TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: The Kind of Music That Made Me Love Country In the First Place

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
May 2, 2014

If you miss good old-fashioned honky-tonk male-females duets — the he-said, she-said storytelling of George Jones and Tammy Wynette on "Golden Ring"; the sexually charged barbs between Johnny Cash and June Carter on "Jackson"; the sweet teasing between Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty on "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly"; the breathtaking harmonies of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris on "Hearts on Fire" — here's a new album that proves the art form isn't dead.

Before the World Was Made is the name of the record, and Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay, both of whom split their time between Austin and Nashville, are the singers. And as with those venerated duos of old, virtually all their songs are full of heartache, humor, and spunk. Though the music honors the time-honored form of the country lovebird duet, the songs here — all original and most written together by Leigh and McKay — are fresh. Producer Gurf Morlix, who also plays some pedal steel and lap steel here, keeps it nice and simple, nice and country.

This is the second album of country duets involving Leigh that I'm familiar with. Back in 2007, she teamed up with Texas honky-tonker (and Rob Zombie crony — but that's another story) Jesse Dayton on an excellent little album called Holdin' Our Own and Other Country Gold Duets. That was a collection of mostly original tunes, though there was a liberal sprinkling of covers, among them versions of "Back Street Affair," "Take Me," and "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man."

There are some real standouts on Before the World Was Made. The first one to grab me was "Let's Don't Get Married." After each singer declares undying love for the other, the chorus goes, "Let's don't get married, let's stay in love ... 'Cause what we have is just too good to go and mess up with all that stuff." However, just a couple of songs later, both Leigh and McKay are begging for holy matrimony on "Be My Ball and Chain." McKay pledges, "I'll hold your purse while you try on dresses." Leigh responds, "I'll clean up all your little nasty messes, if you'll be my ball and chain." She just wants him to "meet me at church and don't 'cha be drinkin'."

"Before We Come to Our Senses" is a classic hillbilly Romeo and Juliet, "We love each other even though our parents say we're bad for each other" song. As they contemplate running away to elope, Leigh sings, "My daddy says you're a no-good so and so, and you come from a long, long line/of good-for-nothin's, never even learned how to earn themselves a worn-out dime." McKay responds, "My mama says your folks are the kind who treat everybody real mean and they walk around town with their noses in the air like they think they was king and queen."

Meanwhile, "Let's Go to Lubbock on Vacation" sounds like it might be about the same couple, still married, a few years down the line. "This city life has got me in a panic/You've got to take me somewhere more romantic." Apparently, Lubbock is the answer. "Then we'll know we're really in love."

"Please Reconsider" is a straightforward, yearning plea that sounds like something Felice and Boudleaux Bryant would have written for the Everly Brothers 50-some years ago. Leigh and McKay go Hawaiian on "Salty Kisses in the Sand." (That's McKay on the ukulele.) The album ends with an acoustic song called "Great Big Oldsmobile," about a couple growing old together. "When you're 92, know that I'll still wanna fool around in the afternoon with you," Leigh sings. A touching thought — just don't think about it too much.

I do believe that several of the tunes here could have been bona fide C & W hits back in the day. One thing is for certain — it's songs like this that made me love country music in the first place.

Leigh and McKay are scheduled to do a show in Santa Fe on June 9. According to their web site,  they'll be at Duel Brewing (1228 Parkway Drive, 505-474-5301), that night.

Also recommended:

* Only Me by Rhonda Vincent. Speaking of material that made me love country music in the first place, this album is nothing short of a doozy by a talent that deserves wider recognition. Vincent has to be one of the most undeservedly under-recognized musicians in Nashville today. Starting out in the world of bluegrass, she has a pure, beautiful voice, and she's not afraid to wail. She also knows her way around a mandolin.

This album is divided into two six-song discs (needlessly, because everything would have easily fit on one). The first is a bluegrass set — acoustic, with only traditional instruments — while the second is country. Both discs are full of impressive tunes.

