THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 3, 2010
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
Handcuffed to Love by Johnny Paycheck
Hey Sheriff by Josie Kreutzer
Okie's In The Pokie by Jimmy Patton
Hell's Comin' by The Cedar Squeezers
Bald Headed Baby by Buddy Sharpe & The Shakers
Rebel Within by Hank III
Hot Dog by Corky Jones (Buck Owens)
Action Packed by Ronnie Dee
Sweet Virginia by The Rolling Stones

Sweet Virginia by Jerry Lee Lewis with Keith Richards
You Shake Me Up by Andy Anderson
Oh You Pretty Woman by Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel
Oh Honey Baby Doll by Bloodshot Bill
Word to the Wise by Bill Kirchen with Dan Hicks
Who Walks In When I Walk Out by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Don't Make Me Walk Away by The Stanfields
Sharon by David Bromberg

What Am I Doing Hanging Around by Michael Martin Murphey
Freight Train Boogie by Doc and Merle Watson
Keep on the Firing Line by Ralph Stanley
Corn Liquor Made A Fool Out Of Me by Bad Livers
Steamboat Whistle Blues by John Hartford
Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan by Miss Tammy Faye Starlite
Cash on the Barrelhead by Dolly Parton

You're the Reason by Nancy Apple
A Man Like Me by Roger Miller
In Spite of Ourselves by John Prine with Iris DeMent
A Girl Don't Have To Drink To Have Fun by Wanda Jackson
Third Rate Romance by The Amazing Rhythm Aces
Lead Me On by Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty
You're Lookin' at Country by Eilen Jewell
Haunted by Jon Langford
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: MOVIE STAR JUNKIES & BAD BAD BILLY BLAKE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 3, 2010

Elusive rock ’n’ roll poet William Blake might be considered something of a one-hit wonder.

True, folks like Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, and Patti Smith owe Blake an obvious debt, and Van Morrison actually name-checked Blake and his band The Eternals in “You Don’t Pull No Punches But You Don’t Push the River” on Veedon Fleece. Folkie Greg Brown did a whole album of Blake tunes in the 1980s called Songs of Innocence and Experience, and an Olympia, Washington, band called Arrington de Dionyso and the Old Time Relijun did a version of Blake’s “Tyger” that sounds like Roy Orbison on angel dust.

But Blake’s only work to get much mileage in the rock universe is his poem “Jerusalem,” best known for its treatment by 1970s prog-rock commissars Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who recorded it on their album Brain Salad Surgery. The Mekons recorded it too, though I prefer the trash-rock version by The Fall from the late ’80s.

However, a new version of an old Blake poem (written in 1794) recently emerged. A Poison Tree, the new album by Movie Star Junkies, features a Blake poem as the title cut. “I was angry with my friend:/I told my wrath, my wrath did end./I was angry with my foe:/I told it not, my wrath did grow.” Spoiler alert: The “wrath” grows into a tree, and by the end of the poem, “In the morning glad I see/My foe outstretched beneath the tree.”

That Blake is a heck of a writer. Too bad he’s never made any albums of his own. But I bet if he did, he’d sound a lot like The Movie Star Junkies. They’re a well-read bunch. Their previous (and first) album was a whale of a record called Melville, which featured songs about shipwrecks and crazy obsessions.

The Blake tune is pretty indicative of the rest of this album. Images of murder, torture, and betrayal color the lyrics. “How many nights I got to wait before you put me on a stake?” is the first line of “Leyenda Negra.” Then there’s “Almost a God,” which ends with a religious observation: I admire the devil/For finishes everything.”

And there’s another song about a tree, “The Walnut Tree,” a minor-key romp that sounds like Gogol Bordello paying tribute to Johnny Cash’s chunka-chunka beat. It’s a song of doomed love. My favorite foreboding line: “We danced in a field with ravens and crows.”

The basic MSJ sound is dark but melodic — spaghetti-Western guitars over (a real) Farfisa organ and drums that evoke a marching band. The band proudly cites The Birthday Party as an influence, and you can hear echoes of early Nick Cave in there. The last song, a seven-minute epic called “All Winter Long,” ends in a dense instrumental with fuzzy guitar licks that bring back memories of The Electric Prunes.

The album is barely more than 30 minutes long. But it’s intense enough by the time it’s over that a listener feels like he’s been through a journey.

Also recommended:

*Two-Headed Demon by Urban Junior. Voodoo Rhythm is fond of the one-man-band concept. They’ve red albums by John Schooley and Bob Logg III (both Americans), French wonder King Automatic, and label head Rev. Beat-Man’s masked alter ego Lightning Beat-Man.

And now comes Urban Junior, who, even by Voodoo Rhythm standards, will amaze you with how much noise one man can produce.

But unlike most of those others listed, Urban Junior doesn’t seem to be following in the footsteps of the late West Virginia madman Hasil Adkins, who created a distinctive one-man country/blues bash sound. Instead,

UJ describes his sound as “Swiss-spankin-electro-trash-garage-boogie-disco-blues-punk” and lists The Beastie Boys as an influence. He fears not the synthesizer. But don’t get the notion that his sound is slick or glitzy. He uses his synth as an assault weapon.

The title cut sounds like invading Huns in a disco massacre. “With the Idiots” is a little more rootsy, at least in the opening moments before the decibels rise. It has what sounds like a theremin solo.

UJ shows his true perversity in the last song, “We Love Urban Junior,” in which a couple of little girls — well, at least they sound like little girls — literally sing his praises, complimenting both his music and his manly physique.

ROSIE COMES TO ELDORADO

Rockabilly filly Rosie Flores will perform at Mike's Music Exchange in Eldorado, Sunday, Sept. 12. The show starts at 7. Tickets are $20

Apparently she'll be here with a band, so that's great news.

I wrote about Rosie's latest album, Girl of the Century, (with Jon Langford's Pine Valley Cosmonauts! ) a few months ago.

HERE's the link.

And speaking of music in Eldorado, on Friday Sept. 10, Chipper Thompson, Terry Diers and Ron Whitmore (I confess, I'm not familiar with Ron's music) will be doing a Writers -in-the-Round at Mike's Music Exchange. That show starts at 7:30 p.m. and costs $10.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August 29, 2010
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@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Baby Don't You Tear My Clothes by The Raunch Hands
Samson & Delilah by Edison Rocket Train
Lorraine by Th'Empires
Monkey Paw by Eddie "The Chief" Clearwater & Los Straitjackets
Bum My Trip by Dirtbag Surfers
Ain't Life Strange by Pierced Arrows
Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby by Syndicate of Sound
Come On Lil Dolly by The Ding Dongs
Kickboxer Girl by Black Smokers
Scarum Harem by The Spook Lights
Scatty Cat by Bob Bunny

Rosalyn by Pretty Things
Burning Hell by John Lee Hooker & Canned Heat
Heidi's Head by Urban Junior
Walk Boys by Kult
Lion Tamer by Arrington de Dionyso and the Old Time Relijun
Big Fuckin Part by The Devil Dogs
Almost A God by Movie Star Junkies
Do the Clam by The Cramps
Chop Suey Rock by The Instrumentals

Nobody But You by Mark Sultan
Get Happy by Simon Stokes
Bad Luck Charm by Luck of the Draw
Found a Peanut by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Traitor by The Jackets
Chicken Back by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Get Outta Dallas by The Malarians
Go Ahead and Burn by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages

Scavenger Hunt by Stan Ridgway
Bold Marauder by Drywall
Short Fat Fannie by Wolfman Jack & The Wolf Pack
Old Man of the Mountain by Phil Alvin
This Is It by The Treniers
My Man Called Me by Big Mama Thorton
Seasick Boogie by Seasick Steve
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis


Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 27, 2010
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
Jawbone by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Pay the Devil by Van Morrison
Keep Your Motor Hot by Sam Nichols With The Melody Rangers
I Like Drinking by The Gourds
Fisherman's Friend by Shinyribs
Death in the Morning by Phil Alvin
Oh Those Tombs by Roy Acuff
In the Pines by Charlie Feathers
Waymore's Blues by Waylon Jennngs
Baby Doll by Jimmy Dale

Freeway Ballet by Chipper Thompson
Twice the Lovin' (In Half the Time) by Jean Shepard & Speedy West
Hogs on the Highway by Bad Livers
Lone Cowboy by Michael Martin Murphey
Liquor Store by The Meat Purveyors
Worried Man Blues by Ralph Stanley
Hey Joe by Jerry Douglas

Hello Trouble by Buck Owens
Arizona Rose by The Waco Brothers
Walk Hard by Dewey Cox
Bad Actor by Merle Haggard
Fan It by The Swift Jewel Cowboys
Honky Tonk Affair by David Serby
Maybellene by Marty Robbins
Gettin' Drunk and Fallin' Down by Hank III
Wild Man Boogie by Ray Batts
Talking Hot Pants Blues by The Hickoids

You Wanna Give Me a Lift by Eilen Jewell
Wings of a Dove by Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette & Loretta Lynn
This Orchid Means Goodbye by Carl Smith
Steel Guitar Heaven by Ry Cooder
When You're Finally Done Drinkin' by The Stumbleweeds
There's a Tear in My Beer by Big Bill Lister
I Love You Because by Elvis Presley
You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry by Ernest Tubb
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

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