FROGFEST DAY 2

All my Frogfest Photos are HERE.

Right as I was about to leave the second day of Frogfest Sunday night, John Treadwell (Dear Leader and president-for-life of Frogville Records ) came up and said to me, "Well, are you going to tell Santa Fe what a great show they missed?"

I guess I'm doing that now.

Frogfest was loads of fun for those of us who went. To those who didn't: You shoulda been there ... No way around it, the turnout was disappointing. Probably the weather scared off many. Then, it was Indian Market, which traditionally is a weekend when many locals leave town. (And Saturday night there was the Native Roots & Rhythms concert at Paolo Soelri, which I heard also suffered from the rain).

Sometimes it seemed that the camera crews nearly outnumbered the audience. Not only was the L.A. Filmmakers Cooperative there (they'd been camped out at Treadwell's place for a few days), but local filmmaker Lexie Shabel had a crew there. A couple of years ago Lexie did a short documentary called VFWya, which was about the scene that spawned Frogville. I did an on-camera convesation with her about the meaning of it all.

Anywho, I've said it for years: Santa Fe has a lot more good musicians than it deserves. We're lucky to have a Frogville and Frogfest. Consider this a wag of the finger, you sunshine music scenesters!

I have to confess, I was pretty much towed away myself after Saturday's Frogfest spectacular. I didn't drag my fat ass to the Santa Fe Brewing Company until just before 2 p.m. Upon arrival my friend Bruce chided me about missing the first act. "You missed Toast!" I felt like saying "I AM toast."

For the most part I planted myself in the KSFR booth for the first part of the day, wandering up to the stage every now and then to catch Nathan Moore's set and the Texas Saphires (who do a great honky tonk version of X's "The New World.")

I didn't really come to life until about the time Goshen came on stage. Grant Hyunga, backed by The Brothers Palmer did his hopped-up Hounddog-Taylor-on-Angel-Dust tribal stomp, grating and hypnotic at the same time. It was wonderfully invigorating.

After this, two of Frogville's finest -- Nathan Moore and Joe West -- did a battle of the singer-songwriters, passing a single guitar back and forth.

James McMurty was the headliner. He was the only national name on the bill. Unfortunately I had to leave to do my radio show before he finished, but at least I got to snap a couple of pictures and hear him do "60 Acres," "Can't Make It Here" and my favorite, "Choctaw Bingo" before I had to leave.

Even though the turnout was disappointing, some of the Frogville folks already are talking about next year. Sure hope they follow through.

Now only two weeks til Thirsty Ear!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August 20, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Teenage Prostitute by Frank Zappa
Undercover of the Night by The Rolling Stones
Little Tease by Goshen
Contort Yourself by James Chance
The League of Bald-Headed Men by The Fall
Sheela na Gig by P.J. Harvey
Ten Commandments by Hellwood

I Love You Still by Hundred Year Flood
Cartwheels by Patti Smith
In Total Focus by Drywall
Blue Skies by Terry Adams and Marshall Allen
Things We Like To Do by NRBQ
Man About Town by Tony Gilkyson
Just a Gigolo by Bing Crosby

Milkcow Blues by Dead Moon
Sister Midnight by Iggy Pop
Snake in the Radio by Mark Pickerel
Skip to the End by The Futureheads
The Modern Dance by Pere Ubu
Wildcat by Pretty Girls Make Graves
Hands by The Racontuers
KKK by The BusBoys

Thing of Beauty by Hothouse Flowers
Hibernation Statement by Redneck Manifesto
Summer Jazz by The Electric Ghosts
Eve of Destruction by P.F. Sloan with Frank Black and Buddy Miller
Inside Job by Pearl Jam
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

FROGFEST DAY 1

I'm too exhausted to to into much detail about the first day of Frogfest. (And Day 2 is still before me) I think I'll let my photos do most of the talking.

But it indeed was a blast and a half. I was manning the KSFR booth for most of the day, but it wasn't hard to catch the music. (After the rain moved the festival inside the Santa Fe Brewing Company for a couple of hours Saturday evening, we gave up on the booth for the day.)

Hundred Year Flood did a surprisingly strong set especially considering the steady drizzle at the beginning of their performance. It climaxed with the appearance of a trio of fire dancers who provided a hell of a ligth show.

Joe West got back from England Saturday night, but jet lag didn't hinder his set with The Santa Fe All Stars (Sharon Gilchrist, Ben Wright and Susan Hyde Holmes).

I'd never seen Boris McCutcheon live before, but it was worth the wait to see Boris & The Saltlicks. ("Caves of Burgundy" was the highlight.)

And though I'd never actually seen Percy Boyd, I'd seen all the musicians before (Nathan Moore of ThaMuseMeant, most of Hundred Year Flood and steel guitarist Augie Hayes.)

There were old favorites like Bill Hearne and Jono Manson, and some bitchen neo-honky-tonk from Dave Insley & The careless Smokers.

One of my favorite moments was a relatively quiet one. Blind James, a singer who reminds me a little bit of Michael Hurley, was doing his set inside the Brewing Company singing his song "On the Banks of The Rio Grande." When he got to the chorus, from behind me came a heavenly chorus -- surround sound! It was members of Hundred Year Flood singing harmony parts. Lord it was fine.

Check ot my Frogfest photos.




Speaking of Hundred Year Flood, check out this You Tube video.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 18, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Rainy Day Woman by Waylon Jennings
1,000,002 Songs by The Sadies with Kelly Hogan
Mother Hubbard's Blues by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Where Were You When I Needed You by P.F. Sloan with Felix Caveliere
Bible Black Starless Sky by Andy Fairweather Low
Party Lights by Junior Brown
Inman's Liquid Gold by Raising Cane
Love Minus Zero No Limit by Doug Spartz
Silver Threads and Golden Needles by Linda Rondstadt

My Eyes by Tony Gilkyson
Between the Cracks by Dave Alvin
Magic Girl by Chip Taylor
Oklahoma Hills by James Talley
I'll Wait by Mark Pickerel
'50s French Movie by Carrie Rodriguez
How Many Biscuits Can You Eat by Stringbean


Frogfest Set
El Presidente by Goshen
Caves of Burgandy by Boris & The Saltlicks
Red Wine in the Afternoon by Jono Manson
Love Reunited by Bill Hearne
$2,000 Navajo Rug by Joe West & The Sinners
Sixty Acres by James McMurty
South of the Border by Dave Insley with Rosie Flores
Don't Go by Hundred Year Flood
Safe by ThaMuseMeant

Where Is My Mind by Bobby Bare, Jr.
If Your Posion Gets You by Frank Black
Man of God by Triobite
Tabitha by Ed Pettersen
Columbus Stockade by Rolf Cahn & Eric Von Schmidt
Treat Each Other Right by Greg Brown
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: YOU DON'T BELIEVE THAT I'M THE STEVE OF DESTRUCTION

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 18, 2006

In the late summer of 1965, coming back from a vacation in Santa Fe, a haunting, jangly song came over the car radio. The singer sounded like some gruff old drunk, but his words would twist my 11-year-old head off.

“The eastern world it is explodin’/violence flarin’, bullets loadin’/you’re old enough to kill but not for votin’.” By the time he got to the part about hating your next-door neighbor (“but don’t forget to say grace”), I was definitely looking at the radio in a much different way — and probably the whole world.

The song, of course, was Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction.” It was written by a guy named P.F. Sloan, 20 years old at the time. Sloan was a Los Angeles studio regular who wrote or co-wrote dozens of hits, most notably “Secret Agent Man.” He also penned tunes for The Turtles, The Grass Roots, Herman’s Hermits, and Jan and Dean — including one of my obscure favorites, “(Here They Come) From All Over the World,” the theme song from The TAMI Show, a long-out-of-print concert movie that featured James Brown, The Rolling Stones, and others.

I’m not quite sure what Sloan’s been doing for the past 40 years or so, but he’s just come out with this dandy new solo album, to be released Tuesday, Aug. 22. Sailover includes new songs as well as old, and a slew of guest stars.

I have to confess I like the old songs best. Lucinda Williams helps out on “The Sins of the Family (Fall on the Daughter),” a jaunty little poverty protest that was a minor hit for Sloan in the mid-’60s. Old Rascal Felix Cavaliere sings on Sloan’s Grass Roots hit, “Where Were You When I Needed You,” which sounds even better than the original. And Frank Black pitches in on an obscure Sloan tune “Halloween Mary,” a folk-rocky put-down song.

And yes, there’s “Eve of Destruction,” in which Sloan, Black, and country-rocker Buddy Miller trade verses. Most of the lyrics are still intact (there’s still all that hate in Red China and Selma, Ala.), though Sloan throws a new line “and money corrupts the value of elections” into the “blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’ ” verse.

The sad part, of course, is how relevant this song still is. I just wish it could get played on commercial radio as much as it was back in 1965 so it could make its imprint on today’s young minds as it did on mine.


Also recommended:

* Goodbye Guitar by Tony Gilkyson. I’ve written before that solo albums by sidemen only prove that most sidemen deserve to remain sidemen. But this album proves there are major exceptions to that rule.

Gilkyson, a former Santa Fean, has been a side musician for most of his career. He took Billy Zoom’s place as the lead guitarist in X. He was a member of the 1980s country rock band Lone Justice. He was the major dude behind Chuck E. Weiss’ band, The G-d Damn Liars, and co-produced two underrated Weiss albums. He played on and produced Eleni Mandell’s best album, Country for True Lovers. And he’s backed his sister, the well-known Eliza Gilkyson.

But forget all that resume stuff. Goodbye Guitar shows that Gilkyson should be considered an artist in his own right.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that all 11 songs on this album are winners.

There’s some outright honky-tonkers like “Wilton Bridge,” “Worthless,” and “Old Cracked Looking Glass” (the latter written by Woody Guthrie), some decent rootsy rockers like “Mojave High” and “Donut and a Dream,” and a good hillbilly stomp in the title cut.

There’s the Euro-noirish “Man About Town,” featuring a sinister French accordion by Van Dyke Parks and background vocals by sister Eliza. Written by his late father, Terry Gilkyson, the lyrics (“Each night a new love, never a true love,”) evoke the same sad spirit as Bing Crosby’s version of “Just a Gigolo.”

But best of all is “My Eyes,” a soulful dirge of self-loathing. “My eyes have seen some glory, diamonds in the rough/but looking in the mirror is getting mighty tough ... my back is bent, my hair is gray, but the worst thing I despise are my eyes,” Gilkyson moans. There’s a pump organ and a ragged-but-right horn section.

I don’t care what he says. Anyone who makes an album like this should be proud to look in the mirror.

* Snake in the Radio by Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands. Like Gilkyson, Pickerel’s mainly been a sideman and behind-the-scenes guy. He was the drummer in the classic Seattle group The Screaming Trees and, briefly, with Nirvana.


His first solo record is on Bloodshot Records, the “insurgent country” label.

Although there are some countryish tunes here (“I’ll Wait,” “Don’t Look Back”), the most interesting tracks go in different directions.

The garage stomp “A Town Too Fast for Your Blues” is tailor-made for a cover by Dead Moon. The mournful “Ask the Wind, Ask the Dust” sounds like something from fellow ex-Tree Mark Lannegan’s song book, as does the electronica-tinged title song, another slow burner.

But Pickerel saved the best for the first. The ultra-hooky opening track, “Forest Fire,” just has to be a huge radio hit in some paralniverse. Plus it has the funniest line in the whole album: “I’m sorry ’bout your turquoise bracelet/In the morning I’ll replace it.”