The best bluegrass tracks are "I Need Somebody Bad Tonight," a sweet weeper in which Vincent explains, "'cause I just lost somebody good"; "It's Never Too Late," a song about a wife-killer winning redemption through Jesus; and a duet with Daryle Singletary on "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds," an old Melba Montgomery song that she recorded with George Jones in the pre-Tammy days. Not quite as strong is the title song, featuring guest vocals by Willie Nelson and guest guitar by Willie's trusty Trigger.

The second disc, the country one, features steel guitar, electric guitars, and drums instead of banjos, etc. It starts off with the only Vincent original on this album, "Teardrops Over You," a good, slow cry-in-your-beer tune. It's also got a rousing cover of the country classic "Drivin' Nails," written by Jerry Irby and made famous by Ernest Tubb. There are not one but two songs written or co-written by "Whispering" Bill Anderson, both sweet honky-tonk sawdust-floor shuffles, "Once a Day" and "Bright Lights and Country Music."

"Beneath Still Waters," a steel-heavy weeper written by Dallas Frazier, is nothing short of stunning. This tune was recorded by George Jones back in the '60s. While it's virtually impossible to match Jones' voice in his prime, Vincent truly does it justice with her simple, guileless approach. I bet Jones would have loved this version.

Country lovebirds: On The Santa Fe Opry, I'll be playing an entire set of country duets, including some classics as well as more recent offerings. That's 10 p.m. Friday, May 2, on KSFR-FM 101.1, streaming HERE

Here's Some Video

My Spoken Word Debut

I'll be doing a spoken-word piece -- basically a tuneless medley of a couple of my old hitchhiking songs -- Tuesday night at George R.R. Martin's Jean Cocteau Cinema as a part of the Julesworks Follies 25th Edition Birthdays Bash.

It's a bitchen variety show organized by Stephen Jules Rubin. My old pal and former Angry Samoan Gregg Turner will be singing some of his songs of love and mercy, and there will be song, comedy and drama from Juleswork regulars like Tom Sibley, Leticia Cortez, Al Staggs and many many more.

It's only $7 and starts at 7 pm (coincidence?) at the Jean Cocteau, 418 Montezuma Ave. in Santa Fe.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April , 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
WE ARE back on the Air and WE ARE still STREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 25, 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:






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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Chuck E. Weiss is Back

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
April 25, 2014

Deal the cards, roll the dice, if it ain’t that old Chuck E. Weiss.

That’s right, the craggy-faced, mop-topped hierophant of the hipster underground (and yes, kids, I’m using the original connotation of “hipster” and not the pathetic thing it’s turned into) is back with a new album called Red Beans and Weiss, and it’s full of stripped-down rock ’n’ roll, R & B, blues, laughs, post-beat cool, hard-earned wisdom, and flashes of sheer insanity.

Most people my age probably first heard of Weiss in 1979 when he popped up on the edges of the national consciousness as the unlikely romantic lead in Rickie Lee Jones’ first hit, “Chuck E.’s in Love.”

Of course, those of us who were Tom Waits fans back then had known the name for years. Waits name-checked him on the song “Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)” on the album Nighthawks at the Diner — which also contains the song “Spare Parts I: A Nocturnal Emission,” which Weiss co-wrote — and waxed nostalgically for his company in “I Wish I Was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)” on Waits’ album Small Change.

Weiss, Waits, and Jones got to be pals in the ’70s when they lived at the infamous Tropicana Motel in Hollywood. But Weiss had already established a music career. As a teenager in Denver, he used to hang out at the Ebbets Field blues club, eventually becoming the drummer for the house band.

The band backed bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins one night, and Hopkins was apparently so impressed that he hired Weiss as his tour drummer. Eventually Weiss played with some other major names in American music including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Dr. John, and former Tesuque resident Roger Miller.

