Sunday, April 28, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Shake a Tail Feather by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
Have Love Will Travel by The Sonics
Route 1 Box 144 by Johnny Cash
Breathless by Jerry Lee Lewis
Blood by REQ'D
Good Things by Sleater-Kinney
Girl from '62 by Thee Headcoats
Unable to See the Good by The Buff Medways
Scepter by Sleeve Cannon
Travelin' Mood by Wee Willie Wayne
She's Wild by The Vagoos
Let Me Out by Mark Sultan
The Rocky Road to Dublin by The Tossers
Fish Heads by Barnes & Barnes
Break the Spell by Gogol Bordello
Bold Marauder by Drywall
Hypothetical Life by Grey City Passengers
Mexican Garage by Archie & The Bunkers
Almost Enough by Jason Ringenberg
The Dumb Song by Dale Watson
Last Train to Sanesville by Martha Fields
Never Did No Wanderin' by The Folksmen
New Dream by Lonesome Shack
Walking the Floor by Johnny Dowd
I Have a Mother (Don't Need Another) by The Polkaholics
I Come to Praise His Name by Leo "Bud" Welch
I Can't Control Myself by The Troggs
The Christian Thing by Jono Manson, Terry Allen & Eliza Gilkyson
Andromeda by The Mekons
The Olde Trip to Jerusalem by Chivalrous Amoekons
Carry Me by The Yawpers
I Pity the Poor Immigrant by Richie Havens
Jenny of Oldstones by Florence & The Machine CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican April 26, 2018
Let me riff on the old Wolf Brand Chili ad from decades ago: Neighbor, how long has it been since you read a big steaming Terrell’s Tune-up column entirely devoted to country music?
Well, that’s too long! So here is a look at three fine hillbilly albums I’ve been listening to lately.
* Call Me Lucky by Dale Watson. If there’s a better, more authentic, harder working and more
prolific purveyor of old fashioned honky-tonk music than Watson, I sure haven’t heard of him or her. He’s a little guy with a big white pompadour and a powerful baritone, similar to that of Waylon Jennings, though sometimes reminiscent of Johnny Cash.
He’s got humor and soul, an amazing (and amazingly consistent) band and a work ethic that would put most of us to shame. I’ve seen him play the Continental Club in Austin on both Christmas and Thanksgiving nights and once saw him at the Broken Spoke in the Texas capital play three hours without taking a break.
And the records keep coming. By my count, this is his sixth album since 2015. Among his recent discography there’s a duet with Ray Benson, a covers album, a live album and one featuring of re-recordings of his old songs.
In the past year or so, Watson bought a second home, so he now splits his residency between Austin and Memphis. And yes, you can hear echoes of both Sun rockabilly and Stax soul in Lucky (though not as much as his 2011 offering The Sun Sessions, which was recorded at the studio where Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johnny Cash and Cash made their magic.)
A few songs, including “Tupelo, Mississippi & a ’57 Fairlane,” “Inside View” and “Who Needs This Band” feature a horn section. Willie Nelson’s harmonica man Mickey Rafael, sort-of a one-man horn section himself, graces some songs here, including “Johnny and June,” on which Watson trades lines of love with his real-life girlfriend Celine Lee.
In two songs here, Watson jokingly questions his own intelligence. “I know that I’m not smarter than nearly anyone / I’m just lucky,” he sings in the title track. And backed by a classic Johnny Cash chunka-chunka beat in “The Dumb Song” Watson pokes fun at his own dumb habits like drinking, smoking and eating “that Southern fried chicken.”
But don’t be fooled. Dale is far from dumb. And if you’re smart you’ll give this album a listen.
* Stand Tall by Jason Ringenberg. With Jason & The Scorchers, the band that made him famous (well, kinda famous) Ringenberg is the guy who brought cow-punk to Nashville. No question he’s a rocker, but he’s got country in his heart. That was obvious even back in the days when he was sporting a Mohawk along with a red sparkly C&W jacket. And it’s even more obvious on this, his latest solo album.
Starting off with the spaghetti-western style instrumental title song, this album is populated with hard-edged honky-tonkers like “Many Happy Hangovers to You,” an emotional cover of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Hobo Bill’s Last Ride,” a sweet acoustic, fiddle-colored ode to nature, “Here in the Sequoias” and a country-waltz version of Bob Dylan’s “Farewell Angelina.”
There are songs praising The Ramones – based on the time The Scorchers backed them on a 1982 Texas tour – environmentalist pioneer John Muir and John the Baptist, (who Ringenberg says “was a real humdinger.”)
This is not nearly as political his last proper solo record, 2004’s Empire Builders, (I’m not counting his children’s records he’s released under the name of “Farmer Jason) there’s a fife-and-drums Civil War ballad, “I’m Walking Home,” which is anti-war as well as anti-slavery and pretty radical all around. “Well I hated slavery and all that support it / But I hate the Union for what it’s become,” the Confederate deserter sings.
* Dancing Shadows by Martha Fields. For the past several years, the West Virginia-born Fields has
made the very best country music coming out of France. Maybe even the whole European Union. And I believe this album, released late last year, is the expatriate hillbilly’s best –at least so far. Her band may be French, but they sound like true Americans to me.
Some of the songs here deal with being a foreigner, such as the lonesome “Paris to Austin” (that contains the line “I’ll pretend the Eifel Tower is a big oil well”) and the bluesy “Exile,” in which Fields sings, “I’m a stranger in my homeland / So afraid for my homeland / And I hurt for what I’ve left behind …”
There are a couple of nostalgic tunes for her past homes, the bluegrass-touched “West Virginia in My Bones,” and the slow aching, acoustic “Oklahoma on My Mind.” However I like up-tempo, country-rockers like “Last Train to Sanesville” (I missed that train years ago!), the dobro-driven “Demona,” and the bluegrass stomp “Maxine.”
But the one I keep going back to is the truthfully titled romp called “Hillbilly Bop.” My favorite verse is where she sings, “Well brother’s got the moonshine, Daddy’s got molasses / Get off your hillbilly asses / You gotta hillbilly bop …”
Here are some videos
First a live version of the title song of Dale's latest.
Jason scorches The Ramones
Martha shows how the Hillbilly Bop is done
And yes, tracks from all three of these albums, plus a lot more, can be heard on a recent episode of The Big Enchilada. In fact, I named the episode after a certain Martha Fields song. Listen and/or download HEREor just listen below:
Leiber & Stoller with The Coasters and others. Jerry's at the piano on the left (the one without the goatee.)
Jerry Leiber, who with partner Mike Stoller constituted half of what I believe to be the greatest songwriting team of the rock 'n' roll era, would have been 86 today.
The New York Times talked about Leiber & Stoller in Jerry's obit after he died in 2011:
The team of Leiber and Stoller was formed in 1950, when Mr. Leiber was still a student at Fairfax High in Los Angeles and Mr. Stoller, a fellow rhythm-and-blues fanatic, was a freshman at Los Angeles City College. With Mr. Leiber contributing catchy, street-savvy lyrics and Mr. Stoller, a pianist, composing infectious, bluesy tunes, they set about writing songs with black singers and groups in mind. In 1952, they wrote “Hound Dog” for the blues singer Big Mama Thornton. The song became an enormous hit for Elvis Presley in 1956 and made Leiber and Stoller the hottest songwriting team in rock ’n’ roll. They later wrote “Jailhouse Rock,”“Loving You,”“Don’t,” “Treat Me Nice,” “King Creole” and other songs for Presley, despite their loathing for his interpretation of “Hound Dog.” In the late 1950s, having relocated to New York and taken their place among the constellation of talents associated with the Brill Building, they emerged as perhaps the most potent songwriting team in the genre.
In honor of Jerry's birthday, here are just a handful of my favorite Leiber & Stoller songs.
Let's start out with one about my town, as performed by Hank Snow
I used to perform this Lavern Baker favorite one myself back in the day
Leiber & Stoller wrote this for The Drifters. But I've always loved Neil Young's version. "Give me some of that crack!"
And this one was for the Coasters, but Sam the Sham did a good job on it
Speaking of The Coasters, nearly all the songs we remember them for were penned by Jerry & Mike. On this one, the dynamic duo were aided by the great Doc Pomus, one of the other great songwriters of that era.
Leiber & Stoller also were responsible for a lot more Elvis songs than "Hound Dog." This one, the title song from his second movie, is one of the King's most lovely ballads:
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, you had to walk into The Big Enchilada Podcast. You'll be shocked—shocked—to find that crazy rocking is going on in here! We'll always have The Big Enchilada. Here's looking at you, kid!
And remember, The Big Enchilada is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and gimme a good rating and review if you're so inclined.) Thanks.
Sunday, April 21, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Eggs on Plate by Iggy Pop
Are You for Real by Question Mark & The Mysterians
I'm Not Afraid of Life by The Ramones
Car by REQ'D
54/40 or Fight by Dead Moon
Let Him Try by April March
Fate of a Gambler by Laino & Broken Seeds
Bad Little Woman by The Shadows of Night
Fire in My Bones by 13th Floor Elevators
The Ballad of John & Yoko by The Beatles
In a Parallel World by CTMF
Unable to See the Good by The Buff Medways
Take It Easy, Greasy by Bobby Charles
Marijuana Hell by The Rockin' Guys
The Man from Harlem by Cab Calloway
Don't Bogart Me by The Fraternity of Man
Hickoid Heaven by The Hickoids
F*!#in' Up by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Peter Cottontail by The Bubbadinos
The Temple by Afghan Whigs
King Herod's Song by Alice Cooper
Damned for All Time by Scratch Acid
Human Question by The Yawpers
Ghost Cave Lament by The Flesh Eaters
Be Together by Eleni Mandell
All I Wanna Do by The War & Treaty
Four Gray Walls by Johnny Dowd
Whistle in the Dark by Mojo Ju Ju
After The Rain by The Mekons
Blue Distance by Peter Case CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A little more than four years ago, I did a Wacky Wednesday post of music videos by actual cults -- including music from The Children of God, Scientology, the Hare Krishnas and The Christ Family -- a group I'd encountered before in Santa Fe in the early '80s. (However, within a few months of that post, The Christ Family pulled all their videos off YouTube, apparently forever.)
Here's the sequel to that post.
Let's start with something from a 1973 album by Rev. Jimmy Jones' Peoples Temple Choir. This was four years before they drank the not-proverbial Kool-Aid,
Here's a happy little tune called "Gloomy Sunday" from Church of Satan Founder Anton LaVey
California in the '70s must have been a magical place. The Source Family, led by a Sunset Strip health-food restaurant owner called Father Yod (James E. Baker), was the subject of a fascinating 2012 documentary. This guru had his own sanctified psychedelic band called Ya Ho Wha 13. They sounded like this:
Anyone remember Synanon? This was a group founded by Charles E. Dederich in Santa Monica in the late '50s as a drug rehab clinic. But it grew into a cult that became known for violent retribution against critics.
In 1979 Mr. Dederich pleaded no contest to a charge of conspiracy to murder a Los Angeles lawyer by placing a rattlesnake in his mailbox, after the lawyer won a $300,000 suit against Synanon.
(That lawyer, Paul Morantz, was representing former Synanon members and relatives of members who said they were being held in Synanon against their will. The snake bit Morantz, who was hospitalized for six days.)
But in 1962, years before that unpleasantness with the snake, etc., jazz guitarist Joe Pass recorded an album featuring fellow musician patients at Synanon being treated for heroin addiction. Here's a track from that album, Sounds of Synanon.
