goy boy and I thought he was funny as hell. I even read his autobiography A Gift of Laughter,

When I went to summer camp in the summer of '64, I was loving the new Beatle hits like "A Hard Days Night" and "Can't Buy Me Love," but the first night when I sat down to write a letter to the folks back home, it wasn't Lennon-McCartney lyrics I was quoting. No, I wrote all the lyrics to Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" (substituting "Camp Classen" for "Camp Grenada").

So imagine my pain and confusion later that year when I first heard this song ...



It was like two worlds colliding. How could anyone hate The Beatles? Sherman would fade from my personal pantheon of heroes.

But maybe Sherman wasn't such a stuffy old square. This song was far more bitchen. (UPDATE 2018: The song that was originally posted here has been yanked by the YouTube police. I failed to mention the title and I've long forgotten which bitchen song it was. Probably not  "Seventy-Six Saul Cohens," but what the heck ...)



But if Pop hated The Beatles, what would he have thought of The Misfits, who apparently loved his song "Ratt Fink"?

Sunday, November 23, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


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Sunday, November 23, 2014 
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

Here's the playlist below:

Opening Theme Let it Out, Let it All Hang Out by The Hombres
Hard Lovin' Man by The Fleshtones
Black Betty by Boss Hog
Pleasure Unit by Gore Gore Girls
She Said by The Cramps
Climb Inside This Bottle by Blue Giant Zeta Puppies
Wasted Time by J.J. & The Real Jerks
You're Gonna Miss Me by 13th Floor Elevators
The Man Who Licks Your Ears by Bob Purse
Superchicks by Pee & The Peas

Get Outta Dallas by Mal Thursday & The Cheetahs
Jack Ruby by Camper Van Beethoven
A Man Amongst Men by Big Joe Williams
It's Over by Ty Segal
There's Nothing You Can Do by The Electric Mess
Ate O Oso by Horror Deluxe
The Trip of Kambo by O Lendario Chucrobillyman

They Call 'm the LSC by The Bloodhounds
Fish2 Fry by The Jim Jones Revue
Claw hammer Banjo Medley by John Schooley
The Shaggy Hound by Richard Johnston
Hystery Train by Churchwood
Smokey Joe's Cafe by Swamp Dogg
Oops I Did it Again by Richard Thompson 

Bury Our Friends by Sleater-Kinney 
Electric Band by Wild Flag
Matamoros by Afghan Whigs
From a Motel 6 by Yo La Tengo
The Thunderer by Dion
Come Pick Me Up by Superchunk
Substitute Closing  Theme: Lucky Day by Tom Waits



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Friday, November 21, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


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Friday, November 21, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist below:



Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Bloodhounds and Stompin', Gut-Bucket Blues

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
November 21, 2014

It doesn't sound that thrilling on paper. A band plays basic, unfettered, rocking blues — closer to gutbucket than to the smooth, tame uptown stuff — cranks it up, adds a little rockabilly sneer, and in the process of honoring ascended masters like Hound Dog Taylor and Howlin’ Wolf, also pays sly homage to The Yardbirds and maybe even the Count Five and other ’60s garage crazies.

Yes, that’s been done before. And yet, when it’s done right with plenty of spirit, there isn’t much that can beat it. This is the case with a new band called The Bloodhounds. Their debut album, Let Loose!, despite all its obvious roots in the past, is some of the freshest-sounding music I’ve heard lately.

The Hounds are a predominantly Chicano band from East L.A. — which means they’re undoubtedly getting a little tired of the obvious comparison to early-1980s Los Lobos. But the comparison is apt. Let Loose!, especially the faster songs, reminds me a lot of ... And a Time to Dance, the 1983 EP that introduced Los Lobos to the rock ’n’ roll world. None of The Bloodhounds are up to David Hidalgo’s level as a songwriter yet. But give them time. (All the songs here are originals, credited to the four band members, except one Bo Diddley song and one by Otis Redding.)

The album comes bucking out of the stall with “Indian Highway,” which has an irresistible, bluesy guitar hook that evokes Bob Dylan’s “Obviously Five Believers.” As singer Aaron “Little Rock” Piedraita belts out the lyrics and guitarist Branden Santos makes his sonic offering to the voodoo loas of rock ’n’ roll, a listener knows it’s going to be a joyful journey.

The next tune, “Wild Little Rider,” starts off slow, like a sweet Mexican song. There are even marimbas in the background. But then, the sleepy cantina explodes. It’s on this track that The Bloodhounds reveal one of their most lethal weapons, the rave-up harmonica. (Three members are listed in the credits as playing harp, so I’m not sure who is playing on this song.)

On “The Wolf,” the musicians prove that they are perfectly capable of slowing it down to a swampy groove. With Santos playing spooky Hubert Sumlin licks and Piedraita name checking various Howlin’ Wolf song titles, this sounds like “Wang Dang Doodle” for a new generation. There’s one song here that might someday end up as an advertising jingle in, say, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, or Alaska. That’s “Try a Little Reefer,” which features a cool Hammond organ.