Unfortunately, his recording career can only be called sporadic — and that’s being charitable. His first album, The Other Side of Town, didn’t come until 1981, two years after “Chuck E.’s in Love,” and that was a bunch of demo tapes reportedly released against his will. (I recently listened to it on Spotify, and it’s good stuff. Dr. John plays keyboards on it, and Larry “The Mole” Taylor, an original member of Canned Heat who played with Waits for years, is on bass.)

Weiss’ first proper,  official album, Extremely Cool, wasn’t unleashed until 1999. Between that and Red Beans there have only been two others, Old Souls & Wolf Tickets (2001) and 23rd & Stout (2007).

As with all his works since Extremely Cool, on Red Beans Weiss is backed by his cronies, a tough and tight band known collectively as The Goddamn Liars — which includes former Santa Fean Tony Gilkyson, who has played with X and Lone Justice, on guitar.

The album kicks off with a rowdy rocker called “Tupelo Joe,” on which Weiss alternates between a gravelly baritone and a comical mock-doo-wop voice. He milks the idea that “Tupelo Joe went to the show ... Tupelo Joe ain’t no schmo” for all it’s worth, and it sounds wonderful. The pace slows down immediately for “Shushie,” a beatnik-jazz excursion with sax and standup bass.

Chuck E. on Kimmel

This is followed by a slow-burner called “Boston Blackie.” Here, Weiss proclaims himself to be just like the old TV detective, a “friend to those who have no friends.” Weiss and band did this tune on a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. In the middle of the song, Weiss’ old friend Johnny Depp came out with a guitar.
Weiss and his Liars get funky on “That Knucklehead Stuff” (”I’m sittin’ on a stool tryin’ to be cool, tryin’ not to show any interest/Heard this snickering sound, and my body shook the ground, and I knew the stuff had no limits./The knucklehead stuff”).

Then they take an inebriated detour to the barrio for “Hey Pendejo,” which I’ll nominate for the greatest pseudo-Mexican tune by gringos since The Pogues’ “Fiesta.” ( This would have made a great campaign theme last year for unsuccessful Albuquerque mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli.)

The sole cover song on the album is “Exile on Main Street Blues,” which was an outtake recorded by the Rolling Stones during their Exile on Main Street sessions. It’s full of the titles of and cheesy allusions to songs on their greatest album. But I bet the Rolling Stones wish they had done the stomping blues rocker “Dead Man’s Shoes,” which Weiss co-wrote with Gilkyson.

For sheer tomfoolery, Weiss goes for the goofy gold in “Willy’s in the Pee Pee House.” I’m assuming this refers to prison. On this crazy little New Orleans-soaked singalong, the Goddamn Liars sound like Professor Longhair’s band at the end of a three-week bender, while Weiss sings in an exaggerated Buck Owens-on-Quaaludes drawl. But it works. (And yes, that is the Rocky and Bullwinkle theme you hear on the piano at one point. I’m just not sure why.)

But for all the good-time craziness, one song on Red Beans is dead serious. That’s “Bomb the Tracks,” a crunchy rocker in which Weiss sings, “Why didn’t you bomb the tracks, Jack/Why didn’t you stop the train, James.” To be sure, the song contains some surreal imagery: FDR in Maine “doing the boogaloo chicken,” Joe Stalin drawing “futuristic pictures of Huckleberry Hound,” and whatnot.

In a recent interview on his  publicist’s website, Weiss talked about what the song means to him:

 “I’m the first generation born after the war, and one of the first things I ever learned in life was that Hitler had killed members of my family. ... When I was about 17 or 18 it occurred to me that, okay, these trains are going down the tracks to the death camps, and Russia and the U.S. and England have planes, so why didn’t we bomb those tracks? So trains couldn’t get to death camps. ... What really started to bother me as a much older person was to make a god out of Roosevelt. To the Jews, Roosevelt was God, bigger than Al Jolson, man. Know what I’m saying?”

You got to watch those finger-poppin’ daddies. Sometimes there’s some sharp insights hiding in their happy fog of jive.

Chuck's in YouTube