Sunday, April 14, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Back from the Shadows Again by Firesign Theatre
Devil Dance by The A-Bones
I'm So Tired (Of Living in the City) by Mystery Lights
Garbageman by William Shatner
All Women are Bad by The Cramps
Mad Man Blues by John Lee Hooker & George Thorogood
She's a Snake by Deadbolt
Joe Strummer's Grave by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire
I'm Out of Control by The Milkshakes
My Baby Knows by The Cavemen
Silhouettes by Andy Griffith
Typical Day by Cedric Burnside
Night and Fog by Mudhoney
I Walked All Night by The Embers
Weimer Vending Machine / Priest? by The Mekons
Spaced by The Polkaholics
Ballad of The Unknown Instructors by The Unknown Instructors
They're Red Hot (Hot Tamales) by Johnny Shines
Earn Your Heaven / Forgiveness Through Pain by The Yawpers
Black Temptation / Digging My Grave by The Flesh Eaters
Bloodsucking Freaks by The Bulemics
Have You Ever Spent the Night in Jail by T. Tex Edwards & The Saddletramps
Sacrifice/Let There Be Peace by Bob Mould
The Old Dope Peddler by Tom Lehrer
Dirty Mother For You (Don't You Know) by Henry Townsend & Roosevelt Sykes
I Want to Be at The Meeting by Leo "Bud" Welch
Three Feet Under by Eric Ambel & Roscoe's Game
Dying Breed by Lonesome Bob
Rio by Mike Nesmith CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Sunday, April 14, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 8 am to 10 am Sundays Mountain Time Substitute Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org Here's the playlist :
Gospel Train by Silver Leaf Quartet
Memphis Yodel by Jimmie Rodgers
Up Above My Head by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Pretty Polly by The Dead Brothers
High Water Everywhere by Taj Mahal
Philadelphia Lawyer by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
I'm Just an Ordinary Man by Henry Townsend
Jesus is on the Mainline by Leo "Bud" Welch
The Indian Tom Tom by Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band
LSD by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Canned Heat Blues by Sloppy Henry
Atlanta Bound by Gene Autry
On the Way Downtown by Peter Case
Fixin' to Die Blues by Bukka White
Sissy Man Blues by Kokomo Arnold
With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm by Jim Kweskin
My Rose Marie (A Soldier's Tale) by Stan Ridgway
Pigfork Jamboree by The Imperial Rooster RUINATION DAY SET
April the 14th by Gillian Welch
Booth Killed Lincoln by Cisco Houston
God Moves on the Water by Blind Willie Johnson
Ruination Day Part 2 by Gillian Welch
The Great Dust Storm by Woody Guthrie
That's My Rabbit, My Dog Caught It by The Walters Famiy
Moanin' the Blues by Allen Shaw
Snake Farm by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Bloody Mary Morning by Willie Nelson
The Ballad of Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum
Last Train to Sanesville by Martha Fields
Hobo Bill's Last Ride by Jason Ringenberg
Who Needs This Man by Dale Watson
Tell the King the Killer's Here by Ronny Elliott
Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican April 12, 2018
One of my surprise favorite albums of the past few years was Boy in the Well by a trio of Colorado roots rockers called The Yawpers. I’d heard this group’s music several times, even saw them do a live set at the annual Bloodshot Records party at the Yard Dog Gallery in Austin a year or two before the album came out. I’d considered their music OK — tolerable, interesting in spots, but nothing that really knocked my socks off.
But then sometime in the late summer of 2017, I heard a couple of cuts from Boy in the Well, and something clicked. I went back and listened to the whole album, a collection of songs that told a strange story of the bastard son of an American soldier and French farm girl in World War I.
As I wrote in this column back then, I found traces of the Legendary Shack Shakers, the Gun Club, and ZZ Top. (I could list more possible audible ingredients: Mudhoney? Wilco? The James Gang?) In any case, I never did find those socks I’d been wearing that day.
So when the new Yawpers album, Human Question, sprang forth, I was looking forward to it, and just a little afraid I would be disappointed. That fear was unjustified. If anything, I like the new one even more than Boy in the Well.
Unlike their previous album, this is no concept album with a storyline to stick to, though at least a couple of cuts seem to be dealing with singer and chief Yawpers songwriter Nate Cook’s divorce. It’s just good, raw, blues-infused music. It grabbed me and refused to let go in the opening seconds of the locomotive onslaught of “Child of Mercy,” which deals with the putrid pangs of romantic collapse. “… a child of mercy, all the shades are drawn/Flies on the wall and all the furniture’s gone,” Cook sings.
This is followed by an even more brutal romp, “Dancing on My Knees,” which sounds like it came from the border of proto-metal and garage rock. Cook spits, “In the struggle since the altar/the world has taken shape/I’ve found the words I’m looking for but they came a little late .../I’m on to greener pastures/but my neck is in the weeds/I’ve taken all the medicine, but I’ve still got your disease.”
Things get weird in the playful, psychedelic-leaning “Earn Your Heaven.” Here, at the end of a crazed, funky wah-wah guitar solo, Cook shouts — for reasons that escape me — “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the crucifixion Harry Connick Jr.!” I’m not sure whether poor Harry is the one being crucified or if he’s just providing a musical backdrop for the spectacle.
While I mostly like the Yawper’s rowdier tunes, there are a handful of slower ones that are hard-hitting. One is the soul-soaked “Carry Me,” the type of song you could imagine being covered by Solomon Burke. It starts off quietly and builds to thunder. Somewhere toward the end of that road, there’s a heartbreaking sax solo as Cook screams in the background.
This song is followed by one of the craziest rockers on the record, “Forgiveness Through Pain,” featuring Cook’s rapid-fire vocals, distorted guitar noise from lead guitarist Jesse Parmet, and Alex Koshak’s bloodthirsty drums.
Between Human Question, the Flesh Eaters’ reunion (keep reading), and the latest Mekons record (yes, I’m still slobbering over Deserted), I’d have to say rock ’n’ roll is off to a great start this year.
Now I think I’d better go buy some new socks. Also recommended:
* I Used to Be Pretty by The Flesh Eaters. Here’s a band that rose up during the pioneer days of the great LA punk rock explosion of the early 1980s, a supergroup, really, that in some incarnations would include a who’s who of Southern California punk and roots rock.
The Flesh Eaters had a revolving door of a lineup through the years, but now frontman Chris Desjardins (known as “Chris D,” no relation to Chuck) is back with the same basic band that recorded the critically acclaimed, but still relatively obscure A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, the group’s second album, released in the year of our Lord, 1981. Players include members of X (the band, not the brand) John Doe (bass) and D.J. Bonebrake (playing marimbas here); Dave Alvin (guitar) and Bill Bateman (drums) of The Blasters, and Steve Berlin of both Los Lobos and The Blasters (sax). Desjardins’ ex-wife and longtime Flesh Eater Julie Christensen also lends some vocals here.
So, yes, it’s a supergroup. And fittingly, the album is downright super. Desjardins — whose voice sounds as if he’s just woken up from a nightmare — and his cronies capture the spirit of the unique bluesy, noirish sounds they were making back at the dawn of the Reagan years. It’s a little more polished than A Minute to Pray, but still powerful and a little bit frightening.
There are some cover songs, including tunes we’ve previously heard by the likes of the Gun Club (another LA band frequently compared to The Flesh Eaters), The Sonics, and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac. And there are re-recordings of a few old Flesh Eaters songs, including “Miss Muerte” and “Pony Dress.”
The best songs here are the ones where Desjardins and band get spooky and slinky like they do on “House Amid the Thickets,” where the combination of Alvin’s hard-knuckle blues guitar and Bonebrake’s marimba brings back memories of Frank Zappa’s Ruth Underwood period, and “The Youngest Profession,” on which Desjardins commands “Go crazy!” and both Alvin and Berlin do just that.
And speaking of spooky, the 13-minute “Ghost Cave Lament” is a grand finale and an instant epic. You will believe that flesh has been eaten in that cave.
Forty years ago today, His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular -- aka, the uncrowned king of Scotland -- was forced to flee from his native Uganda and give up the power he enjoyed and abused for nearly a decade.
Encyclopedia Britannica said of Amin, "He was noted for his abrupt changes of mood, from buffoonery to shrewdness, from gentleness to tyranny. He was often extreme in his nationalism."
Good thing that could never happen here ...
Encyclopedia Britannica also says, "Amin came to be known as the “Butcher of Uganda” for his brutality, and it is believed that some 300,000 people were killed and countless others tortured during his presidency."
By late 1978, the Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas etc. had made the stupid mistake of invading neighboring Tanzania. That country launched a counter attack that eventually drove him out of the country. Amin escaped first to Libya, then eventually he settled in Saudi Arabia.
He died and went to Hell in 2003.
At least he left behind some fine songs in his "honor."
Outside In Productions just announced this summer's Santa Fe Bandstand schedule.
Shinyribs at 2018 South by Southwest
Ad it's going to kick off with none other than Shinyribs!
In a magnificent act of copy-and-paste, here's that schedule:
• Opening Night with SHINYRIBS (June 19): Shinyribs is an American country-soul, swamp-funk band. Known for his outrageous outfits and on-stage antics, front man Kevin Russell delivers a rousing dance party of a show that’s impossible to forget. Winners of “Best Austin Band” at the 2019 Austin Music Awards.
• PETER ROWAN AND THE FREE MEXICAN AIRFORCE with LOS TEXMANIACS (June 22): Grammy-award winner Peter Rowan comes back to Old Santa Fe for his 3rd Bandstand appearance. For this special show, Peter will be backed by New Mexico’s own Grammy winning conjunto band Max Baca y Los Texmaniacs.
• LA MERA CANDELARIA (June 27): This LA-based band fuses cumbia with the relaxed vibes of son cubano, creating a refreshing new musical mix. Founder Stephani Candelaria hopes her lyrics, which tackle queer relationships and gender roles, inspire cultural change in her community.
• JIM LAUDERDALE (July 10): Jim Lauderdale is a 2-time Grammy winning Americana icon, a singer-songwriter whose unmistakable rhinestone-incrusted silhouette has been a symbol for creative integrity and prolificacy for
thirty-one albums over decades of recording.
Terrance Simien at Santa Fe Bandstand, June 2014
• TERRANCE SIMIEN AND THE ZYDECO EXPERIENCE (July 16): For 35 years, two- time Grammy award winning artist Terrance Simien, 8th generation Louisiana Creole has been shattering the myths about what his indigenous Zydeco roots music is – and is not. Don’t miss this special Cajun dance party.
• AL HURRICANE, JR. (July 20 at SWAN Park): Affectionately known as "The Godson" of New Mexico Music, Al Huricane Jr. proves the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, having created numerous solo albums and
contributed such celebrated songs as "Flor De Las Flores" to New Mexico's unique style of Spanish music.
• AMY HELM (July 24): Amy Helm is an American singer-songwriter and daughter of The Band drummer Levon Helm and singer Libby Titus. She is a past member of the Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble Band and Ollabelle.
• LOS STRAITJACKETS (August 1): Mixing the familiar sounds of Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, and the Ventures, Los Straitjackets create their own version of energetic surf guitar twang, complete with Mexican wrestling masks.
• ELIZA GILKYSON (August 7): Eliza Gilkyson is a twice Grammy-nominated (2006/2015) singer songwriter and activist who is one of the most respected musicians in Folk, Roots and Americana circles.
• DAVINA AND THE VAGABONDS (August 8): With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, Davina and the Vagabonds have grown from a down-and-dirty
blues band into one of the most exciting acoustic ensembles on the international stage.
So where does a big music star with big financial problems go for help? If it's the early '90s, apparently they ran to the Border to pitch for Taco Bell.
That's what Willie Nelson did in 1992 when the IRS Hell Hound was on his trail. Listen to Willie sing the praises of the Woman with the Rose Tattoo -- and also Steak Burrito Supremes:
Rapper M.C. Hammer also made Taco Bell ads. But unlike Willie, Hammer's financial crisis happened a couple of years or so after he'd made commercials for Taco Bell (and KFC, and Pepsi.) So maybe Hammer actually liked crappy tacos.
Here's another ... direct from Lake Edna!
I'm not exactly sure why Little Richard jumped on the taco wagon.
Back to the hills and hollers for another Big Enchilada hillbilly episode. Real country music old as well as new, pure as well as mutated. For those who miss The Santa Fe Opry, hold this one close to your heart.
And remember, The Big Enchilada is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and gimme a good rating and review if you're so inclined.) Thanks.
