One hundred and twenty nine years ago today one of America's greatest
songwriters was born.
In Russia.
But Israel Isidore Baline didn't stay in Russia long. When he was five,
his family immigrated to the U.S. to escape Russian persecution of Jews.
He didn't stay Israel Isidore Baline for long either, He rose to fame under the
name Irving Berlin.
And Irving, who died at the age of 101 in 1989, wrote a ton of songs -- some of
the most famous of the Tin Pan Alley era. "God Bless America," "White
Christmas," "Easter Parade" (remember, he was Jewish!"), "Puttin' on the Ritz,"
"There's No Business Like Show Business" ... The list goes on and on.
Here are some of his best known tunes done by a variety of singers. Happy
birthday, Irving. We're all richer for the music you left us.
This was Irving's first hit back in 1911, This version is by Bessie Smith in
1927.
Here's a prohibition-era tune about a little island in the Caribbean that became
a playground for Americans. It's sung by crooner Billy Murray in 1920,
You say you mainly like songs about sex and Satan? Well, Irving wrote at least
one of those. Here's one sung by Harriet Hilliard, who later would be known as
Harriet Nelson -- yes, Ozzie's wife and Ricky's mom. This song is from the 1936
movie
Follow the Fleet.
But he didn't make it. He barely made it to the age of 21.
Still, today let's celebrate the crazy spirit of Sid. He indeed was something else.
Johnny Rotten sang this with The Sex Pistols. But Sid sang it as an original member of The Monkees (FAKE NEWS!)
Now here's something different: A pretty, heartfelt song about Sid & Nancy, "Room 100" by Florida rocker Ronnie Elliott.
But Paul Anka wrote the best tribute:
For what is a man, what has he got If not himself, then he has naught To say the things he truly feels And not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows And did it my way!
Sunday, May 7, 2017 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
Ode to Billy Joe by Clydie King
One Big White Nightmare by Churchwood
Can't Get Your Lovin' by Count Five
Mudpit by The Del-Gators
All the Good Gone by The Ghost Wolves
Oh No by Ton Ton Maccouts
Get Me Outta the Country by The Electric Mess
These Boots re Made for Walkin' by Candye Kane
Putin by Randy Newman
Flowers of Evil Part 2 by The Mekons
Fate of Gambler by Laino & Broken Seeds
Liquor Store by Left Lane Cruiser
Nocturne by Mark Lanegan
Arabian Heights by The Afghan Whigs
Shoppin' For Clothes by The Coasters
I Dreamt by Black Angels
Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground by The White Stripes
Johnny Feel Good by The Vagoos
They Have Us Surrounded by The Dirtbombs
Cosmetic by Nots
Green Eyed Lady by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Rock 'n' Roll Murder by The Leaving Trains
Turning Blue by Jay Reatard
Wasted by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Coast of Wasted Youth by Lynx Lynx
Summing the Wretch by Animal Collective
Good Time Religion by The Dead Brothers
Floating by Julee Cruise CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Sunday, May 7, 2017 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 :
Welcome Table and Prayer by Alice Wine
Getting Richer by Rev. Louis Overstreet
Old Time Religion by The Blind Boys of Alabama
Waiting by The River by The Orifginal Blind Boys of Mississippi
They Are Ringing Them Bells by Rev. Lonnie Farris
Glory to Jesus I am Free by Rev. Utah Smith
God Rode in on a Windstorm by Sister Sarah James
Do You Call That Religion by Rev. A. Johnson
Jesus' Blood by Golden Stars of Greenwood, S.
Honey in the Rock by Washington Phillips
A Lady Called Mother by Swan Silvertones
Sheep Sheep Doncha Know the Road by Bessie Jones & Sea Island Singers
Memphis Flu by Elder Curry
Straight Street by Pilgrim Travelers
Rockin' Chair Daddy by Harmonica Frank
In the Jailhouse Now by Jimmie Rodgers
Hobo Jungle Blues by Sleepy John Estes
Hobo, You Can't Ride This Train by Louis Armstrong
Greenville Strut by Mississippi Sarah & Daddy Stovepipe
I've Got Blood in My Eyes For You by The Mississippi Sheiks
Please Warm My Wiener by Bo Carter
Cocaine by Dick Justice
I Will Survive by Peter Stampfel & The Ether Frolic Mob
Keep it Clean by Charlie Jordan
Down on Penny's Farm by The Bently Boys
Railroad Bill by Hobart Smith
Pussy Got the Measles by Jeanne Ritchie
Bath House Blues by Ashley's Melody Men
Old Dog Blue by Jim Jackson
Walk Right In by Gus Cannon
Old Lady and The Devil by Bill & Belle Reed
Friday, May 5, 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
F the CC by Steve Earle
Wooly Bully by Ry Cooder
Still Not Dead by Willie Nelson
Don't Get Above Your Risin' by Ricky Skaggs with Elvis Costello
Ragtime Sinner by The Goddamn Gallows
Mad Cow Boogie by L.A. Rivercatz
The Lost Cause by Legendary Shack Shakers
Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle by Iron Horse
In Bloom by Sturgill Simpson
You're Lookin' at Country by Loretta Lynn
Lead Me On by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn
Sittin' and Thinkin' About You by Dale Wtson and Ray Benson
Town by The Dashboard Saviors
The Way it Goes by Gillian Welch
Building Our Own Prison by The Waco Brothers
When Sinatra Played Juarez by Tom Russell
Fiesta by The Pogues
One Time, One Night by Los Lobos
Soy Chicano by Flaco Jimenez
Guacamole by Augie Meyers & His Valley Vatos
Stay Lover Strong by Stephanie Hatfield
TJ by Hickoids
Volver Volver by Pinata Protest
Lady Killin' Papa by Deke Dickerson
That's What Daddy Wants by Wayne Hancock
Nothin' Feels Right But Doin' Wrong by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Hobo's Meditation by Audrey Auld
I Knew It All Along by Shinyribs
Given to Me by Southern Culture on the Skids 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
Mary Ann Vecchio, 14, kneels over the body of Jeffrey Miller, killed by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970
Today, May 4, is the 47th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre. That's when Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four students -- Allison Krause, 19, Jeffrey Miller, 20, Sandra Scheuer, 20 and Bill Schroeder, 19 -- during a protest of President Richard Nixon's invasion of Cambodia.
Neil Young wrote a song, "Ohio" that raged against the killings. It, more than any news report I've read, sums up the tragedy.
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, We're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming Four dead in Ohio. Gotta get down to it Soldiers are cutting us down Should have been done long ago. What if you knew her And found her dead on the ground How can you run when you know?"
Young recorded it as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on May 21, just a little over two weeks after the killings. It was released as a single in June -- basically an "instant" murder ballad, a protest song ripped from headlines that still were fresh.
delivers a sharply honed emotional point, with scant reference to the details of May 4. “Ohio” does not tell a complete story–as if it could. The theme it mines lies principally within the lines “we’re finally on our own” and “four dead in Ohio.” The song is both dirge and protest anthem, plaintive wail and drumming a beat for a counterculture response.
I'm assuming that everyone is familiar with the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young version of the song. (If not, CLICK HERE)
But there are other versions. The Isley Brothers combined it with Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" for a smoldering emotional punch in the gut.
And Devo did a quirky take on "Ohio." But while it's jarring, it's not irreverent. Singer Mark Mothersbaugh and bassist Jerry Casale were students at Kent State when the shootings occurred. Casale actually witnessed the shootings and personally knew Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller. Mothersbaugh talked about the shootings on Marc Maron's WTF podcast this week.
There is so much political bile and violence in n the air these days, I worry that another Kent State could happen. I pray it doesn't.
UPDATE: Jerry Casale of Devo will discuss Kent State tonight on CNN's Soundtracks.
The Found Footage Festival, the brainchild of Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, collects old VHS tapes that, according to website "were found at garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters across the country."
Pickett and Prueher collect these and sell DVD compilations -- Volume 8 is about to be released. They also do live tours in which they play the best of these VHS treasures.
We're talking about unintentionally hilarious footage of exercise lessons; dating and self-help advice; religious sermons; bad celebrity interviews; corporate training; magicians; home movies, terrible public-access shows ... and, of course, music.
If you ever laughed at the Dave's Video Collection segments on the old David Letterman show, you'll probably love the Found Footage Festival. Prueher worked for five years as a researcher for Letterman and last year, and after Letterman retired, some of his staffers bestowed all the old tapes from Dave's Video Collection upon Pickett and Prueher "to be the stewards of this archive of weird videos. Rest assured, we’ll give it a good home."
Pickett and Prueher also are notorious pranksters. They recently were in the news for posing as a "strongman duo" -- Chop & Steele-- and tricking a Wisconsin morning TV show into having them on to show their amazingly mundane feats of strength. Last month the company that owns the TV station actually sued the two for copyright infringement, fraud and conspiracy,
Some people have no sense of humor.
Hopefully you won't sue after watching these music videos from The Found Footage Festival website.
Let's start with singer/songwriter Nicki Rose. Mama, he's one of a kind. The songs called "Personality Crisis," but I don't think The New York Dolls done it this way,
This'll get your Irish up. As Frank says "In the lit of Irish laughter you can hear the angles sing ..."
This is from a tape called Attracting Today’s Woman.
Harvey Sid Fisher has written songs about all 12 of the signs of the zodiac. This is a sampling. You can find more from Harvey Sid HERE
Finally, here's a special Mother's Day rap from Mr. T
This is the classiest podcast episode you'll ever hear. I handpicked only the most elegant music from the most sophisticated musicians to use on this show. Then I washed my hands. You're probably not classy enough to appreciate these fine sounds. But try. With a little practice, you too can be elegant.
Sunday, April 30, 2017 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
Things I Seen by Cool Ghouls
Too Many Girls by Mystery Lights
Tonight by The Sex Organs
Death of an Angel by Destination Lonely
Death's Head Tattoo by Mark Lannegan
Frightened by The Fall
Kill My Baby by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes
Hooky Wooky by Lou Reed VOODOO SET
Must Be Voodoo by The Vagoos
It's Your Voodoo Working by Samantha Fish
Voodoo Woman by Bobby Goldsboro
Voodoo Queen Marie by The Du-Tells
Evil Hoodoo by The Seeds
Papa Legba by Pops Staples with The Talking Heads
Mojo Mama by Wilson Pickett
Voodoo Party by Tabby Thomas (You like Voodoo songs too? CLICK HERE)
Stubsaugerbaby by Blind Butcher
Dance Commander by Electric Six
Cosmic Shiva by Nina Hagen
My Roommate by Village People
Sunday Routine by Boss Hog
Can't Wake Myself Up by Laino & Broken Seeds
Grab as Much as You Can by The Black Angels
Black Feather by Lynx Lynx
Whettin' My Knife by The Ghost Wolves
The Point is Overflowing by Left Lane Cruiser
Bad Attitude by Lisa Germano
Hell Yeah by Neil Diamond
Lumpy Gravy by The Persuasions CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, April 28, 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
Snowflake by Jim Reeves
Highway Patrol by Junior Brown
My Life's Been a Pleasure by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson & Ray Price
Children of the Lord by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Snatch It and Grab It by Deke Dickerson
Tub Gut Stomp and Red-Eyed Soul by Shinyribs
Keep the Home Fires Burnin' by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
The Way We Are by Jesse Dayton
Winterlude by Bob Dylan
Diesel Smoke Dangerous Curves by Red Simpson
Out of Control by Last Mile Ramblers
Shotgun Boogie by Sleepy LaBeef
Don Houston by Slackeye Slim
7 Devils by The Goddam Gallows
$30 Room by Dave Alvin
Silver Tongue by Modern Mal
Every Night About This Time by Rachel Brooke
Blind Man's Penis by Ramsey Kearney
Feed the Family by Possessed by Paul James
Queen of Skid Row by Luke Gibbons
The Fastest Growing Heartache in the West by Ringo Starr
It's Not Right by John Wagner
Big Mouth By Nikki Lane
Desperate and Depressed by Margo Price
Thirty Nine and Holding by Jerry Lee Lewis
Horny by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
OK Cupid by Phoebe Legere
As Soon As I Hang Up the Phone by Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty
Digital Radio by Lauria
I'm Tellin' You by John Prine & Holly Williams
Talking to the Dead by Stephanie Hatfield
Tall Buildings by John Hartford
You Coulda Walked Around the World by Butch Hancock
Same God by Calamity Cubes 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
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican April 28, 2017
With all the recent news of right-wing nationalism coming out of Europe, it’s refreshing to know that good old-fashioned garage-punk and other subversive stuff is still going strong on the old continent. In fact, my two favorite European music labels — Voodoo Rhythm from Switzerland and Off Label Records from Germany — have been flooding the market with wild, rocking trashy sounds.
Here’s a look at six albums I’ve been enjoying lately — and no, there are few, if any, overtly political songs among this batch. Just songs of love, sex, fun … all those things the authoritarians hate.
* Heat Wave by The Vagoos. This fuzz-loving Bavarian quartet is a prolific bunch. This is their
third Off Label release since 2014 and, like their self-titled debut and their six-song EP follow-up, Love You, it’s full of raging, no-frills, hook-heavy guitar rock.
My favorites here include the opener, “Fidget,” which sets a properly urgent pace; “Must Be Voodoo,” partly because I tend to like songs with “voodoo” in the title; “Mint Island,” which features a Yardbirds-style rave-up guitar solo; and “Golden Key,” maybe the fastest and most furious number in an album full of frantic songs. Just listening to it makes me sweat.
But though the breakneck rockers are their specialty, The Vagoos also can play it slow and (kind of) pretty, as they prove on songs like “Hideaway” (somebody’s been listening to The Pixies) and “The Order of Laissez Faire,” which reminds me of The Black Lips (who should be releasing a new album any day now).
* The Dust I Own by Laino & Broken Seeds. Andrea Laino is a guitar-playing, harmonica-blowing Italian fellow, but on a trip to New York four years ago in which, according to his press material, he spent some time “in a smoky blues bar on the Upper West Side,” he became obsessed with American blues.
With that inspiration still burning, he came up with a stripped down, blues-based rock sound to amaze and delight. On the Off Label release Dust, Laino is backed by drummer Gaetano Alfonsi and occasional guests.
The song “Fate of a Gambler,” with its distorted guitar and primitive beat, is in itself worth the price of admission. I’m also fond of “Can’t Wake Myself Up,” which Laino himself describes as an “homage to psychedelia. An homage to the fascinating and terrifying sensation you have when you’re convinced that dreams can go on during the daytime.” It sounds as if this “dream” was highly influenced by Bo Diddley. On the mellower side, the album ends with a sweet cover of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Pay Day.”
* 7 by Lynx Lynx. This is another garage-bred German quartet. While many of their tunes are just as unrelentingly thunderous as those of their Off Label labelmates, The Vagoos (I’m talking about songs like the opener, “Get Straight,” “99 Things,” and, best of all, “Who Shot the Druggies”), Lynx Lynx also has a distinct softer side.
You can hear that on the folk-influenced “Coast of Wasted Youth,” the almost two-minute instrumental called “Swörds, Part II” (a soundtrack to some imaginary German horror movie?), and the heavy reverb of “Black Feather,” which features what the band accurately calls “cheap ’70s drum computer noise” behind what sounds like a classic ’60s slow-dance melody.
* Death of an Angel by Destination Lonely. When I describe the sound of this French trio as “monstrous,” that’s a compliment. They sound a lot like their Voodoo Rhythm stablemates and veteran (30 years and going strong!) garage-punkers, The Monsters. I’m sure that fact didn’t escape head Monster and Voodoo Rhythm chief Reverend Beat-Man when he signed them.
Like The Monsters, Destination Lonely is fast, loud, and raunchy, with a sincere affection for distorted vocals and guitar. Plus, they’ve got a good sense of rock ’n’ roll history.
Besides covering a song by 1990s Ohio psychobillies, The Gibson Bros (the opener, “Dirt Preacher”), the title song is a cover of a spooky 1955 hit by Donald Woods and The Vel-Aires. (I first heard the song as performed on a live album by The Kingsmen.) This new version has a spookhouse electric organ that sounds like it’s being played by Del Shannon’s zombie.
* Alawalawa by Blind Butcher. Back in the late ’70s, I believed, deep in my heart, that disco sucked
— except for maybe a few songs like Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and The Village People’s “My Roommate.”
But this album by a Swiss duo is making me rethink that. Actually, Blind Butcher sounds like an illegitimate demon offspring of disco and punk.
I’m reminded of bands like Electric Six (remember the song “Danger! High Voltage” from 2003?) as well as some ’80s New Wave acts like Nina Hagen. Blind Butcher, I bet, could do an amazing cover of “Cosmic Shiva.” They’ve already got the German language down. And the irresistible opening track, “Staubsaugerbaby” (“Vacuum Cleaner Baby”), is cosmic in itself.
*Intergalactic Sex Tour by The Sex Organs. OK, so this a shtick-laden goof — two guys, a guitarist and a drummer, dressed up like cartoon or perhaps Cubist versions of actual sex organs. (They’re not realistic looking. I don’t think the drummer is in any danger of being grabbed by President Trump.)
“They traveled light-years across the universe on a mission to planet earth to bring YOU their special inter-galactic brand of SEX & ROLL,” their press release says. Most of the songs are introduced by dramatized radio reports of the invasion. And many of the song titles can’t be printed in a family newspaper like ours.
Yeah, The Sex Organs are dumb. But they’re good, dumb, dirty fun. They’ve got the two-man band sound down as they bash away at these catchy, if filthy, tunes. And the last song, a five-minute instrumental that slowly builds from a primitive stomp into a cosmic-orgasmic free-jazz-like frenzy is actually pretty impressive.
Some videos for yas
Here's The Vagoos from Heat Wave.
My favorite Laino song
From the new Lynx Lynx
The title song from Destination Lonely's new album
Claudine Clark can definitely be considered a one-hit wonder.
The R&B belter, who turned 76 yesterday, had a big hit back in 1962 with a song called "Party Lights."
The song, written by the Georgia-born, Philadelphia-raised Clark herself was about a poor kid whose oppressive, over-restrictive mother wouldn't allow her to go across the street to a big shindig where they were doing the twist, the fish, the mashed potatoes ...
I see the lights, I see the party lights They're red and blue and green Everybody in the crowd is there But you won't let me make a scene
The fish?
Not great poetry, but there was something so raw, so desperate in Clark's voice, you couldn't help but feel for the poor teen and the grave injustice she suffered.
Listen to the party, mama!
But like the girl in her own song, Clark for most of her career was forced to witness the fun from afar.
She went on to record more songs, including the follow-up to "Party Lights," a fun little romp called "Walkin' Through a Cemetery." Listen close, especially toward the end. It sounds as if she had Yoko Ono sitting on background vocals. I believe this should have been an even bigger hit than "Party Lights." But it didn't work out that way.
Subsequent Claudine releases didn't fare much better, though to my ears, tunes like "The Telephone Game" were just as good as lots of the other proto-soul tunes that dominated the charts in the early '60s.
And "Dancin' Party" sounds like a social even her mother finally allowed her to attend.
Clark even tried changing her name, recording as "Joy Dawn" on songs like "Hang it Up."
It's been almost two years since Wacky Wednesday explored the magical world of the Golden Throats.
"What is a Golden Throat?," you may ask. As I explained before:
Back in the '80s and '90s, when Rhino Records was actually a cool label, they released a series of albums called Golden Throats. These nutball compilations featured movie and TV stars, sports heroes and every stripe of cheesy celebrity singing ham-fisted versions of songs they had no business singing ...
Indeed, William Shatner is the Elvis of the Golden Throats. But the artists below might just be the Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and ... oh, I don't know. That metaphor is failing faster than a Golden Throat song.
Let's start off with Shaquille O'Neal. I'm pretty sure the "skillz" he's rapping about aren't musical.
William Shatner wasn't the only Golden Throat on the Starship Enterprise. Here's a little Spock Country.
Russ Gordon has announced the line up for his 28th annual Summer Concert Series in Los Alamos, free Friday night concerts including some of my personal favorites like Dale Watson, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys and guitar super-stud Deke Dickerson.
Free show, 28 years ... that's the good news.
The bad news is that Russ says this will be his last. He and his wife plan to move to Seattle to be closer to his grandkids.
So enjoy the music this year.
And hey, Russ is still looking for sponsors to help pay for the shows. If you can help, or know someone who can, email him!
Here's the schedule:
May 19 - Chuchito Valdes - Afro-Cuban jazz from Havana, Cuba & Cancun, Mexico.- Los Alamos Kite Festival Night
Deke Dickerson at The Ponderosa Stomp, New Orleans 2013
May 26 - Deke Dickerson - Alt-Indie Rock, Retro Swing, Rockabilly Revival, Roots-Rock,Hillbilly, Surf, Jump Blues & instrumental rock.
June 2 - The Coral Creek Band - Americana/Country Rock, bluegrass, Cajun, Folk & Island rock from Colorado.
June 9 - Western Centuries - Alt./Country-rock,with early R&B, Honky-Tonk twang. - Los Alamos Chamber Fest Night
June 16 - The Red Elvises - Russian Rok 'N Roll & Siberian Surf Rok. From Moscow & Santa Monica, Calif. - Los Alamos Daily Post Night
June 23 - Big Sam's Funky Nation - Funk-soul-jazz & rock from New Orleans
June 30 - Grayson Capps Band - Gulf Coast rock guitarist and singer-songwriter.
Big Sandy in Santa Fe, June 2012
July 7 - Ian Moore Band - great Texas blues rock band
July 14 - The Peterson Brothers Band - again, a great Texas blues rock band with a lot of soul - Los Alamos Science Fest Night
July 21 - Michael Hearne & Shake Russell with Jimmy Stadler. Country & Americana from Texas & Taos
July 28 - Eddy & The Nomads and DK & The Affordables - Nomads play rock & roots rock from 50's, 60's and 70's plus New Mexico's musica del Norteno . DK & The Affordables play roots rock & rockabilly.
Aug. 4 - Jim Lauderdale - The great singer-songwriter-performer returns. Backing Jim will be New Mexico's Higher Ground on bluegrass and DK & the Affordables, who will back him on his Memphis soul music
Dale Watson on his home turf, Continental Club, Austin, Texas
Aug. 11 - Dale Watson - Texas honky tonk - Los Alamos County Fair & Rodeo Night
Aug. 18 - Diego Figuerido - Brazilian jazz & Flamenco guitar master - American Cancer Society's Relay for Life Night with Los Alamos Medical Center
Aug. 25 - Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys - Rock, rockabilly & roots-rock
Sept 1 - The Paladins - Rock and roots-rock hit band from the 80's. - Smith's Marketplace Night
Sept. 8 - M5- Metales The Mexican Brass - Classical brass quintet from Mexico with pop music. Los Alamos Concert Association Night
Sunday, April 23, 2017 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
Nobody But Me by Lyres
The Grace by The Molting Vultures
Can't Wake Myself Up by Laino & Broken Seeds
Burn 'em Brew by Left Lane Cruiser
Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf
Fidget by The Vagoos
Vete de Aqui by Ton Ton Macoutes
I'm s Full Grown Man by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Crybabies Go Home by The Ghost Wolves
Let's Turn This Thing Around by Peter Case
I'd Kill For Her by Black Angels
Get Straight by Lynx Lynx
No Cities to Love by Sleater-Kinney
Goin' Blind by The Melvins
Evil Child by Blind Butcher
Staying Undergroumd by Destination Lonely Poor Poor Pitiful Me by Warren Zevon
Belated 4-20 Set
The Man from Harlem by Cab Calloway
Sweet Marijuana Brown by The Barney Bigard Sextet
Here Comes the Man with the Jive by Stuff Smith & The Onyx Club Boys
If You're a Viper by Fats Waller
Save the Roach for Me by Buck Wshington
Reefer Head Woman by Jazz Gillum
Light Up by The Buster Bailey Rhythm Busters
When I Get Low I Get High by Ella Fitzgerald
All the Jive is Gone by Andy Kirk & His 12 Clouds of Joy
Reefer Man by Don Redman
Bad Luck Man by Delaney Davidson
The Black Rider by Tom Waits
Born in 1947 by Ronny Elliott
It's Only Make Believe by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Love and Mercy by Brian Wilson
Lovers Never Say Goodbye by The Flamingos CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, April 21, 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
Working Class by The Defibulators
Fuck Up by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Don't Toss Us Away by Lone Justice
What Good Can Drinkin' Do by Martha Fields
Life of Sin by Sturgill Simpson
Match Made in Heaven by Jesse Dayton
Set Me Free by Scott H. Biram
It's a Mystery to Me by Big Sandy &The Flyrite Boys
Pinball Prison by Puddles Pity Party
Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time by Mickey Gilley
Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano by Jerry Lee Lewis
Old McDonald Boogie by Johnny Tyler & The Riders of the Rio Grande
Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) by Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen
I've Got the Boogie Blues by Charline Arthur
Window Up Above by The Blasters
Drinkin' Dark Whiskey by Gary Allan
We Deserve a Happy Ending by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Jackpot by Nikki Lane
The Week of Living Dangerously by Steve Earle
Ladies in the Know by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Americana by Ray Davies
Sittin' and Thinkin' About You by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
Who's Gonna Build Your Wall by Tom Russell
All Men Are Liars by Nick Lowe
Baby I Like You by Southern Culture on the Skids
Collegiana by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Ode to Billy Joe by Joe Tex
Joy by Lucinda Williams
Banshee Moon by Shannon McNally
Leigh's Song by Stephanie Hatfield
Nothing Takes the Place of You by Shinyribs
Mr. and Mrs. Used to Be by John Prine & Iris DeMent 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
Yes, this year Throwback Thursday falls on 4-20 itself.
Need I say more?
Enjoy this batch of vintage reefer songs, including a few from some of America's greatest jazz musicians.
Let's start with Slim & Slam (Slim Gaillard & Slam Stewart) singing about "Dopey Joe" from Baltimore.
Here's an old favorite, "Sweet Marijuana Brown" by Barney Bigard, featuring the amazing Art Tatum on piano.
From the mid 1940s comes Buck Washington with "Save the Roach for Me."
Gene Krupa, who actually went to jail for a few months for marijuana, offers "I'm Feeling High and Happy," featuring Helen Ward on vocals.
"Weed Smoker's Dream" by Kansas Joe McCoy & The Harlem Hamfats, later evolved into "Why Don't You Do Right." This version features a bitchen cartoon.
I have to admit I consume far more actual spinach than marijuana these days. But I don't think Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends are actually singing about Popeye's favorite vegetable.
This might be the saddest Wacky Wednesday of all time.
That's because it features my favorite crooning sad clown, Puddles Pity Party, an Internet sensation who has helped me overcome my fear of ... well, Internet sensations.
Puddles, the creation of Big Mike Geier of Atlanta, Ga., specializes in straight-faced (if white-faced) covers of familiar songs.
The near-seven-foot clown has been at it since the '90s when he led an all-clown band called Greasepaint. In 2013, his cover of Lorde's "Royals" propelled him to his current Internet cult status. It's received more than 18.5 million views on YouTube.
Last year, The New York Times wrote of Puddles, "... his special effect is a textured voice laced with melancholy. His emotional warbling adds heft to his frowns. ... What makes him transcend the trope is his vulnerability."
I included a Puddles Pity Party video -- his version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"-- about a year ago in my Wacky Wednesday post about singing clowns. But Puddles is still at it, so I think he deserves a post of his own.
Let's start out with a Bee Gees song that's a natural for the Pity Party treatment. Clearly, the joke was on Puddles
Puddles teams up with Nicole Atkins on this wimp-rock classic, "Reflections of My Life" by the proto-Air Supply group, Marmalade.
And on this recent one Puddles covers Los Lobos' "Estoy Sentado Aqui."
But let's end on a happy note. one of Puddles' rare tunes that's devoid of melancholy. I must have seen this mash-up of "Pinball Wizard" and "Folsom Prison Blues" a thousand times on my Facebook feed in recent weeks.
Sunday, April 16, 2017 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
Easter Everywhere by Julian Cope
Fire in My Bones by 13th Floor Elevators
Pretty Girls by Nobunny
Sick of You by Lou Reed
99 Things by Lynx Lynx
Golden Key by The Vagoos
Booga Chaka by Left Lane Criuiser
Dirt Preacher by Destination Lonely
Apocalyptica Blues by Blind Butcher
Can't Wake Myself Up by Laino & Broken Seeds
She's a Fool by Leslie Gore
Heaven on Their Minds by Murray Head
The Temple by Afghan Whigs
Damned for All Time by Scratch Acid
White Jesus by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The Ballad of John and Yoko by The Beatles
I Shook His Hand by Gary Herffern
Peter Cottontail by Gene Autry
Dead in a Motel Room by Hickoids
Hillbilly with Knife Skills by The Grannies
Chem Farmer by Thee Oh Sees
Get on Board by Dead Moon
Today Again by Sad Girl
David by Courtney Barnett
Dusty Bibles and Silver Spoons by The Bloodhounds
The Other Two by Mark Sultan
A Young Girl by Noel Harrison
I'll Be Alright by Terence Trent D'Arby
Designated Fool by Sananda Maitreya
Look It Here by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
Day Tripper by Otis Redding
The Cross by Prince CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, April 14, 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
Wild Bill Jones by Acie Cargill
Nails in the Pine by Poor Boy's Soul
Help Me Joe by Dale Watson
See Willy Fly By by The Waco Brothers
Strange Heart by Banditos
3 Pecker Goat by Jesse Dayton
Cajun Moon by Phoebe Legere
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Eb Tit Fille by Jo-el Sonnier
I Got Your Medicine by Shinyribs
Kick in the Head by New Riders of the Purple Sage
Crazy as a Junebug by Paula Rhae McDonald
Botched Execution by Shovels & Rope
Cornbread and Butterbeans by Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Only You by NRBQ
Only You by Carl Perkins
Back Street Affair by Webb Pierce
Where's the Dress by Moe Bandy & Joe Stampley
The Nail by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Forever Lasts Forever by Nikki Lane
Confession by Stephanie Hatfield
Just Someone I Used to Know by Buddy Miller with Nikki Lane
Nothin' Feels Right But Doin' Wrong by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Wish You Back by Stephanie Hatfield with Mariachi Sonidos del Monte
He's Sorry by John Wagner
I See the Want To in Your Eyes by Gary Stewart
Long Black Veil by David Allen Coe
When I Was a Cowboy by David Bromberg
Storms Never Last by Waylon Jennings & Jessie Colter
Dreamin' My Dreams by John Prine & Kathy Matea
King David's Last Psalm by Jessie Colter
Were You When They Crucified My Lord by Johnny Cash with The Carter Family 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
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican April 14, 2017
Here are three of my favorite albums by female singers to cross my reality in recent weeks.
* Sidelong bySarah Shook & the Disarmers. I don’t say this very often these days, especially when talking about emerging musicians, but Rolling Stone was right. Last summer, the magazine declared that this North Carolina outfit was one of the “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know.”
On my very first listen, I was a fan by the end of the first two tracks, “Keep the Home Fires Burnin’ ” (which has a 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 makes the wry observation, “Well, I ain’t your last, you ain’t my first/You can’t decide which fact is worse”).
With a fresh face like a young Jodie Foster and a voice with more than a hint of a whiskey rasp, Shook sounds as if she were born in an outlaw country song — or perhaps she’s the punk-rock granddaughter of Hazel Dickens.
In the country weeper titled “Dwight Yoakam” (which isn’t really about the singer by that name), Shook sings mournfully, “I’m drinking water tonight because I drank all the whiskey this morning.” Then in “Make It Up to Mama,” she playfully takes the persona of a bad hombre: “Well, I killed a man for lookin’ at me wrong … and I wasted my inheritance on hookers and booze/But I’m gonna make it up to Mama with this mother’s heart tattoo.”
I’m hoping that last one isn’t autobiographical, but I have a feeling that the preceding song — with a title that cannot be named in a respectable family newspaper like this one — might be based on personal experience: “I can’t cry myself to sleep, so I drink myself to death/I got cocaine in my bloodstream and whiskey on my breath/Ain’t a thing that I can change to get my luck up/I guess I’m just too much of a …”
Apparently Sidelong, originally self-released, has been out since late 2015, though Bloodshot Records is rereleasing it for national distribution at the end of this month.
* Traces by Stephanie Hatfield. Santa Fe’s Stephanie Hatfield just released her third and what I
believe to be her strongest album to date. This is music for late-night listening — with her sultry voice and heartfelt lyrics of love and longing.
Several tunes here, most notably “Stay Lover Strong,” “Wrap My Limbs,” “Season Too Soon” and “Exposed,” have a discernible Latin flavor. Aided by two members of a local group, Mariachi Sonidos del Monte (Eric Ortiz on trumpet and guitarist Santiago Romero), Hatfield creates a sound influenced by the band Calexico. And it works. On most of the songs the mariachi is more of a suggestion than the driving force. The driving force, as it should be, is Hatfield’s voice.
Some of my favorites on Traces are the mysterious, smoky “Talking to the Dead” and the soulful, gospel-informed “Sold and Stolen.” On the latter, Hatfield’s voice soars on the bridge while pianist R. Bruce Phillips offers sweet, subtle touches.
But even more satisfying is the minor-key slow-burner called “Confession.” At five and a half minutes, it’s the longest song on the album, but it’s time well spent. With her husband and co-producer Bill Palmer on guitar, the song builds and builds until the listener is virtually on the edge of his seat.
And the lyrics are even more intense than the music: “So I walk, I run, I hide in a bathroom down the hall/Sink to my knees and hold my head as if somehow I can stop the fall/He was gone and so I carried on, but I left most of me behind.”
My only disappointment is that this album doesn’t include Hatfield’s “Wish You Back,” her collaboration with the full Mariachi Sonidos del Monte. But don’t worry. You can download that one for a buck at Hatfield’s Bandcamp page.
* Highway Queen by Nikki Lane. Like Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson, Nikki Lane is a major voice in a loose-knit movement that I call “new country music that doesn’t suck.” And like Sarah Shook, she’s also got a punk-rock heart.
In fact, the first time I ever heard of Lane was when I saw her open for Social Distortion in Austin a couple of years ago. I walked away from that show with two songs ringing in my head: Social D’s cover of Hank Williams’ “Alone and Forsaken” and Lane’s “Sleep With a Stranger.”
Released earlier this year, Highway Queen shows I wasn’t wrong in my initial impression of Lane as a strong, spunky, and important country artist. But some of the tunes seem to be hinting that the nonstop touring might be getting to her.
On the opening track, “700,000 Rednecks,” Lane sings, “Well, I travel around from town to town/I do the best I can everyday/I drive long hours and I don’t get to shower and I ain’t gonna brag about the pay.” Then, on the album’s title song, she sings, “Sixty thousand miles of blacktop/Countless broken hearts between/Winding lines of white that don’t stop/Living the life of the highway queen.”
But it’s not all complaints about the road. “Jackpot,” a snappy little country rocker, is raw joy, as is “Big Mouth,” an upbeat tune about small-town gossip.
And like all great country artists, Lane knows how to write a heartache song. “Forever Lasts Forever” is just stunning. In the refrain she sings, “We swore for better or for worse/And it was better at first, and worse at the end/But they say, forever lasts forever/’til forever becomes never again.”
Lane is scheduled to appear at Launchpad in Albuquerque on Monday, May 1. Tickets are $13.
Video time!
Here's Sarah
Here's a live-in-the-studio song from Stephanie (and Bill)
It's a song sung by a ghost, so it should not be a surprise that it's a song with an afterlife.
I'm talking, of course about "Long Black Veil." I first heard it by The Band. It's probably best known for its version by Johnny Cash. It originally was recorded by Lefty Frizzell. It was written by by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkins.
American Songwriter in a 2013 article said the song began with Dill wanting to "write a folk song that would last for the ages." Writer Jim Beviglia said:
He was partially inspired by a newspaper story of a priest in New Jersey who was killed under a streetlight with witnesses watching. For the chorus, Dill drew from the song “God Walks These Hills With Me.” Perhaps most fascinating of all, Dill borrowed elements of the urban legend surrounding the grave of actor Rudolph Valentino. It seems that each year following the death of the legendary Italian screen star, a woman wearing a long black veil would lay a single red rose on the grave, drawing the attention of the press in the process. (The majority of the evidence points to the Valentino phenomenon having originated as a publicity stunt, which was then carried on in subsequent years by copycats.) Dill took his unfinished song to co-writer Marijohn Wilkin to hammer out the plot. What they came up with was a tale that transcended all of its disparate sources.
Indeed they did. Here's Lefty's version recorded in 1959:
The song has been covered by a wide range of folk, country and rock acts, from Joan Baez to Social Distrortion's Mike Ness to The Chieftains (vocals by Mick Jagger) to Nick Cave to Bill Monroe to Orion.
But before most of those, the song's co-writer, Marijohn Wilkin, cut a version from the perspective of the best friend's wife. She called it "My Long Black Veil."
Then in 2011 Jason Boland & The Stragglers recorded a song called "False Accuser's Lament" in which he revealed the murder beneath the town hall light was part of a conspiracy by the husband of the lady in the long black veil.
Somehow Boland's answer song didn't inspire its own answer song in which the ghost of the frame man seeks revenge on his former best friend.
Maybe that's next. But until then, here is Red Foley's country hymn, "God Walks These Hills With Me"
[UPDATE 6-29-17: Just a couple of months after this post, Foley's version has disappeared from YouTube. But here's a version by Don Gibson.]
And here are enough "Long Black Veils" to last you an eternity!
It was 40 years ago today Poison Ivy taught The Cramps to play.
Or something like that ...
Yesterday Norton Records co-founder and one-time Cramps drummer Miriam Linna posted on her Facebook page a video featuring eight lo-fi, early, early versions of Cramps songs.
And here's what she had to say: So, like it or whatnot, now is the 40th anniversary of the Cramps first studio recording session, no matter what any boob or youtube might say. This sesh was in April 1977 and it was at Bell Sound in NYC and it was booked and paid for by Richard Robinson who also shot a home movie in his living room a few days later. The cover shown here was for a Munster boot out of Spain many moons ago. I have no clue where they got the tape. That's all. You can debate the date all you want, but as Kim Brown's Renegades would say, "I Was There". Just the facts, that is ALL.
As you can see, both the Youtube she posted as well as the bootleg album cover she refers to says the session in question in 1976, the year of our Bison Tentacle.
But like Miriam wrote, she was there and she says '77. So I'll go with that. Miriam said it, I believe it. That settles it.
Anywho, here's that music. As I said, the fi ain't high, but you're listening to HISTORY being made so stop your sniveling!
This is the set list:
1. Don't Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk
2. I Was a Teenage Werewolf
3. Sunglasses After Dark
4. Love Me
5. Domino
6. What's Behind The Mask
7. I Can Hardly Stand It
8. TV Set
And in case you were wondering about the obscure reference to Kim Brown and The Renegades ...
Sunday, April 9. 2017 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
Man in White by The Taxpayers
Creature by Double Date with Death
Lizard People by Playboy Manbaby
The Straight Life by Mudhoney
Dinero by Ton Ton Macoutes
Mantrap by Thee Headcoats
Panic is No Option by Mission of Burma
English Civil War by The Clash
I'm a Big Man by Big Daddy Rogers
It's All Right / For Sentimental Reasons by Sam Cooke
Sing Me Back Home by The Chesterfield Kings
It Ain't Gonna Save Me by Jay Reatard
Take Me Aay by Willis Earl Beal
Spastica by Elastica
I'm Moving On by Yoko Ono
Who Shot the Druggies by Lynx Lynx
No Rock on Mars by The Vagoos
Claw Machine Wizard by Left Lane Cruiser
Pan by Ty Segall
Over and Over by The Moonglows
Youth Against Fascism byb Sonic Youth
Sacrifice/Let There Be Peace by Bob Mould
I Walk for Miles by Dinosaur Jr
Hanged Man by Churchwood
Land of a Thousand Dances by Little Richard
Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf
Don't Fuck Around With Love by Bernadette Seacrest & Kris Dale
The Fat Angel by The Jefferson Airplane
What Once Was Dead by Laino & The Broken Seeds
Is That You in the Blue by Dex Romweber Duo
Don't Blame Me by The Everly Brothers
Peace Like a River by Jerry Lawson CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
