Grammys Shelve Native American and Other Awards

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 7, 2011

In what will undoubtedly be seen as a blow to American Indian musicians in New Mexico, the Recording Academy announced Wednesday that there will no longer be a Grammy Award for Native American music.

Robert Mirabal

The move is part of a major consolidation of Grammy categories announced in Los Angeles. Instead of the 109 categories awarded this year, next year there will be only 78 categories.

“It ups the game in terms of what it takes to receive a Grammy and preserves the great esteem (in) which it’s held in the creative community, which is the most important element,” Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“This is really disappointing,” said Harlan McKosato of Albuquerque in a telephone interview Wednesday. McKosato, who writes a column on Indian issues for The New Mexican but is best known for hosting the syndicated radio show Native America Calling, has served on the committee that screens entries for the Native American Grammy.

“The Native American category was always in peril,” McKosato said. A major problem was that sometimes there were barely enough entries in a year to qualify, he said. (The minimum was 25 albums.) Only “traditional” Native music was eligible, so Indian rock, blues or jazz bands didn’t qualify, McKosato said.

Also disappointed at the news was Claude Stephenson, the state folklorist and a member of the state Music Commission.

“We were trying to get them to create more categories,” Stephenson said.

The Native American music category was introduced to the Grammys in 2001. In the past 11 years, several albums by New Mexico artists and recordings at New Mexico events won the Grammy for best Native American recording.

Robert Mirabal of Taos Pueblo won in 2008 for his album Totemic Flute Chants. Black Eagle, a Jemez Pueblo drum group, won in 2004 for its album Flying Free.

In 2001 and this year, the Native American Grammy went to various-artist albums recorded live at the annual Gathering of Nations PowWow in Albuquerque.

Black Eagle of Jemez Pueblo

Albums by Native American musicians can still be nominated, but they would compete in a newly created category called “Regional Roots Music,” which also will include traditional Hawaiian and Cajun/zydeco albums — two other categories that were deleted.

Some of the other categories that will disappear are Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel, Traditional Gospel Album, Tejano, Norteño, Children’s Spoken Word, Chamber Music, Classical Crossover and Latin Jazz. There will no longer be separate categories for best male and female singers in pop, country or R&B.

“All categories will remain, they’ll just be found in different genres,” Portnow told the Los Angeles Times. “The message isn’t about cutting, it’s about changing the way we present the awards. We welcome all artists who make music in the Grammy process, it’s just going to look a little different.”

The Times said the changes “ “implicitly acknowledge a widespread complaint by industry observers and casual fans that the number of categories had become bloated and unwieldy.”

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 3, 2011
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

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Mustang Ranch by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Chicken Baby by The Monsters
No Reason to Complain by The Alarm Clocks
Snake Pit by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers
Love by Country Joe & The Fish
Survive or Die by Nekromantix
Your Haunted Head by Concrete Blonde
Pumpin' For the Man by Ween

Run Run Run by Velvet Underground
Ballad Of The Fogbound Pinhead by Thee Headcoats
Powder Keg by The Fall
Theme From Cheers by Titus Andronicus
Step Aside by Sleater-Kinney
Desdemona by John's Children
Matador by Pinata Protest
Do You Know What I Idi Amin by Chuck E. Weiss with Tom Waits

Wogs Will Walk by Cornershop
Shuffling Spectre by Dan Melchior und Das Menace
One Night of Sin by Simon Stokes
I Can't Hide by The Fleshtones
Monster Blues by Dex Romweber
You Gotta Work by Nathaniel Meyer
Psycho Daisies by The Hentchmen
Loose by Buick MacKane
Pucker Up Buttercup by Paul "Wine" Jones

Brand New memory by Exene Cervenka
Crawdad Hole by Big Jack Johnson
Why Is It So Hard by Charles Bradley
Mama Don't Like My Man by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Johnny Mathis' Feet by American Music Club
Love Letters Straight From Your Heart by Kitty Lester
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

A Song That Crossed Enemy Lines

UPDATED

 "The krauts ain't following ya too good on 'Lili Marlene'
tonight, Joe. Think somethin' happened to their tenor?"
Cartoon by Bill Mauldin

Here's a little tune I just stumbled upon while looking for something else on YouTube. I remember this melody chiefly as the song they used to play while all the kids skipped out to do square dances during every end-of-the-year May Festival at Nichols Hills Elementary School in the '60s .

But the history of this tune called "Lili Marleen" runs much deeper than that. The lyrics originally were written during World War One by a German soldier. But by 1939 it had been made into a song and was recorded by a German pop singer named Lale Anderson.

It was a hit and was broadcast over Radio Belgade for the benefit of German soldiers. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels got sick of it and, like the Nazi he was, ordered the station to stop playing the record.. But apparently there were so many requests for it from Axis troops all over Europe, Herr Goebbels relented, and Radio Belgrade began using it as its sign-off song every night.

But it's not just the Germans who loved it. It quickly became popular with British soldiers fighting in North Africa . Versions came out in different languages , English, French, Italian, Spanish, probably others.

The lyrics speak of a young soldier on sentry duty, pining for his faraway sweetheart, Lili Marleen. That's a feeling that cuts across all cultures, even on battlefields.

Here's some versions of the song. First here's Lale Anderson, singing it in 1939



Here's German New Wave queen Nina Hagen dueting with Greek singer Nana Mouskouri.



And here's one from the early '90s from an Estonian band called Vennaskond.



And here's a version by Polish rocker Kazik Staszewski



And yes, it has been done in English. (Thanks, Randy!) Here's Marlene Dietrich




(This post was updated 12-5-16 to replace a video that had vanished and to add Zuch Kazik's and Marlene Dietrich's versions. Then it was updated 6-18-20 to replace a bunch of vanished videos.)

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

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 1, 2011
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
Back from the Shadows Again by The Firesign Theatre
Stupid Texas Song by Austin Lounge Lizards
The Weakest Man by Drive-By Truckers
What's Goin' On With Grandpa by The Possum Posse
That's Why I Ride by Gal Holiday
Big Mamou by Waylon Jennings
Lover Please by Kinky Friedman
She's Gone Away by The Blasters
Piss Up a Rope by Ween

Anything Goes at a Rooster Show (Rooster Anthem) by The Imperial Rooster
Reefer Load by Scott H. Biram
Monkey Rag by Asylum Street Spankers
Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing in the Shadows by The Hickoids
The Unballed Ballad Of The New Folksinger by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Each Night I Try by Robbie Fulks

Hogs On The Highway by Bad Livers

I Hate These Songs by Dale Watson

APRIL FOOLS SET 
Foolin' Around by Buck Owens

A Such Such As i by Marti Brom

I'd Rather Be Your Fool Johnny Paycheck

100 Percent Fool by The Derailers

The Fool by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers

Fool About You by Ronnie Dawson

Fool About You by Sleepy LaBeef
Honey You Had Me Fooled by The Defibulators
Fool For You by Joe Swank & The Zen Pirates
Doin' What Comes Easy to a Fool by Junior Brown
Fool I Am by Pat Fergusson

Break This Fool by The Texas Saphires
Genitalia of a Fool by Cornell Hurd
That Kind of Fool by Jerry Lee Lewis & Keith Richards
Big Fool by Ronnie Self
Jealous Fool by Jimmy Breedlove
Life of a Fool by Paul Burch
Fools Fall in Love by Butch Hancock
Married Man's A Fool by Ry Cooder
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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

New Peter Case Rarities Collection Coming

It's a compilation of outtakes, demos, etc. It's called The Case Files, and it's coming May 10.

According to the press release there's even a collaboration with Stan Ridgway. The collection covers his solo career, 1985-2010.

Can't wait? Here's one of the songs, "Round Trip Stranger Blues." (Click to listen, right click to download)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: What I Did on My Spring Break

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 1, 2011

I had to attend to some (happy) family matters in Austin, Texas, last week. But even if music wasn’t the prime purpose of this little vacation, you just don’t go to the Live Music Capital of the World without catching some shows.

I was there during the week immediately following the South by Southwest Festival. The whole town seemed to be kind of hung over, but there were still plenty of good shows from which to choose (without the crazy crowds and impossible parking you find during SXSW). Here’s what I heard:

* Dale Watson at The Broken Spoke: Seeing Watson at the Spoke is pretty much the full-on Texas honky-tonk experience. This place is an authentic musical institution in Austin. A sign on the building outside said the joint has been open for 46 years. Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, and Willie Nelson have graced its stage.

I almost didn’t recognize Watson when I first walked in. His jet-black pompadour has turned to a rich silver since the last time I saw him. (He’s not even 50 yet.) But his music hasn’t changed a lick. If he looks older, his stamina onstage is as strong as ever. Watson played more than three hours without taking a break.

He and his band, The Lone Stars, which includes a steel guitar, fiddle, and a stand-up bass, play pure, raw, unadorned beer-drinkin’ honky-tonk. Watson’s voice has a lot of Hag in it, as well as a touch of Waylon.
Watson mostly performed his own tunes.

There were plenty of recent ones, such as “Hey Brown Bottle,” an ode to Lone Star beer. He did a song called “Big Daddy,” about a shoeshine man who was doing business in the Broken Spoke that night. Watson frequently plugged him on stage: “Get a shoeshine, a boot-shine, anything but moonshine.”

He also played some older songs in his repertoire such as “Truck Stop in La Grange,” in which he included a part of the ZZ Top boogie classic of similar name. In fact, Watson included a whole mess of covers of country classics like “Silver Wings,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and Jim Ed Brown’s “Pop a Top.”

A little sociological phenomenon I observed at the Spoke: It was ladies’ night at the club, and the place was full of cute college-age girls dancing with old guys who looked like Hank Hill and his friends. I asked my daughter, an Austin resident, about this. She said it’s because the old redneck guys know how to dance. “The young guys don’t know what they’re missing,” she said. Being an old guy myself, I probably shouldn’t tell them.

*  Ralph White, John Schooley & Walter Daniels at Beer Land: Schooley normally is a one-man band, a wild blues stomper who records on Voodoo Rhythm Records. That’s what I was expecting to see last week at this free show. White, who was a founding member of The Bad Livers, recently played Santa Fe, opening for Scott H. Biram at Corazón. I caught Biram there but arrived too late to see White. I figured he must like playing on bills with these crazy one-man band types.

But instead, at the Beer Land show, Schooley was part of an acoustical trio. He played slide (mostly on a resonator guitar) and a little banjo with White (who sings and plays fiddle and banjo) and harmonica player/singer Daniels. Though I would have loved to have seen Schooley in his usual hands-on-guitar/feet-on-drums mode, I wasn’t disappointed with this team-up.

Basically, the trio played mournful, spooky old mountain songs, country blues, and proto-bluegrass, sometimes veering off into John Fahey territory. They covered tunes by Muddy Waters, Dock Boggs, and R.L. Burnside and even took a shot at Charlie Walker’s honky-tonk classic “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down.”

The opening acts here were also worth noting. There was Wes Coleman, a singer/guitarist backed only by a drummer, whose melodious melodies reminded me a little of the old band House of Freaks. And there was an extremely fun little scuzzgrass band called Dad Jim, whose frontman Robert Allan Caldwell is related to the famous Caldwell brothers of the Marshall Tucker Band. Besides its rowdy version of “Ya’ll Come,” the thing I liked most about Dad Jim is the fact that the band had a black dog that made itself comfortable onstage throughout the set.

* Exene Cervenka at The Mohawk: Cervenka kicked off her tour for her new album, The Excitement of Maybe, in Austin last week. As anyone who has followed her knows, Cervenka solo is far more low-key than her work with the band that made her famous, X. In fact, on her own, she sounds closer to The Knitters, that X offshoot folk group of which she was part.

I appreciated her Austin show more than I did her new album. The record is quite enjoyable, with some nice tracks with Dave Alvin on guitar and Maggie Bjorklund on dreamy steel. But her stage sound was more stripped-down than that of the album.

Cervenka’s band was a hearty little ensemble with Austin guitar stud Will Sexton and, on the last couple of tunes, banjo picker Gretchen Phillips. But my favorite part of the band was the drummer, whose name I didn’t get. She used a washtub as a bass drum. She’s no Buddy Rich, but she banged that tub with spirit.

And, oh yeah, Exene sings her guts out.

My favorite songs she did were the upbeat “I’ll Admit It Now” (which works better without the horn section on the studio version) and the wistful, countryish “Dirty Snow,” both from the new album, as well as one of the songs she did with Phillips, “I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again” — an old folk song performed by The Maddox Brothers and Rose.

The First Song I Ever Sang My Grandson

My version probably sounded closer to Johnny Cash's than any of these.

Whatever, the lad seemed to like it.



UPDATE:

Just stumbled on this forgotten gem

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 27 2011
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

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
What a Wonderful World by Joey Ramone
Dyin' For It by Mudhoney
Livin' in the Jungle by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
It's No Secret by Jefferson Airplane
Pearl City by The Fall
Somebody In My Home by John Schooley & His One Man Band
Dimples by The Animals
Pink Slip by The Unband

Ain't it a Shame by Nobunny
Nightcrawler by The Candy Snatchers
That's My Girl by The Monks
My Confusion by The Elite
Ashes by The Pussywarmers
Sheila Na-Gig by P.J. Harvey
Evil by Grinderman
Do The Sway by The Virgos
(Hot Pastrami with) Mashed Potatoes by Joe Dee & The Starliters
Shrunken Head by Deadbolt

Your Salvation by Sons of Hercules
Floor Length Hair by Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey Birds
Omega Todd by Kilimanjaro Yak Attack
Haywire Hodaddy by The Hodads
Hodad Makin' the Scene with a Sixpack by The Silly Surfers
Piss Off (What a Loser) by Miho Wada
Heartattack and Vine by Lydia Lunch
I'll Be Gone by Kazik
Fish In The Jailhouse by Tom Waits

Take My Hand Precious Lord by Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
One Kind Favor by Canned Heat
Wolf's at the Door by Howlin' Wolf
Why Don't You Live So God Can Use You by Muddy Waters
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? by Phil Alvin
The Lonesome Road by Snooks Eaglin
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Gotcher Brand New Big Enchilada RIGHT HERE!

I'm a grandfather now but I can rock just like a young whippersnapper. A couple of slugs of Geritol and I'm as good as new. Here's some rockin' tunes for the young at heart and old of fart. As Popeye says, "You've got to save your youth for your old age." This episode includes tons of the usual garage/punk/pyschobilly/R&B/ trash rock that I love so well. And we end with a freeform set that's an ode to grandfatherhood. Someday my grandson will hear this. Hopefully he won't be too disturbed.

Play it here:



DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE| SUBSCRIBE TO ALL | FACEBOOK | ITUNES

Here's the playlist

(Background Music: No Tienes Mi Querer by The Rollings)
Don't Let me Down by The Pornostuntman
The Heist by Gotham City Mashers
Baby I Grind by Les Sexareenos
Spook Factor by Memphis Morticians
No Great Shakes by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
I Need Your Lovin' by Wolfman Jack & The Wolfpack
Good Time by The Mighty Hannibal

(Background Music: Sweet Georgia Brown by Cab Calloway)
Floor Length Hair by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Cheetah Eyes by Clone Defects
Walking Through My Dreams by The Big Bopper
Boogiehut by The Get Lost
Red River St. by The Kill Spectors
The Monkey by The Great Gaylord
Eres Casado by Al Hurricane

(Background Music: Old Folks Boogie by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band)
Granddaddy's Rockin' by Mac Curtis
Rock 'n' Roll Grandpap by Don Rader
Dirty Old Man by Thee Headcoatees
I Am My Own Grandpa by Asylum Street Spankers
Silver Threads Among the Gold by Jerry Lee Lewis
Grandpa's Boogie by Grandpa Jones
Look at Granny Run by Howard Tate
(Background Music: Sloop John B by Joseph Spence)

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, March 20, 2011
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

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
You Give Me Nothing To Go On by The Fleshtones
Leave The Capitol by The Fall
I'm Cryin' by The Animals
Dream On (Little Dreamer) by Hunx And His Punx
The Shape of Things to Come by The Ramones
Too Much Monkey Business by The Yardbirds
Old Man of The Mountain by Phil Alvin
Bad Boy by Larry Williams
Cry Cry Cry (In The U.S.A.) by The Scrams
The Boo Boo Song by King Coleman

Wart Hog by Lolita #18
Hong Kong by Jerry Lee Lewis
Treat Her Right by Los Straightjackets with Mark Lindsay
Night of the Queerwolf by The Spook Lights
Brain Dead by The Sons of Hercules
Master Sold My Baby by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Jump Jive and Harmonize by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Surf Pigs by Kim Fowley and Mars Bonfire
Wiggle It Baby by Crook, Jr.
Lam Tung Wai by Chaweewan Dumnern

Transcontinental Hustle by Gogol Bordello
Cantina by Pinata Protest
I Had A Dream by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle
God is a Bullet by Concrete Blonde
The Old Man Down the Road John Fogerty
Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson
Don't Save it Too Long by Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends

Eddie Are You Kidding? by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
Infected by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angels
Come Back Bird by Manby's Head
Not to Touch the Earth by The Doors
She's So Satisfyin' by Purple Merkins
I Just Want to See His Face by The Rolling Stones
Will the Circle Be Unbroken by The Staples Singers
Don't You Ever Let Nobody Drag Yo Spirit Down by Linda Tillery & The Cultural Heritage Choir with Wilson Pickett & Erib Bibb
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE