Sunday, August 26, 2018 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
Why Me by Question Mark & The Mysterians
The Frog by Sir Frog & The Toads
Road Hawg by Joe Ely
Big Black Witchcraft Rock by The Cramps
Rock 'n' Roll by Lou Reed
Beautiful Day by The Neon Brothers
Don't Ruin My High by Fascinating
Insult to Intellect by The Mobbs
Cat Drug In by The Gibson Bros
Long Long Ponytail by The Fireballs
Berlin by Dicky B. Hardy
Leave Me Alone by Nathaniel Mayer
Hot Coffee by Andre Williams & The Goldstars
Psycho by The Sonics
Chunk of Steel by Hollywood Sinners
Paula by Harlan T. Bobo
I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) by Electric Prunes
Finnegan's Wake by The Dubliners
I'm a Lover Not a Fighter / They Call Me Lazy / I Told My Little Woman by Lazy Lester
Power of the 45 by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
Wildcat Tamer by John Schooley
Till Death by Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis
Polka Enemy #1 by Polkaholics
Hosa Dyna by Brave Combo
Who'd You Like to Love You by Li'l Wally
Pero Te Amo by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
Catch Afire by Mojo Juju & The Snake-Oil Merchants
100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Everywhere is Nowhere by The Fleshtones with Mary Huff
That Lovin' You Feeling Again by Roy Orbison & Emmylou Harris
Old Friends by Willie Nelson, Roger Miller & Ray Price CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
All background music during my yacks tonight was by The Fireballs of Raton, N.M. who are playing a free show on the Santa Fe Plaza on Tuesday, Aug. 28
Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018 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 :
You Sure Got Away With Women by Washboard Hank
Dink's Song by Dave Van Ronk
Someday We'll Look Back by Merle Haggard
Chocolate to the Bone by Barbecue Bob
I've Been Everywhere by Johnny Cash
I Ride an Old Paint by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
New Paint by Loudon Wainwright III
The Wreck of the 97 by Ernest Stoneman
The Old Ark's a Moving by A.A. Gray & Seven Foot Dilly
Sam the College Leader Man by Hoosier Hotshots
Collegiana by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Bad Dreams by Tony Joe White
Clouds by Eric Hisaw
Do Angels Ever Dream They're Falling by Ronny Elliott
This Town Gets Around by Margo Price
Fighting Back From a Whiskey Glass by Stevie Tombstone
When Did Right Become Wrong by Bill Hearne
Round Too Long by Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis
New Ways to Fail by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Open G by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Suzie Anna Riverstone by The Imperial Rooster
John Lee Hooker for President by Ry Cooder
Bears in Them Woods by Nancy Apple
You Coulda Walked Around the World by Butch Hancock
If You Were a Bluebird by Joe Ely
Stealin' Stralin' by Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Dave Alvin
My Rough and Rowdy Ways by Bill Cox
Pretty Polly by The Dead Brothers
New Bumble Bee by Memphis Minnie
No Ordinary Blue by John Prine
The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas by James “Stump” Johnson
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A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican August 24, 2018
In his previous two albums, Upland Stories (2016) and Gone Away Backwards (2013), Robbie Fulks made the greatest music of his impressive career. Both featured fairly subdued and mostly acoustic songs. But they are powerful songs that cut deep, covering themes of displacement, disappointment, economic and emotional despair, cruel fates, and tangible frustration. Considering that Fulks began his recording career in the 1990s with a string of irreverent, comic tunes such as “Papa Was a Steel-Headed Man,” “She Took a Lot of Pills (And Died),” “I Told Her Lies,” and “Darn This Town” (title bowdlerized for your protection), his albums of the 2010s have shown growth, maturity, and emotional depth.
But sometimes a guy just needs to take a break from the heaviness and tear up the honky tonk with a boogie-woogie country gal. And that’s just what he does onWild! Wild! Wild!, Fulks’ new duet album with rockabilly royal Linda Gail Lewis. The songs here are much lighter than Fulks’ last couple of efforts. But Lordy, this album is fun. It’s full of rockabilly romps, country weepers, blue-eyed soul, bouncy blues, sweet harmonies, drinkin’ songs, cheatin’ songs ... the sounds that made America a beacon of the Free World.
A little background on Ms. Lewis. She’s grown up in the shadow of her OG rock ’n’ roll brother, Jerry Lee Lewis (which means she’s also the cousin of Urban Cowboy-era country star Mickey Gilley and disgraced evangelist Jimmy Swaggart).
