THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 27, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
I've Got $5 and It's Saturday Night by George Jones & Gene Pitney
Poor Litttle Critter on the Road by Trailer Bride
Come on Danger by Genuine Cowhide
I've Still Got My Mind by Cornell Hurd
You Wanna Give Me a Lift by Ruthie & The Wranglers
Down to the River by Rosie Flores
Mud Rasslin' at Pinky's by Trailer Park Troubadors
Rockabilly Hop by Bill Moss

Look What Thoughts Will Do by Lefty Frizzell
Don't You Want Me by Moonshine Willie
There Stands the Glass by Webb Pierce
Ben Dewberry's Final Run by Steve Forbert
Shake Rattle and Roll by Patsy Cline
Love Bug Crawl by Jimmy Edwards
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter by Willie Nelson
I'm Can't Get Used to Being Lonely by Amber Digby
Waitin' by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Funky Tonk by Moby Grape

Screwtopia by Patterson Hood
Puttin' People on the Moon by Drive-By Truckers
Lower 48 by The Gourds
Nanna and Jimi by Dave Alvin & The Gulity Women
Peach Blossom by Hundred Year Flood
Silent Partner by Big Sandy & Los Straightjackets
Slow Motion Daddy by Guy Davis

Slurf Song by Michael Hurley
Got the Jake Leg Too by The Ray Brothers
Do You Call That A Buddy? by Martin, Bogan & Armstrong
El Corrido de Johnny El Pachuco by Steve Jordan
Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight by Gus Cannon
In New Orleans by C.W. Stoneking
No Good For Me by Waylon Jennings
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:PATTERSON HOOD FROM the 90s TIL NOW

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 26, 2009

Remember those fabulous '90s? Nirvana, the dot-com boom, Monica Lewinsky, Tonya Harding, Kato Kaelin, cell phones as big as walkie-talkies, irrational (or were they?) fears of Y2K, those innocent days when you didn't have to have your shoes X-rayed before you got on a plane ... Yes, those were the daze!

There's definitely a '90s edge to Patterson Hood's new solo album, Murdering Oscar (and other love songs). Listen to the opening guitar riffs on the first track, the title song. If you didn't know better, you might think it's an outtake from some Neil Young & Crazy Horse album somewhere in the period between Ragged Glory and Sleeps With Angels.

There's a reason for that. Most of the 13 songs on the CD were written in the last decade of the last millennium. There's also a cover of an obscure Todd Rundgren song, "The Range War." I'm not sure when that was written.

But once Hood's vocals come in, you might think it's a new album from his regular band, Drive-By Truckers. (Actually, most of the Truckers are playing on the opening song and pop up in various combinations on other songs throughout, especially drummer Brad Morgan and steel guitarist John Neff.) So the origins of Murdering Oscar go back more than 15 years — but the recording of the album actually took place in January 2005. I'm not exactly sure what's behind the four-year delay in releasing it, but I'm glad it's finally here.

There's a real dark and violent spirit working through many of the album's songs. It starts right on the first tune.

"I killed Oscar, shot him in the head. Put the gun in his mouth, watched his brains fly out/Saw my worries fade as the hole got bigger. Solved all my problems with a trigger."

You never find out exactly what Oscar did to deserve this gruesome fate (except that "he was destroying me").

But Hood wickedly alludes to some New-Age pop psych, declaring "I killed Oscar and I forgave me." It's good to be your own best friend.

Though not overtly violent, "Screwtopia" is even more twisted. It'sabout a man proposing to a woman, apparently the girlfriend of a deceased buddy.

"Buy a house in the burbs, two-car garage, shrubberies, and a birdbath/Keep you safe warm and dry, keep the tears from your eyes/Keep you pregnant all the time. ... Keep you happy and sedated, who needs to be liberated?/ You've got me, you've got me/If you got something in your head that makes you think there's something else/Maybe the doctor can give you something to make you forget."

Is this an invitation to an empty stifling suburban existence? Or is this a deranged lunatic trying to lure some sex slave to be locked, "happy and sedated" in his basement?

And there's even a song about Kurt Cobain on the album. In "Heavy and Hanging," the narrator is an electrician who found Cobain's body on that awful day in April 1994. "On the morning I found you, I was fixing the alarm/Called the papers before 911/Now they're asking me questions 'bout this thing that I found

No, the story here is not all about Cobain. The protagonist has troubles of his own. "Like what to do tomorrow and the day after that/And where I left that ski mask."

The song that follows, "Walking Around Sense," could almost be about Cobain's infamous Mrs., Courtney Love.

"They caught your mama underneath the Jaguar/She was acting so mad, I never seen her so sad/I told her that I'd try to help her get treatment. ... Met her at the rock-and-roll induction/Liposuction/Another shot of headlines."

Not all the songs are so violent or tragic. One of the newer songs, "Granddaddy," inspired by the birth of Hood's daughter, is basically his "When I'm 64." With a sweet folky melody, Hood earnestly sings, "Someday when I'm a granddaddy/Be as sweet as pumpkin pie, just wait and see/We'll hide chocolate candy all around the house/So all the little ones will come and see me."

Of course, this is followed by a nasty little rocker, written in 1994, called “Belvedere,” which is a fantasy about picking up and having his way with a long-legged high-school girl.

("It almost didn't even make the record," Hood said in a recent interview in Nashville Scene. "Even though I liked the song a lot, I wasn't really comfortable with what it said and how it said it." Spoken like a true father, whose daughter will be in high school in 10 years or so.)

The best new song here is the wistful "Pride of the Yankees." Yes, it mentions Lou Gehrig, but it's not about baseball. The song deals with the terrible blows to the national soul that occurred starting with that awful day nearly eight years ago.

"Too many firemen and virgins in heaven/It's all been fucked-up since 9/11/ What we're all fighting and what we're defending/One big long story with two different endings today."

Hood wrote this in 2005. And again, he's talking to his daughter when he sings, "Problems so big and you're so tiny today."

Sometimes the album seems kind of long. It's not without some filler. (And the vinyl version apparently has three additional tunes not on the CD.) But generally, Murdering Oscar can stand proudly with some of my favorite DBT albums.

*******

Upcoming concerts:

* Don't forget that Saturday night it's Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks at Santa Fe Brewing Co.

* The Process has announced its venue for the Rev. Beat-Man Trio on Monday July 13.

It'll be at Corazon on Guadalupe & Montezuma Street. Don't miss the Dark Prince of Voodoo Rhythm. Opening is Sean Healen's Goth Brüks.

R.I.P. SKY SAXON

This just in from Austin: Sky Saxon, lead singer of The Seeds, who was hospitalized this week, died this morning.

Losing Sky Saxon and Lux Interior in the space of a few months is a terrible blow.

Saxon's biggest hits with The Seeds were "You're Pushin' Too Hard" and "I Can't Seem to Make You Mine." I'll play those and more Sunday night in a proper tribute on Terrell's Sound World (101.1 FM in northern New Mexico, http://www.ksfr.org on your Internet dial.

GET WELL SKY SAXON

Bad news. Sky Saxon of The Seeds has been hospitalized in Austin, where recently moved, and is in critical condition.

From the Austin Decider:

Saxon reportedly felt under the weather late last week, but still managed to perform a short set of Seeds songs at Antone's this past Saturday. He was admitted to the hospital on Monday and diagnosed with an undetermined infection of the internal organs.

There's a video of "Pushin' Too Hard" at The Decider. Here's The Seeds' second most famous tune:

HELLO AMIE STREET

While looking for alternatives to eMusic (in anticipation of their price increase I recently ranted about), I stumbled across a cool service called Amie Street.

Here's a list of good things about the service, followed by a list of drawbacks, followed by thumbnail reviews of some cool stuff I've bought from Amie Street in the last couple of weeks.

The Good:

* Bargains galore. The four albums, one EP and three stray tracks you see below cost me a total 0f $5.99. One of the albums, the one by J.P. McDermott & Western Bop was free. The tracks are priced according to popularity, which means the more obscure stuff is cheaper. Some of the music I've downloaded has gone up slightly in price, but only slightly.

* Some cool indie labels. I was very happy to see Voodoo Rhythm and Matador on Amie Street, not to mention Daptone, Bomp!, Fat Possum and Yep Roc. I don't think any of these offer their complete catalogues, but among them there's plenty of good stuff I don't already have.

*Easy payment plan. I found it very convenient that Amie Street allows you to pay through your Amazon.com account, so you don't even have to give Amie Street your credit card number. The minimum credit card charge is $3, which means after the $5.99 I spent, I still have a penny in credit at Amie Street. (It will be spent before long.)

The Drawbacks:

* Limited selection: While the above-named labels are great, the truth is Amie Street just doen't have as much as eMusic.

* The price of some tracks: Because of the pricing structure, the better known music can go up to 98 cents, same as iTunes or Amazon. (Message here, get stuff like Sonic Youth and Dirty Projectors quick when it first comes out.)

* Not that well known: You have to explain to your friends that Amie Street is not a contemporary gospel singer.

Oh well, here's what I got for my $5.99 on Amie Street.

* Surreal Folk Blues Gospel Trash Vol. 2 by Reverend Beat-Man. Getting fired up for Beat-Man's Santa Fe appearance with this accurately named collection of twisted roots rock, religious delusions and demonic tomfoolery.

Beat-Man's raucous guns a-blazin' take on Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" should not be missed.

One of the coolest rockers here is the opening cut "Letter to Myself," which sounds a lot like Beat-Man's old group The Monsters. He actually did a radically different version of this song a few years ago with his Kraut rock experiment Rev. Beat-Man & The Church of Herpes.

Like Vol 1., this album ends with a crazed, profane seven-minute sermon. Like "The Beat-Man Way" on the first record "Swiss Army Knife" is a window to the soul of the founder of Voodoo Rhythm.

By the way, Vol. 1 is available on eMusic but not Amie Street. Vol. 2 is not available on eMusic. I wonder if they did this on purpose.


* Snake Pit by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers. Like I said, I was happy to see Voodoo Rhythm on Amie Street. Here's another standby of that label.

This is a British pyschobilly unit led by one Sir Bald Diddley. (I guess he's called "Hipbone Slim" as well.)

This is a fine album without a single dud. Only problem is, there's nothing as instantly lovable as "What Do You Look Like" from the other Hipbone album I have, Have Knees, Will Tremble. Of course, that song featured the wonderful Holly Golightly, who tends to make things instantly lovable.

* Tales from the Crypt by Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns. The birth of Nuevo Wavo! A loving evocation of Sam the Sham and Doug the Sahm.

Joe and his Crowns recorded this even before the brilliant 1980 "debut" album on Hannibal Records, Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns.

Lots of the same songs are there -- "Bueno." "Caca la Vaca," "Federale," "Betty's World," "One More Time," "Let's Get Pretty." To be honest, the later Hannibal versions were a little punchier.

But these versions are bueno. And there's some tunes I'd never hear before such as "Monkey Got My Frisbee."

* Last Fool Here by J.P. McDermott & Western Bop. This one was free and worth every penny.

No, seriously, I enjoy this down-to-Earth rockabilly and back-to-basics honkytonk from this Washington, D.C.-area band. On this record McDermott saved his best for the first. "My Damned Baby" ought to be a rockabilly standard. I also like his country side. "Heartaches for a Time" is a fine cry-in-your-beer two-stepper.

* The Mystery Of... by Kustomized. Attention Mission of Burma fans: Kustomized was a spin-off group led by guitarist/singer Peter Prescott. They don't quite measure up to Mission, but Kustomized came close, carrying on the basic isea of guitar-centric sting.

If you like this EP, Amie Street also has a couple of full-length albums including The Battle for Space, which I've liked for years. I haven't heard At The Vanishing Point yet, but I'm about to download Kustomized's surfy version of the sleaze rock instrumental "Harlem Nocturn."

Plus

"How Great Though Art" by Billy Preston, "Pretty Thing" by Canned Heat, and "Love's the Only Thing That's Free" by Carl Perkins, all from a hodge-podge compilation called House of Blues.