James Isaac Moore was born Jan. 11, 1924 in Lobdell, Louisiana.
Never heard of him? Me either. But I'm well aware of Moore's secret identity, bluesman Slim Harpo.
He started performing publicly in Baton Rouge under the name of "Harmonica Slim." In 1957 he recorded his first single, "I'm a King Bee" for Excello Records.
A true working class hero, Harpo kept his day jobs while struggling with the music business. In the 1960s he started his own trucking company.
Slim would have been 94 years old today. But he only made it to the age of 46.
There is a lot more on the life of the man at The HoundBlog. And there are a lot of cool songs below.
Here is the song that introduced me to Slim Harpo back when I was in junior high, his first big crossover hit.. The song of course, stands on its own, but I also like this crazy fan--made video.
The Rolling Stones covered Slim's "Shake Your Hips" on their album Exile on Main St. But Slim did it best.
Though it wasn't the hit that "Scratch My Back" was, Harpo's first song, "I'm a King Bee" probably is his most covered. Among those buzzing around this hive were The Stones, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Pink Floyd (!), Lou Rawls, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and some guy named Muddy Waters.
Here's Slim Harpo:
This is a lesser-known Harpo tune, but it's pretty cool.
I didn't realize until last night that Slim Harpo recorded this Johnny Cash classic
Finally, here's a worthy tribute to Slim by Florida rocker Ronny Elliott
Most people who know me realize that I love Elvis Presley. His impact on music is undeniable. The power of his voice is almost supernatural. Elvis was King. I believe it. That settles it.
But even so, even a fan such as I (a fool, such as I) has to admit that Elvis dedicated way too much of his short time on Earth to producing crappy music. The vast majority of his crappy music was for his even crappier movies of the mid 1960s. His output during this era ranged from the sadly mediocre to the irritatingly corny to the horrifyingly awful (with a handful of rocking gems and beautiful ballads here and there.)
So I present these songs not to besmirch the memory of Elvis, who whose 83rd birthday was just a couple of days ago, but to have a couple of laughs in his honor. I think somewhere Elvis is laughing too.
Here's what many Elvis consider to be the low point of his catalog, "Queenie Wahine's Papaya" from Paradise Hawaiian Style (1966). He performs on the world's smallest ukulele, telling a pointless story to a gaggle of island tykes.
In Fun in Acapulco (1963) Elvis shared this bit of widom: "There's no room to rumba in a sports car."
I bet Captain Beefheart was jealous that he didn't come up with the title "Song of the Shrimp" before Elvis did this song in the movie Girls! Girls! Girls! in 1962
In Roustabout (1964) Elvis sang about hula girls shaking their grass. It's strictly high class.
And for those who can't get enough of bad Elvis, here is a Spotify list I put together a few years ago featuring those songs and many more.
Sunday, Jan. 7, 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
Double Shot of My Baby's Love by The Swinging Medallions
My Confusion by The Elites
You Treat Me Bad by The JuJus
Strychnine by The Sonics
The Crusher by The Novas
Shattered by Good Feelings
Beautiful Gardens by The Cramps
They Can't Hurt Me by Lyrics
A Fix on You by Dead Moon
Come and Go by Travel in Space
Heavy is the Head That Wears the Crown by Count Vaseline
Formula X by Boss Hog
Take Off Your Clothes by Goon Mat & Lord Bernardo
Trash Talkin' Paint Huffin' Girl by The Cavemen
The Devil's Trick is Not a Treat by The Devils
Dumb Feelings by Escobar
Turmoil in My Head by Arvidson & Butterflies
Honey Baby Blues by Lightning Beat Man
Bomb Carpets of Love by Rattanson
Hold It Down by Striplight
Get Messy by The Darts
Old Zztrrk Man by The Fall
Then Comes Dudley by The Jesus Lizard
Colonoscopy by Pocket FishRMen
Take a Stroll Through Your Mind by The Temptations
I May Be Gone by The Oblivians & Mr. Quintron
Chem Farmers by Thee Oh Sees
7 and 7 Is by Love
Lightning's Girl by Nancy Sinatra
Red Harvest by Movie Star Junkies
Bitch I Love You by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Jemima Surrender by Howard Tate
Indestructible by Jon Langford's Four Lost Souls
Don't Play That Song (You Lied) by Jackie Shane
Black Night by Frank Sinatra Jr. CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Jan. , 2018 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
Air Mail Special by Marty Stuart
A Tornado Warning by Turnpike Troubadours
Rolling River by Joe West
Girlfriend Stole My Alien by DM Bob & Country Jem
The Moon is High by Neko Case
Can't Live Life by Rhonda Vincent & Daryl Singletary
Sorry You're Sick by Mary Gauthier
Whole Lotta Things by Southern Culture on the Skids
Who's Gonna Take Your Garbage Out by Rosie Flores with Jon Langford
Is it True What They Say About Dixie? by Jim Kweskin
I've Waited a Lifetime by Wynn Stewart
Eatin' Crow and Drinkin' Sand by Jesse Dayton
I Want It So Bad by The Gourds
I Got Your Medicine by Shinyribs
Garden of Delights by Legendary Shack Shakers
Rain and Snow by J.D. Wilkes
If I'm to Blame by Chipper Thompson
Fools for Each Other by Bill & Bonnie Hearne
Ice Water by Peter Case
Don't Leave Poor Me by Eilen Jewell
There Oughta Be a Law Against Southern California by Terry Allen
Voodoo Walking by Hipbone Slim & Mama Rosin
What is Life Without Love by Cheetah Chrome
Down the Mississippi by The Dad Horse Experience
No Woman's Flesh But Hers by Johnny Dowd
Drunkard's Prayer by Chris Stapleton
Pinball by Hellbound Glory
One Endless Night by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
Where Did It Go by Bobby Bare
Going Where the Lonely Go by Merle Haggard CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Want to keep this hoedown going after I sign off at midnight? Check out The Big Enchilada Podcast Hillbilly Episode Archive where there are hours of shows where I play music like you hear on the SF Opry.
No, I didn't have to Google this morbid little piece of historical trivia. I've known this date for 51 years.
Ruby, the Dallas strip joint owner who killed JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died the same day as my grandfather. I remember reading it in the paper the day after and thinking my grandfather would have been interested in the article.
It had been my grandfather who had introduced me to Jack Ruby. I was walking downstairs in our house on Nov. 4, 1963 when I hear Pappa start bellowing from the den. "They shot the son of a bitch! They shot the son of a bitch!"
Sure enough, he'd just witnessed the first live televised murder on national TV. I only got to see the first replay of the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Even before Ruby died he already was firmly planted in the center of a thousand conspiracy theories. His passing just ensured his status as a permanent resident of those shadow lands. And even for those of us who are skeptical of the world of magic bullets and grassy knolls, Ruby, with his strippers, his Mafia ties and his questionable links to law enforcement still lurks as an immortal symbol of America's dark underbelly.
Naturally he's been immortalized in song. Here are some of those.
As I mentioned above, I don't buy into all the conspiracy stuff that Minnesota songwriter Paul Metsa sings about here. But there's no denying that this is one powerful tune.
Similarly, I also like this one by British singer Glyn Shipman. I always dug Ruby's hat too.
I'm not sure whether Roland Alphonso's 1964 ska song was really about the Jack Ruby. But it would have sounded great on the Carousel Club's jukebox.
Here's a rockin' little 1990 tune called "Meet Jack Ruby" by a band called Shiva Burlesque (which included Grant Lee Buffalo's Grant Lee Phillips on guitar.)
But my favorite Jack Ruby song though has always been Camper Van Beethoven's song from Key Lime Pie. Let's do business, boys!
(My Facebook Friend Truly Judy inspired this one)
Back in 2005, there was an episode of South Park featuring a middle-aged Chinese woman trying to make it as a singer. Her name was Wing and she became a client of a "talent agency" run by Cartman and the boys.
She had a voice that would curdle your soup. Hilarity ensued.
Many South Park fans just assumed Wing was a cartoon character from the warped imaginations of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. But no. Wing was a flesh-and-blood human named Wing Han Tsang or Zēng Yǒnghán or 曾咏韓.From the scant biographical information I can find, it appears she originally was from Hong Kong and migrated to New Zealand, where she began her musical career by singing in nursing homes.
She released a CD of cover songs called Phantom of the Opera, (featuring the theme from the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical) and appeared on some TV shows in New Zealand and Australia.
The South Park guys discovered her via Internet buzz. Her appearance there basically made her the Tiny Tim of 2005 -- even though her voice was closer to Mrs. Miller. Though she seemed to take her music seriously, she was considered a novelty act -- or by some, an "outsider artist."
Yes, we laughed at her, not with her. But she seemed like such a sweet, modest lady you felt like a jerk after the yuks.
Her career kept going for several years. She cranked out several albums between 2006 and 2008. and even making an appearance at the 2008 South By Southwest in Austin.
According to her Wikipedia page, she announced on her website that she was retiring from showbiz in 2015. That website is no longer online. And though the Allmusic Guide says she made a couple of records for CD Baby, I can't find them there. She's got a Facebook page, but she hasn't posted anything there in three years.
But there is a lot of material still available on YouTube, so Wing, this is for you, wherever you are.
She did this one on South Park.
Wing did a whole album of AC/DC covers. And hey, even Tiny Tim did "Highway to Hell."
This is one of the later Wing songs I could find. Produced by Rappy Mcrapperson, Wing truly lives up to her weirdness potential here.
Finally, here's some live footage of Wing. I guess we'd be going over that old rainbow ...
Friday, Dec. 29, 2017 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
Make it Up to Mama by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Down on the Corner of Love by Buck Owens
Crazy Mixed Up World by Eilen Jewell
Days of 49 by Jim Kweskin
Hobos are my Heroes by J.D. Wilkes
Long Legs by Legendary Shack Shakers
Jesus Don't Love Me by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Believe in Heaven by Ruby Boots
Lonely Goth Girl by Peter Stampfel R.I.P. Bonnie Hearne (All Songs by Bill & Bonnie Hearne)
Wild Geese
Bluebonnet Girl
Somewhere Between
Saturday Night Girl
New Mexico Rain
Above and Beyond by Rhonda Vincent & Daryle Singletary
I Can Still Feel by Miss Leslie
Room 102 by Chris Shifett
Here She Comes Again by Chris Hillman
Louisiana Swing by Bud Hobbs
Let's Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes with Annette Zilinkas
You'll Lose a Good Thing by Dad Horse Experience
Big Girl Blues by Danny Barnes
Big Dark World of Hate and Lies by Graham Lindsey
Walking on Hell's Roof Looking at the Flowers by Waco Brothers
Dead Thumb King by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Set My Soul on Fire by The War and Treaty
Honky Tonk Flame by Tyler Childers
Vandalism Spree by Hellbound Glory
I'm Just a Country Boy by Don Williams
Four Strong Winds by Neil Young
My Rose Marie by Stan Ridgway CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Want to keep this hoedown going after I sign off at midnight? Check out The Big Enchilada Podcast Hillbilly Episode Archive where there are hours of shows where I play music like you hear on the SF Opry.
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Dec. 29, 2017
Here are my favorite albums of 2017.
*
Sidelongby Sarah Shook & The Disarmers. On my very first listen, I was a fan
by the end of the first two tracks: “Keep the Home Fires Burnin’ “ (with its
beyond catchy melody, similar to the bluegrass classic “Rocky Top”) and “The
Nail” (a love-gone-wrong honky-tonker with some fine guitar and lap steel in
which Shook sings, “Well, I ain’t your last, you ain’t my first/You can’t decide
which fact is worse”). With her voice sporting more than a hint of a whiskey
rasp, Shook sounds as if she’s the punk-rock granddaughter of Hazel Dickens.
*
Texa$ Platinumby Ghost Wolves. This Austin band made some of the finest garage rock
I’ve heard all year. Singer Carley Wolf has a pixieish voice that wouldn’t seem
out of place in some of my favorite Japanese girl-punk bands. Actually, the
first time I heard her, I thought of KatieJane Garside, the singer of the
early-’90s group Daisy Chainsaw (“Love Your Money”). Carley is also a heck of a
guitarist. Her hubby Jonathan is not only downright powerful on the drums, he
also adds subtle iggly-squiggly, sci-fi synth effects.
*
Boy in the Well
by The Yawpers. This rowdy little band from Denver has created one of the most
rocking little albums of the year. With big sonic traces of The Gun Club, ZZ
Top, The Legendary Shack Shakers, and their own twisted take on rockabilly, The
Yawpers rip through most these songs with an urgency that’s undeniable. And the
whole thing centers on a bizarre story of a World War I love child who, yes,
spent most of his life in a well — before he emerges and unleashes a series of
Oedipal wrecks.
* Tell the Devil I’m Gettin’ There As Fast As I Can
by Ray Wylie Hubbard. Another fine revelation from the crusty old Texan,
who only seems to get tougher and ornerier with age. Like the Bible, the album
starts out with the creation story — a song called “God Looked Around,” in which
Hubbard, in his knowing drawl and slow-moving guitar, tells the story of the
origin of the universe, Adam and Eve, and that pesky snake. But the next song,
“Dead Thumb King” goes right to the hoodoo, as Hubbard explains that he’s armed
with “some dirt from Lightnin’ Hopkins’ grave,” “bones from an old black crow,”
and a “rattlesnake tail inside my guitar.”
*
Goin’ Back to Wurstvilleby King Salami & The Cumberland 3. This hopped-up, high-energy
London-based band has been around for more than a decade, but despite my overly
optimistic prediction a few years ago, they never really have made a huge splash
in the good old USA. That’s our loss, my fellow Americans. With Salami and the
Cumberlands’ seamless bend of garage-rock, ’50s and ’60s R&B, and
occasionally a little instrumental surf music, few bands match their sound in
terms of pure fun.
*
20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo
by Pere Ubu. This is the most outright rocking studio album Ubu has unleashed in
about a decade, maybe longer. No, the band, which emerged during the punk and
New Wave scare of the late ’70s, hasn’t forsaken their heritage of avant-garde,
experimental, atmospheric sounds. But they also haven’t forgotten how to make
your feet move and head bang either. The group’s foundation was garage and surf
rock — colored by darkly bizarre lyrics, David Thomas’ warbling vocals, and
Plan 9 From Outer Space-esque synth noises. And
Missile Silo shows that foundation is strong.
*
Purgatory
by Tyler Childers. This twenty-six-year-old guitar slinger from Kentucky
writes and sings songs that sound timeless. Covering evergreen hillbilly themes,
he tells tales of good moonshine, bad drugs, an all-seeing God, a powerful
devil, and the joys of love and sex. Some tracks have a pure outlaw country
sound, while some come right out of the world of bluegrass. Purgatory was
produced by Sturgill Simpson. And it shows.
* Existentialism by
The Mekons. Technically, this album was originally released in 2016, but it was part of a
fancy, expensive “limited edition” package. But this year, Bloodshot Records
released it as a single (and affordable) CD. Recorded live at a small club in
Brooklyn a couple of years ago, this album has all the things Mekons fans love —
rowdy barroom singalongs over inexplicable ambient noise, nods to Hank Williams
and dub reggae, and lyrics that seem soaked in alcohol and revolutionary fervor.
Speaking of which, the song “Fear and Beer,” subtitled “Hymn for Brexit,” is as
sad as it is lovely.
* Down to the River by
The War and Treaty. Singer Michael Trotter Jr. has one of the
greatest
music biographies
I’ve ever seen. He was a soldier during the invasion of Iraq and was assigned to
guard one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces after the strongman was driven from power.
In the basement of the building, the occupying Americans found an old piano said
to have belonged to Saddam himself. Trotter taught himself to play on that
abandoned instrument, writing his first song, a tribute to a fallen captain. But
even without that crazy back story, this music, on which Trotter shares vocal
duties with his wife Tanya Blount, is soulful, bluesy, and rootsy.
* Down Hearted Blues by Eilen Jewell. Can a white
girl from Idaho sing the blues? Should a white girl from Idaho sing the blues?
I’ll leave those important questions to the guardians of political correctness.
All I know is that on this collection of old songs — mainly obscurities,
spanning Memphis Minnie to Howlin’ Wolf — Jewell pulls it off with grace and
grit. A former St. John’s student who used to busk at the Santa Fe Farmers
Market, Jewell even includes a great hillbilly blues song here,
Moonshine Kate’s “The Poor Girl’s Story.”
Just to show how obsessive I can be I created a new tag on this blog for
my annual Top 10 album lists. If you're as bored as I am obsessive, you can go
back to the very early days of this blog and see what albums I liked best
between the present and 2003.
CLICK HERE
Finally here's a Spotify list featuring a couple of tracks from each of my
favorite 20017 albums.
Cabell Calloway was born on Christmas Day in Rochester New York 110 years ago. His folks wanted him to be a lawyer like his dad. He did attend law school but his career in law got derailed by the Hi De Ho. By 1930 his band was headlining at The Cotton Club in New York City. And soon he would become one of the greatest showmen American music has ever known.
Enough yack! Let's get on with the jive.
Here's one called "The Skunk Song"
Cab sings Harold Arlen's and Johnny Mercer's "One for My Baby" (and One More For the Road)" and makes it dreamy and sad.
Hep us, cats!
This was one of several follow-ups to Cab's signature song.
And here's the song that made gong-kicking a national obsession. Keep that Hi De Ho in your heart!
Along with the better-known Homer & Jethro, Lonzo & Oscar, who began their career in the 1940s opening for Eddie Arnold, epitomized cornball country comedy on the Grand Ol' Opry in the 1950s.
Kentucky native Rollin Sullivan portrayed Oscar, the goofy-looking hillbilly who played a mean mandolin. The role of Lonzo, the straight man of the band, was something of a revolving door. A guy named Lloyd George was the original Lonzo. He sang on their big hit "I'm My Own Grandpa" in 1948. But he left the act in 1950.
In the clips below, which are from the 1950s, Lonzo is Johnny Sullivan, Rollin's brother.
Don't ask me what "Cousin Jody's" real name is. The guy gives me the willies (though he's a fine lap steel player.)
On with the music!
Here is one I first heard performed by Hank Thompson, "No Help Wanted"
This is called "Hole in the Bottom of the Sea"
Little Jimmy Dickens introduces the boys for their parody of "16 tons."
Here's a love song called "Dear Joan."
Finally here's a parody of Hank Snow' signature song.