As a teenager, she began touring and occasionally recording with Jerry Lee in the early ’60s, releasing her first solo album, Two Sides of Linda Gail Lewis, in 1969, the same year she released a duet album called Together with her brother.
Fulks & Lewis
After a “nervous breakdown,” the rockabilly wildcat quit showbiz for a decade or so, but returned to performing in the late ’80s and to recording in the early ’90s. And she’s cranked out a steady stream of records since — mainly on small labels and European labels. Her best-known album has to be You Win Again, her 2000 duet record with Van Morrison.
A couple of years ago, on an album called Heartbreak Highway, she teamed up with Fulks on a couple of tracks, including a rocking version of “You Are My Sunshine.” Apparently that led to Wild! Wild! Wild!, on Bloodshot Records.
The album starts off with a solo vocal by Linda Gail on “Round Too Long.” The song sounds autobiographical — though it actually was written by Fulks. It begins with a knowing nod to her family heritage: “I’m the sister of a hell-raiser, the daughter of an old tomcat/I was playin’ the piano in a honky-tonk before you bragged about that.” Later she sings, “Won’t you put me in Kentucky when my time on earth has ceased/’Cause out of all the men who hurt me, Jack Daniels hurt me least.”
Similarly, the next tune, “I Just Lived a Country Song,” sung by Fulks, is about “this honky tonkin’ way of living” taking its toll on a hillbilly singer who knows no other world. Robbie sings, “These beer joints where I’m workin’, I started workin’ at sixteen/Now if I look a little ragged, must be those 30 years between … My first single hit the big-time, for a while there I was hot/I can’t recall the early nineties; these last 10 I’d rather not ...”
If “Round Too Long” is Linda Gail’s spotlight and “I Just Lived a Country Song” is Robbie’s, the following song, “That’s Why They Call It Temptation,” a full-blown hillbilly heartbreaker, is the first one that gives the two singers equal footing. They trade off lines and then harmonize on the choruses. My favorite exchange is when Fulks sings, “I tried to keep my hands from where they longed to go,” which Lewis answers with, “And I did all I could to help you, short of sayin’ no.”
Fulks’ sardonic sense of humor comes across in the song “Till Death,” about a woman dealing with a cheating husband. In a weird way, it reminds me of an old song of his, “I Just Want to Meet the Man,” which was about a guy stalking his ex-wife and her new lover. The implied impending violence of that song (“No that’s nothing in my pocket, just a toy I brought for Jane/I couldn’t bear to see her hurting/Now Daddy’s here to kill the pain ...”) actually plays out in the upbeat “Till Death.” Linda Gail sings, “You’re a man that can’t keep a promise/I’m a woman never breaks a vow/We said ‘Till death do us part,’/And that’s now.” You should get a bang out of this number.
Another favorite on Wild! Wild! Wild! is “Who Cares,” a jazzy little tune sung by Lewis and written by country songwriter giant Don Gibson, whose greatest hit was “Oh Lonesome Me.” Besides Linda Gail’s vocals, the best thing the song has going for it is the sweet guitar of Redd Volkaert, who cut his proverbial teeth as one of Merle Haggard’s Strangers.
Then there’s “Foolmaker,” sung by Fulks, which drips with gospel-soaked Southern soul. Out front is NRBQ member Scott Ligon on organ.
This album is probably just a one-shot deal. But I believe that in this collaboration, Linda Gail Lewis brought out the best in Robbie Fulks. And vice versa. Long may they hear the call of the wild, wild, wild.
Let's see some wild, wild videos:
This one's official!
Here's a live version of the title song
I believe Linda Gail hasn't been around nearly long enough.
Sunday, August , 2018 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
(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet by The Blues Magoos
Don't Break My Laws by Thee Mighty Caesars
Nadine by Harlan T. Bobo
Mr. Rain by The Velvet Underground
Mama Get the Hammer by Barrence Whitfield
Leave Me Alone by Esquirita
Lizard Man by Mean Motor Scooter
Incense and Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock
Out There Aways by The Waco Brothers
Yodelin' Bayonne Blues by Trixie & The Trainwrecks
When I Was Young by Eric Burdon & The Animals
Gangsters by The Dustaphonics
Macorina by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
Frankenstein's Den by Mighty El Dukes
Spirit in the Dark by Aretha Franklin / Spirit in the Dark by Aretha with Ray Charles
Ma Juju Girl by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Tip My Canoe by Dengue Fever
I Will Marry You by Pan Ron
Strange Uncle by Gogol Bordello
I Surrender! by The Fleshtones
Sad and Dreamy by Alejandro Escovedo
Take This Pain by Stevie Tombstone
Down on the Street by The Stooges
The Gypsy by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Shades and Hues by Shooter Jennings
Who Cares by Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
All background music during my yacks tonight was by The Fireballs of Raton, N.M. who are playing a free show on the Santa Fe Plaza on Tuesday, Aug. 28
I was just a kid -- third grade I think -- just discovering the joys of early
'60s AM radio when my young soul was captivated by a husky voice singing over a
haunting piano.
"Love letters straight from your heart / Keep us so near when we're apart
..."
It was a singer named Ketty (for years I thought it was "Kitty") Lester and the
song, definitely her greatest hit, was "Love Letters."
Born Revoyda Frierson in Hope, Arkansas (take note Bill Clinton fans) on this
day in 1934, Lester began recording in the late 1950s. In 1962 she released a
single "I'm a Fool to Want You." However DJs preferred the flip side, which, you
guessed it, came straight from Ketty's heart.
And they were right.
"Love Letters" was written in the 1940s by Edward Heyman and music by Victor
Young. An instrumental version appeared in a 1945 movie called
Love Letters and was nominated for a best-song Oscar. A rather schmaltzy version of
the song, with lyrics, was recorded by a singer named Dick Haymes in 1945.
Here's what it sounded like:
Tony Bennett recorded the song, with a jazzy guitar, in 1955
>
Fast forward to this century for my second-favorite version of "Love Letters" by
Tom Jones, backed by guitarist Jeff Beck. I'm not sure who's on piano. This is
from a 2003 PBS documentary series, Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Red, White & Blues.
Going back to the early 1970s, John Lennon paid tribute to Lester by capturing
the piano part from "Love Letters" on his song "God."
And in the '80s David Lynch via Dennis Hopper, paid tribute -- in his own
peculiar way -- in
Blue Velvet. "Don't be a good neighbor to her. I'll send you a love letter,
straight from my heart, fucker ..."
Fans of Breaking Bad have at least a passing familiarity with the cult of Santa Muerte. Here's what the New York Times had to say in 2017 about this religious movement:
To her followers, Santa Muerte is a powerful healer, a bringer of prosperity, an agent of vengeance. Some ask her for green cards, lovers, health, protection against violent drug cartels or immigration agents. Some ask her to punish their rivals. They call her the Pretty Girl, the White Girl, the Godmother, the Bony Lady and dozens of other names, including Santisima Muerte, most holy death. Little celebrated before 2001, and rejected by the Vatican, she has garnered a following of 10 million to 12 million devotees in Mexico and beyond — the fastest-growing religious movement in the Americas, said R. Andrew Chesnut, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of “Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint.” Her following includes drug lords, hard-working families, prisoners and members of sexual minorities.
In honor of her fewast day falling on Wacky Wednesday, here are some songs about death.
Let's start with this Louis Jordan classic:
The Dubliners go to Finnegan's wake:
Tom T. Hall wrote one of the funniest songs about funerals:
Here's Oingo Boingo's take on the subject:
And Elvis Costello had death on his mind back in 1989
Sunday, August 12, 2018 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
Have Love Will Travel by The Sonics
The Wasp by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
C by Thee Oh Sees
Where Were You? by The Mekons
God is a Bullet by Concrete Blonde
Get Off the Road by R. Lewis Band
Mujeres Gato en la Luna by Los Eskeletos
Black Metal by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
Happy and Bleeding by PJ Harvey
Riot City by Archie & The Bunkers
I'm the Slime by Frank Zappa
Look in the Mirror by Gregg Turner
TJ by Hickoids
Anything Goes at a Rooster Show by The Imperial Rooster
Rimbaud Diddley by Churchwood
Into Yer Shtik by Mudhoney
The Band Drinks for Free by The Fleshtones
The Brother I Never Had by Miss Ludella Black
I Don't Understand Her Anymore by The Masonics
She Cracked by The Modern Lovers
See That Girl by Lynx Lynx
Tina Louise by The Dirtbombs
Bearded and Bored by Quan & The Chinese Takeouts
Boom Boom by Tony Joe White
Zig Zag Wanderer by Captain Beefheart
The Stain of Music by Negativland
Mule Skinner by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Action Reaction by Ramblin' Deano
Wreck on the Highway by Stevie Tombstone
That's Why They Call It Temptation by Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis
Hiawatha by Laurie Anderson CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
