THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 30, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
(It Was a) Monster's Holiday by Buck Owens
Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man by Concrete Blonde
Ghost Riders in the Sky by Ronnie Dawson
Haunted Honky Tonk by John Lilly
Transylvania Terror Train by Capt. Clegg & The Night Creatures
Take Me by Jesse Dayton & Brennen Leigh
Making Believe by Wanda Jackson
Lovesick Blues by Arty Hill & The Long Gone Daddies
Smitty by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole

Silver Threads and Golden Needles by Skeeter Davis
Johnny Reb by Johnny Horton
Boy Next Door by The Frantic Flattops
My Pretty Quadroon by Jerry Lee Lewis
The Check's in the Mail by Johnny Dilks
My Screamin' Screamin' Mimi by Ray Campi
Miller, Jack, and Mad Dog by Wayne Hancock
Cash on the Barrelhead by Ethyl & The Regulars
Sally's Got a Wooden Leg by Sons of the West
Kitten by Quarter Mile Combo
The Eggplant That Ate Chicago by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band

Honky Tonk Girl by Hank Thompson
Ah Poor Little Baby by Billy "Crash" Craddock
Walk on By by Charlie Pride
Onion Eatin' Mama by Cliff Carlisle
I Love Onions by Susan Christie
Drag Racing the Devil by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Ghost of Stephen Foster by Squirell Nut Zippers
Don't Touch Me by Eleni Mandell

Night of the Wolves by Gary Heffern
Can I Stay by Stephanie Hatfield & Hot Mess
Tomorrow Night by Elvis Presley
Love Don't Live Here Anymore by Kris Kristofferson
The Most Dangerous Woman in America by Tom Russell
One Road More by Butch Hancock & Jimmie Dale Gilmore
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: GHOST HISTORY IN THE SKY

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 30, 2009


(Art by James Clark. Used with permission.)

An impressionable 12-year-old rode to the top of an Arizona hill one afternoon with an old Cowboy friend to check a windmill. A big storm was building and they needed to lock the blades down before the wind hit. When finished, they paused to watch the clouds darken and spread across the sky. As lightning flashed, the Cowboy told the boy to watch closely and he would see the devil’s herd, their eyes red and hooves flashing, stampede ahead of phantom horsemen. The Cowboy warned the youth that if he didn’t watch himself, he would someday be up there with them, chasing steers for all eternity.

Sixty years ago this frightening vision, now found on the Western Music Association Web site, was etched into the consciousness of America. “Ghost Riders in the Sky” is a perfect Halloween song for the West. It’s the only cowboy song in which “yippie-yi-yay” becomes a demonic taunt. The boy who heard the tall tale from the old cowpoke would grow up to be forest ranger/songwriter Stan Jones.

“Ghost Riders” became a huge hit in 1949, a year after Jones wrote it. Pop-folkie Burl Ives was the first to record it that year. Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Peggy Lee chased the devil’s herd, too, and before the end of the year, avant jokester Spike Jones merrily mutated the saga of the demon cows and fire-snortin’ horses. But the biggest hit at that time came from pop crooner Vaughn Monroe, also in 1949.

Of course, it didn’t stop there. It’s been covered by everyone from Concrete Blonde to Dean Martin. Frankie Laine, another popster with an ear for cowboy songs (think “High Noon” and “Rawhide”) also covered “Ghost Riders.”

Artists like Bob Wills, The Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry, and Marty Robbins brought “Ghost Riders” back West. Dick Dale went surfing with it. Ronnie Dawson made it a rockabilly romp. The Southern-rock group called The Outlaws introduced it to the dazed and confused generation in 1980. Johnny Cash sang it with the Muppets. Tom Jones took it to Vegas, and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy took it to Mars.

The fact that “Ghost Riders” has a cinematic feel to it is no accident. Jones did a lot of soundtrack work for John Ford Westerns, including writing music for The Searchers (in which John Wayne spoke a catch phrase that inspired a Buddy Holly hit, “That’ll Be the Day”) and Rio Grande.

When Jones wrote “Ghost Riders,” he was working for the National Park Service in Death Valley.

According to the Western Music Association Web site, “The Park Service made Stan its representative to Hollywood film crews when they came to Death Valley. After a long, hot day of filming, cast and crew members often sat around and listened to Stan’s songs and stories. They encouraged him to get a publisher in L.A.” Shortly after, “Yippee-yi-yay, yippee-yi-yo,” was being heard across the land.

My two favorite versions of “Ghost Riders” are no longer in print. The one that raised goose bumps on me as a kid was on a 1964 LP called Welcome to the Ponderosa by Lorne Greene — yes, a tacky TV tie-in from Bonanza’s Ben Cartwright. This version has a full-blown orchestra, a chorus, and Greene’s distinct gravely voice. (Greene’s hit “Ringo” was also on this album.)

Then there’s the country-rock version from New Mexico’s own Last Mile Ramblers, from their 1974 album While They Last. The artist currently known as Junior Brown is playing guitar, and the vocals are by Spook James. This was always a highlight of the Ramblers’ shows at The Golden Inn and Bourbon & Blues. You can hear the song on my latest podcast at bigenchiladapodcast.com.

I’m not sure how many cowboys changed their ways because of the warning in the song. But next time you see lightning in the sky, look for those red-eyed cows and gaunt-faced cowboys.

Also recommended for Halloween:

* Rob Zombie Presents Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures. On his previous music project, Texas singer Jesse Dayton, whose résumé includes stints as a guitarist for Waylon Jennings and Ray Price, teamed up with bluegrass singer Brennen Leigh to create an album of sweet country duets with songs like “Brand New Heartache,” “Take Me,” and “Back-Street Affair.”

Since that time, Dayton was apparently kidnapped by the evil Rob Zombie and transformed into a fiend named Captain Clegg (a name lifted from a 1962 film starring Peter Cushing) to sing hillbilly horror songs like “Headless, Hip-shakin’ Honey,” “Two-Headed Teenage Transplant,” “Transylvania Terror Trail,” and “Macon County Morgue.” These and seven other tunes appear on what is easily the Halloween album of the year.

Fans of Zombie’s most recent movie, Halloween II, might recognize Clegg and band from a music/dance scene in the flick. But this isn’t the first Zombie/Dayton collaboration. In 2003, Zombie enlisted Dayton to write and record tunes — such as “I’m at Home Getting Hammered (While She’s Out Getting Nailed)” and “Lord, Don’t Let Me Die in a Cheap Motel” — for a fictional hillbilly duo called Banjo and Sullivan in conjunction with Zombie’s 2005 slasher flick, The Devil’s Rejects.

Although Dayton’s background is in country and rockabilly, there are all sorts of influences here. Take the opening track, “Zombie a Go Go.” It sounds like a Farfisa-fueled garage rocker — at least until the steel guitar solo. “Dr. Demon and the Robot Girl” is a tribute to late-’60s “country fuzz” production, an era in which fuzztone guitars, electric sitars and folk-rock elements crept into some country music.

None of these tunes is destined to become a classic like, say, “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” They’re all pretty dumb, but then again, they’re all good fun for “spooky people gettin’ Dixie fried,” as Clegg sings on “Honky Tonk Halloween.”

BLOG BONUS:

Here's a couple of "Ghost Riders" videos:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October 25, 2009
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@ksfr.org

THE 2009 STEVE TERRELL RADIO SPOOKTACULAR
For more gruesome sounds, check out my latest Big Enchilada podcast episode

Halloween Hootenanny by Zacherle
Murder in the Graveyard by Screamin' Lord Sutch
Rock Around the Tombstone by The Monsters
Halloween by The Misfits
Halloween Dance by Rev. Horton Heat
Hearse With a Curse by Mr. Gasser & The Weirdos
Gravedigger Rock by The Polecats
Voodoo Voodoo by Lavern Baker
Transylvania Terror Train by Capt. Clegg & The Night Creatures
Goblin Girl by Frank Zappa
Graveyard by Butthole Surfers
Graveyard by Trailer Bride

Witches by Bichos
I'm Your Witchdoctor by The Chants R&B
Satanic Rite by Los Peyotes
Born in a Haunted Barn by The Dirtbombs
You Must Be a Witch by The Lollipop Shoppe
Voodoo Priestess by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
La Llorna by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds

(Background Music: Voodoo Doll by Dr. Lonnie Smith)

I'm a Mummy by Bob McFadden & Dor
The Mummy by Marshmallow Overcoat
Mummy Shakes by The Molting Vultures
Devil Dance by The A-Bones
The Ghost of Smokey Joe by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Human Fly by The Cramps
Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) by Concrete Blonde
The Addams Family Theme by Vic Mizzy
Witchcraft by Elvis Presley

(Background Music: Wolfman by The Bobby Fuller Four)

Don't Shake Me Lucifer by Roky Erikson
Haitian Voodoo Baby by The X-Rays
Zombified by Electricoolade
Howlin' at the Moon by Nekromantix
Gris Gris Gumbo ya Ya by Dr. John
She Walks With the Dead by Deadbolt
Heebie-Jeebies by Little Richard

SPECIAL SESSION KEPT ME FROM THE OPRY

Due to the special session of the state Legislature going into the evening hours, I had to run my "emergency" Santa Fe Opry show on KSFR Friday night. Hope you enjoyed it anyway and those of you who emailed, sorry I didn't get back to you right away.

There's no special session Sunday night though, so I'll be doing Terrell's Sound World live -- and it's the 2009 radio SPOOKTACULAR. So tune in 10 pm Sunday (Mountain Time) at 101.1 FM in the Northern New Mexico area or www.ksfr.org on the Web. And for more Halloween fun, check out my latest Big Enchilada podcast.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: SQUIRRELLY MEMORIES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 24, 2009

I wouldn't call Squirrel Nut Zippers' new album, Lost at Sea, the comeback of the year. But the CD, released next week, is a fun little reminder of a fun little band that came along during a strange period of rock 'n' roll.

In 1997, when SNZ released their biggest album, Hot, grunge was long dead. Lollapalooza, in its original incarnation as a traveling festival, had run its course. Rock 'n' roll was looking for something new by looking at its roots. Alt country was at its peak. Fat Possum was finding booze-soaked blues codgers in the Mississippi hills.

And then there was the "neo-swing" movement, propelled partly by the 1996 movie Swingers. The Zippers got lumped in with this style, which seemed like a weird fad from day one. I'm not knocking the neo-swingers. I actually liked a lot of that music. As I've mentioned here before, I had fun seeing Big Bad Voodoo Daddy a few months ago, and I enjoy the group's latest album, How Big Can You Get?, a Cab Calloway tribute.

But Squirrel Nut Zippers, fronted by Katherine Whalen and Jimbo Mathus, weren't truly part of the martini-sippin', jitterbuggin', zoot-suit set. True, they were retro; and true, they had horns. But while the neo-swingers emulated Louis Jordan, Louis Prima, and the jump blues bands of the '40s (with obvious nods to Rat Pack cool), the Zippers harked back to an earlier era — vaudeville and hot jazz, with a little Gypsy jazz mixed in. Give Dan Hicks a couple of horns and a speed-freak drummer, and The Hot Licks would sound a lot like the Squirrel Nuts.

SNZ are best remembered for "Hell," basically an original calypso song about the afterlife, and "Put a Lid on It", which was more typical of their sound (and ended up in an Intel commercial). Both are from the Hot album.

The Zippers barely made it to this century. Their last studio album, Bedlam Ballroom, was released in the fall of 2000 but was promptly forgotten. (In fact, I'd forgotten I'd reviewed the dang thing — unfavorably— until I was recently looking through The New Mexican archives.)

But my perennial favorite is the underrated Perennial Favorites from 1998. On some songs there, SNZ seem to be looking at the music industry — which would soon be forsaking them — with horror and bile. There are still fun moments, but that album has a raw and restless undertow. (It is ironic that "Suits Are Picking Up the Bill" ended up on a Heinz ketchup commercial. Guess the suits picked up a few of the Zippers' bills for a while after that.)

A bunch of the original members of the Zippers are back. Besides Whalen and Mathus (who has since worked with Buddy Guy), there are drummer Chris Phillips (who's been playing with the likes of The Dickies and Dex Romweber), trumpet man Je Widenhouse, and bass player Stuart Cole.

The Zippers wisely included several Perennial Favorites tunes — "Suits," "Fat Cats Keep Getting Fatter," and "The Ghost of Stephen Foster" on the new live album, as well as the obvious crowd-pleasers "Hell" and "Put a Lid on It." Other highlights here include "You Are My Radio," which never appeared on any Zippers album before. It features just Mathus on guitar, with a vocal duet by him and Whalen. That's followed by a dreamy "Blue Angel" (no, not the Hundred Year Flood song).

Lost at Sea is a stopgap album. The Zippers are working on a new studio album for release next year. This record proves they've got their instrumental and vocal chops down. Let's hope their songwriting still has some of the bite of Perennial Favorites.

Also recommended:

Wally! by The Polkaholics. At first listen, it's tempting to call The Polkaholics "irreverent." After all, here's this crazed trio playing polka on electric instruments — no accordion, no sax, but a screaming guitar with bass and drums cranking up the basic polka beat. The band calls its sound "Oom pah pow!" One of the group's early songs declares The Polkaholics "Polka Enemy Number One." Another tune is called "The Pimps of Polka."

But nothing could be further from the truth than to say they're irreverent. When they sing of "Beer, Broads, and Brats," they're not poking fun at the polka lifestyle. They're embracing it and slobbering all over it.

Just look at their relationship to Wally Jagiello, better known as Li'l Wally, who is the subject of The Polkaholics' polka rock opera, Wally! Jagiello was a polka giant who died in 2006 at the age of 76. Don Hedeker, the high potentate of The Polkaholics, calls him "the Muddy Waters of polka." Born in Chicago, Jagiello was the son of Polish immigrants. He's credited with playing a slower and more accessible polka style. That's slower compared to the Slovenian-style polka played by Frankie Yankovic in Cleveland. (Would that make Frankie the Howlin' Wolf of polka?)

Wally! contains several musical references to the first-generation rock operas Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar. (Check out the song "Polka Superstar," with the lyrics "Li'l Wally, superstar/You are just who you say you are.") The songs tell stories from various phases of Wally's life — his childhood; playing polka in the bars back in the glory days (my favorite song here is "Division Street" — the Chicago street was full of polka dance bars and was known as the "Polish Broadway" in the 1950s); moving to Miami; coming back to Chicago in the early part of this century for a Division Street concert with a new generation of polka nuts (namely The Polkaholics); and his death in 2006 ("Oh how we cried and cried, the day the polka died.").

Li'l Wally wasn't only the king of polka. The Polkaholics declare him "the King of Happiness. Like all Polkaholics albums, this one's fun and zany — and it rocks like crazy.

Two Voodoo Rhythm Bands on WFMU Free Music Archive

I just found not one but two new additions to the WFMU Free Archives that happen to be Voodoo Rhythm Records vets: Wau y Los Arrghs!! from Spain and Movie Star Junkies from Italy.

You can download any or all of the songs free and legal at the above links. Or you can listen right on this site on the players below.

Both are from a show called Three-Chord Monte, which looks very worthwhile. It airs noon to 3 pm on Tuesdays (10 am-1 pm Mountain Time)

R.I.P. Vic Mizzy

I'm old enough to remember when TV themes were really cool. Even the dumbest sitcoms had memorable themes. I can more of the lyrics to the "My Mother the Car" theme than any of the dialog from that stupid show.

One of the greats in the TV theme genre died Saturday -- Vic Mizzy. He was 93. His obit in the Los Angeles Times is HERE.

You might not recognize his name, but you'll know the songs from the videos below. The first one is appropriate for this Halloween season.

(Thanks Robert Nott for alerting me.)