Besides their rocking side, The Bloodhounds sometimes slip into jug-band or skiffle mode. On songs like “Dusty Bibles and Silver Spoons,” “Hey Lonnie,” and the goofball “Olderbudwiser,” the group includes instruments like washtub bass, banjo, rub board, spoons, and kazoo. It’s good fun, and I’m a jug-band fan, but with three such tunes on one album, the novelty wears a little thin.

But even with that nitpicking, Let Loose! is a dandy debut. I hope these Bloodhounds keep sniffing.

Here are some other recent punk, garage, gutbucket blues, and rock albums I’ve been enjoying:

* The Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World by John Schooley. It filled my heart with joy to see a new John Schooley album — on Voodoo Rhythm Records, no less. It’s his first since 2007’s One Man Against the World.

Hailing from Austin, Schooley is a venerated pioneer of the punk-blues one-man-band movement. On this album, he plays nearly everything: guitars — electric and otherwise — banjo, and drums, though Austin harmonica player Walter Daniels joins him on several cuts. (Daniels and Schooley have another new album together, Dead Mall Blues, which I just learned about.)

Some cuts sound like crazed blues, while others, like “Cluck Old Hen,” might be bluegrass from the Red Planet. Then there is “Poor Boy Got the K.C. Blues,” in which Schooley sounds like he’s been listening to John Fahey (though Fahey never used drums miked nearly that high).

The title song comes from a great American trouba-dour and legendary drunkard, Charlie Poole. It’s a surreal little hillbilly classic with lyrics like “Oh, she’s my daisy, she’s black-eyed and she’s crazy/The prettiest girl I thought I ever saw/Now her breath smells sweet, but I’d rather smell her feet/She’s my freckle-faced, consumptive Sara Jane.” Schooley and Daniels soup it up into an eardrum blaster, jamming like madmen until the last minute or so. It’s sheer feedback squall. Charlie Poole meets Metal Machine Music. I love it!

* Man Monkey by O Lendário Chucrobillyman & His Trash Tropical One Band Orquestra. Speaking of one-man bands, this is the new album by Chucrobillyman (real name Klaus Koti), my very favorite Brazilian one-man punk/blues assault team. According to his website, he was “born in the depths of the Amazon jungle, spent his childhood listening to the frenzied roar of the beasts of the forest” and to “old albums of songs from rock-and-roll, blues, post punk, and youthful music.” (That’s from a Google translation of the original Portuguese.)

Truly, this is my kind of youthful music from the jungle. It’s even denser, crazier, and more voodoo-fueled than The Chicken Album, his previous record from Off Label Records (a German company specializing in wild sounds from across the planet). The new album actually has just as many chicken songs (“Chicken Style,” “Chicken Groove,” and “Fried Chicken Blues”) as The Chicken Album.

The poultry-obsessed Chucrobillyman also likes jungle songs. Here we have “Midnight Jungle,” an instrumental featuring wild rhythms and animal noises, and “She Lives in the Jungle,” a spooky blues stomper.

My favorite on Man Monkey is another jungle tune called “The Trip of Kambo.” Kambo refers to a traditional shamanic medicine made from the secretions of a giant monkey frog, which has been used for thousands of years by native tribes in the Amazon. Kambo sounds downright psychedelic with this musical backdrop that reminds me of some of Louisiana hoodoo rocker C.C. Adcock or Tony Joe White’s swampier excursions.

Enjoy some videos, starting with The Bloodhounds live on Halloween



And here they are again.



Here's John Schooley live at Beer Land in Austin, where I saw him play with Walter Daniels and Ralph White a few years ago.



And here's Chucrobillyman playing "Rollercoaster Love."

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Throwback Thursday: Make a Dumb Man Speak, Make a Lame Man Run

Yesterday I started "Wacky Wednesday" on The Steve Terrell Music Web Log. Today I'm starting "Throwback Thursday." No, it's not like the Facebook deal where I post my junior high pictures or whatever. These will be musical throwbacks where I'll feature a song, artist or musical phenomenon to eras gone by. And some might be even wackier than Wacky Wednesday.

So let's start with one of my favorite songs that has been kicked around jazz, blues and jug band circles for more than 80 years: "Beedle Um Bum."

It's a little tune about a girl named Cindy -- or is it Simmy? Or Jenny? -- who works in a "meat shop" where she serves a meal called "southern eel" -- or is "tadpole heel" ? Either way, every time you pass by this business establishment, you can hear Cindy, or whoever, crying:

Oh, my beedle–um–bum,
Come an’ see me if you ain’t had none.
Make a dumb man speak make a lame man run,
Sure miss somethin’ if you don’t get some of my,
Beedle–um–bum, oh, my beedle–um–bum,
It’s the best beedle–um that’s made in Tennessee

To be blunt, this a whorehouse song, first recorded in late 1928 by a group called The Hokum Boys, actually Tampa Red (Hudson Woodbridge) on guitar and Georgia Tom (Thomas A. Dorsey) on piano. Georgia Tom in later years would become famous under his real name as one of this country's greatest composer of gospel songs. He wrote "Peace in the Valley" and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand."

But, getting back to the whorehouse, Dorsey also is credited with writing "Beedle Un Bum."

Here's The Hokum Boys doing the song.



It didn't take long for others to pick up on "Beedle Un Bum." Just a few months after The Hokum Boys, a Detroit-based jazz band called McKinney's Cotton Pickers recorded it.



Other bluesmen recorded it also. One of the earliest was Big Bill Broonzy. Blind Willie McTell also did a version in 1956 (though this video says 1961).



In the 1960s "Beedle Un Bum" became a favorite of the hippie neo-jug bands after Jim Kweskin's Jug Band recorded it. In California, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, which featured future Grateful Dead members  Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan did a Kweskin-influenced cover. Later Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks picked it up.

Here's a version from a recent Hicks album, Live at Davies guest-starring Kweskin. I'm not sure where the weird verse about Johnson City, Texas came from, but it's goofy enough for the song.



If these don't make you hungry for tadpole heel I don't know what will.

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

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Introducing "Wacky Wednesday" on This Here Blog

I'm starting a new feature on my music blog: WACKY WEDNESDAY, where I'll introduce you, the reader to strange, funny and/or confounding music -- the type of "unclaimed melodies" that the Firesign Theatre's Don G. O'Vani was talking about when he said , "if you were to go into a record store and ask for them they would think you were crazy!"

Let's start out with an album I stumbled on over at the Free Music Archive., The Many Moods of Bob Purse.

No, I'd never heard of him either. But I bet we'd be friends if we ever met. Purse, an Illinois resident whose day job is in the mental health field, is a blogger, responsible for a site called The Wonderful and The Obsure, which is devoted to song-poems and other obscure and wonderful musical finds.

And he also writes strange tunes himself, some of which were released on an album by Happy Puppy Records a few years ago.

Here's what Happy Puppy had to say about Purse's music:

On the occasion of his 50th birthday, he posted some of his original material on his blog that he had recorded privately over the years. They came from a cassette he originally shared with friends and family back in 1997 called The Many Moods Of Bob. ...

What follows is a truly fantastic DIY album, up there with the likes of R. Stevie Moore, the weird 4-track stuff by Ween, etc. Not only does Bob has a knack for writing off-the-wall tunes, but he's also covered a song-poem [that's  "The Watusi Whing Ding Girl" --swt ] , a handful of obscure commercials, and a couple of parodies, recalling my younger-days of hearing this kind of stuff on Dr. Demento ("Bad TV Acting" was even played by Dr. D on May 16, 1999).


Right now, my favorite one here is the perverse but lethally catchy "The Man Who Licks Your Ears." I'm also digging the bizarre Bee Gees tribute "Three People Pouring Orange Juice."

I'm sure there's a favorite for you too. Play the whole thing below.

Happy Wacky Wednesday!





Sunday, November 16, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


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Sunday, November 15, 2014 
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

Here's the playlist below

Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Right in Time For Sunday Dinner, The NEW Big Enchilada Podcast


THE BIG ENCHILADA






It's that time of year to feel thankful for your blessings, so here's an hour of sonic blessings for all of us. This month's offerings include lots of crazy rock 'n' roll, including a lot of wild, stomping  blues-based sounds. Gather together to give thanks for the music.

 SUBSCRIBE TO ALL GARAGEPUNK PIRATE RADIO PODCASTS |

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Banshee by The Derangers)
Psychotic Reaction by Brenton Wood
Boo Hoo by John Schooley
Wild Little Rider by The Bloodhounds
Bloodhound by The Suicide Shifters
Have a Cow by Bichos
Kick You in the Face with My Size 10 Buster Browns by The Distortionists
(Background Music: Latin Quarter by John Zorn )

Climb Inside of This Bottle by The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies
Keep On Believing by Buzzcocks
Naapusissa by The Shangri Blahs
Bucket of Juice by Big Ugly Guys
The Magic in Your Eyes by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Too Many Cooks by Jesse Fortune
(Background Music: Phantom Surfer by Mr. Gasser & The Weirdos)

Cement Mixer by Jim Jones Revue
Fury by Los Straitjackets with Deke Dickerson
Samson and Delilah by Edison Rocket Train
Saved by Boss Hog
Hobo Wine by Kim Fowley
Baron of Love Part 2 by Ross Johnson with Alex Chilton

Play it here:

Friday, November 14, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


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Friday, November 14, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist below:


Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Sunday, November 09, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST


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Sunday, November , 2014 
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

Here's the playlist below

Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Friday, November 07, 2014

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST


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Friday, November , 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist below:


Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Sunday, November 02, 2014

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, November 2, 2014 
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

Here's the playlist below

Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
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Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Strange Noises from La Cienega, 2012

Last night at the Chevron station I was approached by an old Hungarian who handed me a thumb drive. "Get the word on on this and you will be healed," he said.

On the drive were two MP3s, songs by a band from La Cienega called Al's Equinox Party, featuring the vocals of Bobby Miracle, an obscure singer who led various ranchero bands in the area back in the 50s but left town decades ago after a manslaughter rap. I thought he was long dead, though one source told me he's been working at a bus station in Delaware. Can't say for sure. In fact this whole story might all be a cruel hoax.

Enjoy the songs. Repost and share and you will be healed.

 

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

  Sunday, October 6, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell ...