THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, May 6, 2016
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 :

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose by Little Jimmy Dickens
Sister's Coming Home/ Down at the Corner Beer Joint by Willie Nelson

Do What I Can to Get By by The Supersuckers
Coricidin Bottle by Ray Wylie Hubbard

Somebody Settles Down by The Blues Against Youth

Take Me Back to Tulsa by Pine Valley Cosmonauts with The Meat Purveyors

Her Love Rubbed Off by Carl Perkins

Bears in Them Woods by Nancy Apple

Hesitation Blues by Old Crow Medicine Show

Brace for Impact (Live a Little) by Sturgil Simpson

Time Heals by The Gear Daddies

Wish I Didn't Like Whiskey by Mike Cullison

Luck, Texas by Alice Wallace

Only a Dream by Beth Lee & The Breakups

If I Should Fall from the Grace of God by Deertick

Ridin' with O'Hanlon by R.B. Morris

I Got News for You by Michael Hearne & Shake Russell

It's Not My Baby and I Ain't Gonna Rock It by Rudy Grayzell

Rushing Around by Roy Acuff

Gunter Hotel Blues by Paul Burch

I Am, Therefore I Drink by Jim Stringer

Lonesome Low by Al Scorch

I Just Lost My Mind by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys

Rain Crow by Tony Joe White

Alabama by Night by Robbie Fulks

Sold American by Kinky Friedman & The Texas Jewboys

If I Go Crazy by Peter Case

Love in Ruins by Jim Lauderdale

Are the Good Times Really Over by John Doe & The Sadies

United Brethren by Slim Cessna's Auto Club

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Mothers Day is next Sunday. So here's one for those of us whose mothers are gone.

"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" is a stirring song, a "Negro spiritual"  going back to the days to the days of slavery, the days when babies would be taken from their mothers to be sold to different plantations.

In his book Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals, author A.C. Jones, begins a section about this song, with a quote from a former slave named Harriet Jacobs talking about this horrifying practice:

One of these sale days, I saw a mother and seven children on the auction block. She knew that some of them would be taken from her; but they took all. The children were sold to a slave trader, and their mother was bought by [another] man in her own town. Before night her children were all far away. She begged the slave trader to tell here where he intended to take them; this he refused to do….[for] he would sell them one by one whenever he could command the highest price. I met that mother on the street and her wild haggard face lives today in my mind. She wrung her hands in anguish and exclaimed, “Gone! All Gone! Why don’t God kill me?” I had no words wherewith to comfort her.  Instances of this kind are of daily, yea, of hourly occurrence.


Jones wrote, "To announce in a song that a life event made one feel `like a motherless child' was to equate the pain associated with that event with the extreme torment occasioned by the `daily, yea, hourly' occurrence of mother-child separation."

Jones also argued that "Motherless Child" is the most important songs passed on by the slaves. "... it is probably not coincidental that it is one of a handful of African American folksongs that has survived sufficiently well to make itself known to those with little or no familiarity with specific songs in the spirituals tradition."

The earliest known performances of "Motherless Child" were in the 1870s  by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tenn. I couldn't find any of those on Youtube (video cameras were plain crappy back then) but here are some of my favorite versions of this song.

Marian Anderson gave it an operatic treatment. This might be her 1945 version.



Mahalia Jackson did a medley of "Motherless Child" with "Summertime."



Skip ahead to 1969 where Richie Havens kicked off the Woodstock festival with this, which he re-titled "Freedom."



El Chicano did it as a jazzy instrumental in 1970.


And just last week my daughter alerted me to this version by the late Prince (with Larry Graham on bass!) As much as I love Mahalia and Richie, this will be be the version I'll always remember.

Note from Oct. 11, 2018: This keeps getting yanked off of YouTube. It'll probably get taken off again, but it always seems to rise again.




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

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy (Belated) Birthday, Napoleon XIV

UPDATED


Yesterday, May 3, was Napoleon's birthday.

Napoleon XIV, that is.

Producer, songwriter and extremely wondrous one-hit wonder Jerry Samuels turned 78 yesterday. Happy birthday Napoleon!

Samuels amazed and delighted a whole generation of misfit kids like me back in 1966 when -- under his nom de goon -- he released his greatest (and of course only) hit "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haa!"

It was a tuneless dirge, a proto-hip-hop number if there eve was one, featuring an instrumental track consisting only of pounding drums and sirens (more than 20 years before Public Enemy!)

We were too young and guileless back then to realize that the 'funny farm" wasn't actually funny in rel life, so we just embraced the craziness.

Though Napoleon seems to be retired, Samuels is still kicking. He runs a talent agency in the Philadelphia area, where you can book magicians, clowns, hula dancers, one-man bands, ventriloquists, bagpipers and more.

Most people who know Napoleon XIV for "They're Coming to Take Me Away." But he made an entire album of loony bin classics. Here are some of them.

I have this strange vision of Napoleon XIV abducting an entire high school marching band and forcing them to perform "Marching Off to Bedlam."



One of his finest, "The Nuts in My Family Tree"


I hear a little "96 Tears" in this one.



"I Live in a Split Level Head" is even crazier than "Take Me Away."



And just for those who missed out on the song that touched a touched generation ...



I did a Wacky Wednesday earlier this year featuring songs about insanity (including  "Aaaaah-aah Yawa em Ekat ot Gnimoc Re'yeht," a backwards version of the above song.) You can find that HERE

UPDATE: 5-5-16 10:31 pm

I got a nice email today from Tom Wilk, a reader and music writer in New Jersey. He actually interviewed Jerry Samuels, I paste Tom's email here with his permission:

Hi Steve,
 Saw your post on Napoleon XIV and it prompted some memories. I was 10 when I purchased "They're Coming to Take Me Away" as a single in 1966. I always remember it sounded great on an AM radio and that the flip side was the song played backwards.

 Around 1982, I got to interview Jerry at his home in Northeast Philadelphia. At the time, I was a reporter at The Gloucester County Times in Woodbury, N.J. It's now the South Jersey Times. I had interviewed Dr. Demento the year in Santa Monica and he told me that Napoleon XIV was actually Jerry Samuels.

 One of Jerry's side businesses at the time was he made roach clips in the shape of a G clef. I remember him telling me that the cops confiscated one of his roach clips but couldn't figure out how it worked so he wasn't charged. He also told me of a formula of how to weigh an ounce of a pot. It was the same as a combination of coins (quarters and dimes, I think. I have forgotten the exact number). Jerry also gave me a copy of a privately produced single he recorded called "I Owe a Lot to Iowa Pot" b/w "Who Are You to Tell Me Not to Smoke Marijuana."

 Jerry also was a songwriter. He wrote "The Shelter of Your Arms," a Top 20 hit for Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964.

 I wrote a feature story about him but the paper decided not to run it because of the marijuana references. I may have still have a copy of the story in my basement. I know I still have the "I Owe a Lot to Iowa Pot." That song is also on YouTube.

Indeed it is, Tom. And now it's on this blog too. Thanks for your email.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 1, 2016 
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(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
May Day by Jack Hardy
Keep Movin' by Freddy Cannon & The Gears

No Fun by Iggy Pop

Destino Venus by Horror Deluxe

Alien Agenda by Alien Space Kitchen

Conjure Child by Tony Joe White

Poor Poor Pitiful Me by Waren Zevon

Venice with Girls by The Fall

Ride a White Swan by T Rex

How are USA by Peelander-Z

Bitch Slap Attack by Lovestruck

Funeral in These Streets by Scratch Buffalo

No Cops by The Night Beats

Sticky Hulks by Thee Oh Sees

Diamond Man by Lonesome Shack

The Strip Polka by The Andrews Sisters

Black Dog Blues by Bette Stuy

Incarceration Casarole by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages

What Now? By Andre Williams

Voodoo Music by J.B. Lenoir

Every Woman Needs a Working Man by Johnny Rawls

Don't Mess with My Toot Toot by Jello Biafra & The New Orleans Raunch and Soul All-Stars

King's Highway by Sulphur City

Black Shiny Beast by Buick MacKane

Wave Goodbye by Ty Segall 

Isabelle by San Antonio Kid

Way Down in the Hole by Compulsive Gamblers

Time by Prince

Volare by Drifting Mines

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 29, 2016
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 :

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

Red Red Robin by Rosie Flores

OnTop of Spaghetti by Jane Baxter Miller 

Stay a Little Longer by Glambilly

Deep Fat Fried by Jim Stringer

Everybody Out by Al Scorch

Columbus Stockade Blues by Pine Hill Haints

Drugstore Truckdrivin' Man by Jason & The Scorchers

What's a Simple Man to Do by Steve Earle

Pool Cue by Two Tons of Steel

Anytime by Eddie Arnold

Keep Your Mouth Shut by Beth Lee & The Breakups

This Life With You by Supersuckers with Hayes Carll

Please Believe Me by Dave Insley

The Asp and the Albatross by Freakwater

Big Mack's Off the Blocks by Bill Kirchen

The Hot Guitar by Smilin' Eddie Hill & His Boys

Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues by David Bromberg

Music Makin' Mama from Memphis by RD Hendon

Long Road by Alice Wallace

Rainy Day Woman by Waylon Jennings

Sea Stories by Sturgill Simpson

Pocket of a Clown by Dwight Yoakam

False Prophet by Dash Rip Rock

To Ramona by The Mystix

Yesterday's News Just Hit Home Today by Johnny Paycheck

Cakewalk into Town by Taj Mahal 

Wish You Back by Stephanie Hatfield

Gallo de Cielo by Tom Russell with Katy Moffatt

Tomorrow by Eric Hisaw

Sarah Jane by Robbie Fulks

Kern River by Dave Alvin

Lay Me Down by Loretta Lynn with Willie Nelson

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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

THROWBACK THURSDAY: April Showers

Walking out to the parking lot after work today I looked up to the sky and saw the clouds. But, being from New Mexico, I realized it probably wasn't really going to rain.

And then this song popped into my head:

Though April showers may come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May ...

It's one of those songs folks my age and older have just known all our lives. I probably first heard it on a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

But the song, written by written by Louis Silvers and lyricist B. G. De Sylva, goes back to a 1921 Broadway musical called Bombo, starring a young Al Jolson.

"April Showers" became one of Jolson's signature songs -- though it wasn't identified with him nearly as much as "My Mammy" or "Swanee."

So let's start with the Jolson original.



I'm not exactly sure when Mel Torme shot this version with the Page Cavanaugh Trio. But it's pretty snazzy.




Santo & Johnny, best known for their spooky classic "Sleep Walk,"  turned "April Showers" into a rock 'n' roll instrumental.



But, about 14 years after Jolson first sang this tune, there was another song that had "April Showers" in its title, "March Winds and April Showers," written by Walter G. Samuels, Leonard Whitcup and Teddy Powell.  Here's a 1935 recording by Abe Lyman & His California Orchestra, with vocals by crooner Louis Rapp.



And somehow, decades later, that song evolved into this, thanks to  ProleteR, a French guy who loves remixing and modernizing old jazz, R&B and soul tunes. (He does a great "Melancholy Baby")




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

WACKY WEDNESDAY:Attack of the Singing Clowns

Feeling low? Nothing like a singing clown to wipe away your blues.


Unless, of course your sad mood is caused by coulrophobia ...

So without further ado, let's send in the singing clowns.

This first one was an actual TV ad in Argentina a few years ago:



I'm not sure where this video was shot. But I like the title: "Crazy, Hilarious, Funny, Singing Clowns Playing Banjo and Accordion"



These merry fellows are having fun backstage, apparently after a performance of Slava's Snow Show, a theatrical production created in the 90s by Slava Polunin, a Russian clown artist.



And here's Puddles Pity Party singing a Crazy, Hilarious, Funny Big Top favorite



(Puddles actually is better known for this hit )

So if you need more music to awaken your inner Bozo, check out this classic Big Enchlada episode;

Big Enchilada for Mutants

Welcome to the latest Big Enchilada Podcast now on Radio Mutation, formerly known as GaragePunk Pirate radio. In honor of the new name change, I'm dedicating this show to rock 'n' roll mutants every where. Let's mutate together!

DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE | FACEBOOK | MIXCLOUD

SUBSCRIBE TO ALL RADIO MUTATION PODCASTS |

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Ave Genghis Khan by Os Mutantes)
Keep Movin' by Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon & The Gears
Don't Be Afraid to Pogo by The Gears
I Dreamt of the Dead by The Bonnevilles
All I Want is More by Kathy Freeman & Auto Pilot Club
Tribo Canibal by Horror Deluxe
Hoochie Woman by Tony Joe White

(Background Music: 2 Nigs United for West Compton by Prince)
Come Over Tonight by Terminal Licks 
Beeline by The Ugly Beats
If Mother Knew by The Oblivians with Mr. Quintron
I Know Your Name by Scratch Buffalo 
Red Headed Strangler by Friends of Caesar Romero
Cone of Light by Almighty Defenders

(Background Music: Whipping Post by The Fontanas)
Get Your Kick on Route 666 by Monkeyshines
Boundless by The Blues Against Youth
Chicken Yodeling Woman by O Lendario Chucrobillyman
Hotdog by The No-Brainers
Feeling Very Difficult Today by The Outta Sorts
Yesterday is Here by Rattlin' Bone

Play it here:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

UPDATED: Now you can listen to my L.A. punk rock set and interview with The Gears on the Mixcloud player below

Sunday, April 24, 2016 
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(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Hombre Secreto by The Plugz
We're Desperate by X

Egyptomania by Angry Samoans
Forming by The Germs

Don't Push Me Around by The Zeros

A Life of Crime by The Weirdos

Elk's Lodge Blues by The Gears

Live phone interview with The Gears 

Teenage Brain / When Punk Rock Ruled the World by The Gears

Hanky Panky by Horror Deluxe

In Hell by The Monsters

Opening of the Box by Tony Joe White
Back When Dogs Could Talk by Wayne Kramer

Love Taco by Piñata Protest

I Just Want Some Skank by The Circle Jerks

PRINCE TRRIBUTE (all songs by Prince except where noted)
Darling Nikki
Can't Stop the Feeling I've Got
Superfunkycalifragisexy

Never Take the Place of Your Man by The Goo Goo Dolls (with Lance Diamond)

U Got the Look by Prince & Sheena Easton

The Future

A Case of You

Raspberry Beret by Hindu Love Gods

Musicology

One of Us

Space

Kiss by Tom Jones & The Art of Noise

Substitute CLOSING THEME: I Would Die 4U by Prince




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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April , 2016
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 :

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

Little Red Corvette by The Gear Daddies
Man on a Mission by The Supersuckers
Dope Smokin' Song by Jesse Dayton
Shotgun Blues by Jason & The Scorchers
Don't Feed Me by Black Eyed Vermillion

MisAmerica by Legendary Shack Shakers

Love You 'cause You're Perfect by Al Scorch
Call Me If Your Ever Change Your Mind by Dave Insley

Men's Room L.A. By Kinky Friedman

Satellite of Love by DM Bob & The Deficits

Rowboat by Johnny Cash

Aunt Peg's New Old Man by Robbie Fulks

Crawdad Hole by Doc Watson

Some Velvet Morning by Frontier Circus

No Law in Lurgan by The Bonnevilles

It's Moving Day by Charlie Poole

Lovesick Blues Emmett Miller

Move it On Over by Freddy Cannon & The Gears

Liquored Up by Southern Culture on The Skids

Trainsfusion Blues by Paul Burch & The Waco Brothers

Everything It Takes by Loretta Lynn with Elvis Costello

Holding Things Together by Merle Haggard

I'm a Fool to Fool Around with You by Hank Thompson

Catahoula by Jimbo Mathis

Up in the Holler by Stella Parton

All Around You by Sturgill Simpson

Mockingbird Yodel by Carolina Cotton

Hank Williams by Brent Hoodenpyle & The Loners

Honky Tonkin' by Tom Hiddleston & The Saddle Spring Boys

Wedding Day by Alejandro Escovedo

Apartment #9 by Tammy Wynette 

Falls of Sleep by Freakwater

Louise by Jerry Jeff Walker

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list