THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Sept. 9, 2016
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
I Gotta Drive by Dale Watson

Slingin' Rhythm by Wayne Hancock

I'm a Nut by Leroy Pullens

Wildwood Flower by Mike Ness

Straight Tears, No Chaser by Paul Burch

Lonesome Road Blues by Martha Fields

Lord, Mr. Ford by Jerry Reed

Blue Collar Dollar by Kevin Gordon

Drinking Problem by Audrey Auld 

Sweet Virginia by The Rolling Stones

The Color of a Cloudy Day by Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires

Corn Money by The Defibulators

One More Night Alone by Dan Whitaker & The Sidebenders

Granny's Got the Baby ('Cause Mama's Doin' Time) by Trailer Radio

Loners for Life by Hank 3 

Everybody's Had the Blues by Merle Haggard

Poison by The Waco Brothers

Payphone by Eric Hisaw 

Where Do You Roam by Dex Romweber

I'm Gonna Dress in Black by Eilen Jewell

Cheap Whiskey by Patty Loveless

Europe by Lydia Loveless
What Do I Care by Eddie Spaghetti

Days of '49 by Bob Dylan

Green Willow Valley by The Handsome Family

Hello Stranger by Carolina Chocolate Drops

Tennessee Blues by Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur

Lord I Need Somebody Bad Tonight by Rhonda Vincent

Takin' Names by Josh White

Black Jack David by Loretta Lynn
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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: The Struggles and Triumps of Miss Sharon Jones

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 

Sept. 9, 2016

Even before soul singer Sharon Jones’ triumph over cancer, her story was one of the most inspiring tales in modern popular music. First, it’s the story of talent and determination overcoming show-biz shallowness. When she auditioned for Sony Records back in the 1980s, some cretinous executive rejected her, telling the young singer she was too black, too fat, too short, and too old. 

That was a setback for certain. She had to work at a series of day jobs — including as a corrections officer at Rikers Island — before she began her recording career. Jones was in her forties when she released her first album, in 2002, on the musician-owned Daptone Records. The fact that she built a respectable career with millions of fans and critically acclaimed work — without the help of a major record label or commercial radio — is heartening in itself.

So it’s only logical that Jones’ battle against cancer would also be an inspirational story — and that’s the main focus of Barbara Kopple’s documentary Miss Sharon Jones!

In 2013, Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This was before the release of her album Give the People What They Want. After a brief montage of music clips and biographical narrative, one of the first scenes of the documentary shows Jones in a barber shop getting her head shaved. After that, she tries on various wigs — one, she jokes, makes her look like Tina Turner, another like Oprah. But that’s about the last time we see her in a wig. During her chemo treatments, she prefers to be defiantly bald.

Not surprisingly, this movie is not always pleasant. We see Jones at her highs — like when she finds out she’s booked for an appearance on Ellen, one of her favorite TV talk shows. And we see her lows, such as the scene where she lashes out at her band, the Dap-Kings, because their Thanksgiving dinner was canceled. 

One of the most moving scenes is an interview in which Jones, full of shame, talks about a low point when she wrongfully accused her loyal, longtime manager Alex Kadvan of being more worried about the money the band was losing than about her health.

But the truth is that Jones’ cancer was a huge financial strain on the Dap-Kings and others who work with her — all of whom depend on performing with Jones to make a living. For starters, the band’s tour was canceled the summer she was diagnosed. Dap-King guitarist Binky Griptite tells how the news of Jones’ condition came right after he and his wife decided to split. All at once he realized he was “divorced, laid off, and my friend had cancer.” And bassist Gabe Roth tells how a couple of banks balked at refinancing his home after they read about Jones’ illness.

After viewing Miss Sharon Jones! the first time, my initial criticism was that Kopple spends too much time in Jones’ chemo clinics and not enough time at concert halls. My knee-jerk reaction as a fan of her music was that I’d much rather watch two hours of Jones and her band doing what they do best, proving that good old-fashioned funk and soul never die, no matter what the musical industrial complex is trying to sell you at the moment.

But watching the documentary a second time softened that reaction somewhat. While I’d still like to have more music in the film, I realized that seeing the energetic, confident Jones at these moments of weakness, exhaustion, and frustration is important in understanding the singer.

Kopple intersperses bits of Jones’ biography into the film. We hear Roth talk about how back in the ’90s, he and Jones themselves remodeled the building that would become Daptone Records, even doing the electrical wiring themselves. 

The film takes us to North Augusta, South Carolina, where Jones was raised, along with nearby Augusta, Georgia, where Jones tours a museum dedicated to another famous musician from the area, James Brown. And Jones talks about growing up in the South during segregation, remembering how a cruel shopkeeper taught a parrot to say racist slurs anytime a black child entered the store.

And there are powerful musical moments in this film. At one point, Kopple literally takes us to church. Jones sings a mighty version of the old hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow” (best known for versions by Ethel Waters and Mahalia Jackson). Jones is winded by the end of the song, but then again, it also has a breathtaking effect for those of us who are listening. Unfortunately, this song is not on the soundtrack album for the movie.

We see Jones backstage at New York’s Beacon Theatre, where she kicked off her comeback tour in February 2014 —a tour that included a sold-out show at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe. 

As guitarist Griptite goes through his soul-show spiel announcing her entrance, we see Jones’ stage fright poignantly illustrated by her hand shaking uncontrollably as she grips a paper cup. But only seconds later, she walks onstage and transforms into the superheroine her fans know best, visibly soaking up the applause, the cheers, and the love.

Spoiler alert: Miss Sharon Jones! has a happy ending, in which Jones is cancer-free and the Dap-Kings are again going strong. However, after the film was made, the cancer returned. Jones had to resume chemo treatments last year. Early last month, she was forced to cancel a European tour. 

“Sharon is doing well, but must undergo a medical procedure related to her cancer and the recovery time will conflict with these European dates,” her website says. However, it also says that an American tour scheduled to begin this month will go on.

Miss Sharon Jones! opens Friday, Sept. 9, at The Screen on the campus of Santa Fe University of Art and Design, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive.

Video time!

Here's a song from Give The People What They Want called "Retreat!"



Here's Sharon at South by Southwest in 2010.



And here is the official Trailer for Miss Sharon Jones!

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Deep Ellum Blues

Deep Ellum Dallas, 1959

The Deep Ellum district in downtown Dallas started out as a African-American commercial area in Dallas. In the early part of the last century it was known as a hotbed of blues and jazz. Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lead Belly worked there as street musicians.

And apparently, during an era of segregation, it was a place, where black and white musicians played together before integrated audiences. A 10-minute 1985 documentary by Alan Govenar features folks who were there talking about those times. (The documentary disappeared from YouTube since I first posted this. but you can rent it for 99 cents HERE, and below is a trailer:)



But outside of Dallas, fans of blues, country and rockabilly might best know Deep Ellum from a great American tune that celebrates the neighborhood as a red light district, a place where you can find redheads who "never give a man a chance"; where you have to keep your money in your shoes and where police officers expect $15 bribes. A sinful place where preachers lay their Bibles down and good gals become hardened.

It's been covered by Les Paul, Doc Watson, Harmonica Frank Floyd, Red Allen & Frank Wakefield, Rory Gallagher, Hot Rise, The Asylum Street Spankers, And apparently Jimmie Dale Gilmore could see Deep Ellum from a DC-9 at night.

Most versions of the song are called "Deep Elem Blues" or "Deep Elm Blues" (which actually makes sense because "Ellum" came from Elm Street in Dallas. Most the singers who recorded this song were white.

But the song started out as an ode to a wild place in Georgia called Black Bottom. Here's a 1927 version by a group called The Georgia Crackers.



In the early '30s a Texas group called The Shelton Brothers changed the locale of this song to Deep Ellum.



Country singer Hank Thompson did a rocking version in the late '60s.



Jerry Lee Lewis also recorded it in the '50s.



But probably the most popular version in recent decades was done by the unplugged version of The Grateful Dead.




For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

WACKY WEDNESDAY: It's National Beer Lover's Day

I'm not sure who determines such things, but today is National Beer Lovers Day  (Not to be confused with National Beer Day, which is April 7.)

But most of us still have to go to work.

Actually I quit drinking about 13 years ago, but I still indulge in a few beer songs from time to time.

Here are some of my favorites.

Here's Jimmy Witherspoon



"It'll set your head on fire and make your kidneys scream ..."



When is National Pigfoot Lover's Day?


Here's a honky-tonk beer lover's classic from Hank Thompson


Sorry, I have to cut you off ... OK, just una mas cerveza ...

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016 
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(at)ksfr.org


Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Pills by Chesterfield Kings
Kill Zone by James Arthur's Manhunt
It's Mighty Crazy by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
I Wanna Be Your Busyman by The Fadeaways
Somethin' Else by The Flamin' Groovies
Follow Me Home by The Mystery Lights
I'm Your Man by Muck & The Mires
Yeah! by The Cynics
Obeah Man by Meet Your Death

A Public Execution by Mouse

Wax Dummy by John Spencer Blues Explosion

Wild Snakes by The Thick 'Uns

King's Highway Sulphur City
Juicy Lucy by LoveStruck
Backstreet Girl by Social Distortion

Nest of The Cuckoo Bird by The Cramps

Timothy by The Buoys

Modern Woman by Johnny Dowd

Quick Joey Small by Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus

Head Holes by Lonesome Shack

LABOR DAY SET

Plenty Tuff and Union Made by The Waco. Brothers

Working at Working by Wayne Hancock

Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed
How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live by The Del-Lords

Don't Look Now by Creedence Clearwater Revival

Working Man by Bo Diddley

Mr. President Have Pity on the Working Man by Randy Newman

Gelatinous Cube by Thee Oh Sees

Alien Agenda by Alien Space Kitchen
Joan of Arc by The Melvins

Baby's Going Underground by Helium

Adios Amigo by Dan Penn & Donnie Fritts

September Song by Lou Reed

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE