(My Facebook Friend Truly Judy inspired this one)
Back in 2005, there was an episode of South Park featuring a middle-aged Chinese woman trying to make it as a singer. Her name was Wing and she became a client of a "talent agency" run by Cartman and the boys.
She had a voice that would curdle your soup. Hilarity ensued.
Many South Park fans just assumed Wing was a cartoon character from the warped imaginations of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. But no. Wing was a flesh-and-blood human named Wing Han Tsang or Zēng Yǒnghán or 曾咏韓.From the scant biographical information I can find, it appears she originally was from Hong Kong and migrated to New Zealand, where she began her musical career by singing in nursing homes.
She released a CD of cover songs called Phantom of the Opera, (featuring the theme from the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical) and appeared on some TV shows in New Zealand and Australia.
The South Park guys discovered her via Internet buzz. Her appearance there basically made her the Tiny Tim of 2005 -- even though her voice was closer to Mrs. Miller. Though she seemed to take her music seriously, she was considered a novelty act -- or by some, an "outsider artist."
Yes, we laughed at her, not with her. But she seemed like such a sweet, modest lady you felt like a jerk after the yuks.
Her career kept going for several years. She cranked out several albums between 2006 and 2008. and even making an appearance at the 2008 South By Southwest in Austin.
According to her Wikipedia page, she announced on her website that she was retiring from showbiz in 2015. That website is no longer online. And though the Allmusic Guide says she made a couple of records for CD Baby, I can't find them there. She's got a Facebook page, but she hasn't posted anything there in three years.
But there is a lot of material still available on YouTube, so Wing, this is for you, wherever you are.
She did this one on South Park.
Wing did a whole album of AC/DC covers. And hey, even Tiny Tim did "Highway to Hell."
This is one of the later Wing songs I could find. Produced by Rappy Mcrapperson, Wing truly lives up to her weirdness potential here.
Finally, here's some live footage of Wing. I guess we'd be going over that old rainbow ...
Friday, Dec. 29, 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
Make it Up to Mama by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Down on the Corner of Love by Buck Owens
Crazy Mixed Up World by Eilen Jewell
Days of 49 by Jim Kweskin
Hobos are my Heroes by J.D. Wilkes
Long Legs by Legendary Shack Shakers
Jesus Don't Love Me by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Believe in Heaven by Ruby Boots
Lonely Goth Girl by Peter Stampfel R.I.P. Bonnie Hearne (All Songs by Bill & Bonnie Hearne)
Wild Geese
Bluebonnet Girl
Somewhere Between
Saturday Night Girl
New Mexico Rain
Above and Beyond by Rhonda Vincent & Daryle Singletary
I Can Still Feel by Miss Leslie
Room 102 by Chris Shifett
Here She Comes Again by Chris Hillman
Louisiana Swing by Bud Hobbs
Let's Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes with Annette Zilinkas
You'll Lose a Good Thing by Dad Horse Experience
Big Girl Blues by Danny Barnes
Big Dark World of Hate and Lies by Graham Lindsey
Walking on Hell's Roof Looking at the Flowers by Waco Brothers
Dead Thumb King by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Set My Soul on Fire by The War and Treaty
Honky Tonk Flame by Tyler Childers
Vandalism Spree by Hellbound Glory
I'm Just a Country Boy by Don Williams
Four Strong Winds by Neil Young
My Rose Marie by Stan Ridgway CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Want to keep this hoedown going after I sign off at midnight? Check out The Big Enchilada Podcast Hillbilly Episode Archive where there are hours of shows where I play music like you hear on the SF Opry.
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Dec. 29, 2017
Here are my favorite albums of 2017.
*
Sidelongby Sarah Shook & The Disarmers. On my very first listen, I was a fan
by the end of the first two tracks: “Keep the Home Fires Burnin’ “ (with its
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 sings, “Well, I ain’t your last, you ain’t my first/You can’t decide
which fact is worse”). With her voice sporting more than a hint of a whiskey
rasp, Shook sounds as if she’s the punk-rock granddaughter of Hazel Dickens.
*
Texa$ Platinumby Ghost Wolves. This Austin band made some of the finest garage rock
I’ve heard all year. Singer Carley Wolf has a pixieish voice that wouldn’t seem
out of place in some of my favorite Japanese girl-punk bands. Actually, the
first time I heard her, I thought of KatieJane Garside, the singer of the
early-’90s group Daisy Chainsaw (“Love Your Money”). Carley is also a heck of a
guitarist. Her hubby Jonathan is not only downright powerful on the drums, he
also adds subtle iggly-squiggly, sci-fi synth effects.
*
Boy in the Well
by The Yawpers. This rowdy little band from Denver has created one of the most
rocking little albums of the year. With big sonic traces of The Gun Club, ZZ
Top, The Legendary Shack Shakers, and their own twisted take on rockabilly, The
Yawpers rip through most these songs with an urgency that’s undeniable. And the
whole thing centers on a bizarre story of a World War I love child who, yes,
spent most of his life in a well — before he emerges and unleashes a series of
Oedipal wrecks.
* Tell the Devil I’m Gettin’ There As Fast As I Can
by Ray Wylie Hubbard. Another fine revelation from the crusty old Texan,
who only seems to get tougher and ornerier with age. Like the Bible, the album
starts out with the creation story — a song called “God Looked Around,” in which
Hubbard, in his knowing drawl and slow-moving guitar, tells the story of the
origin of the universe, Adam and Eve, and that pesky snake. But the next song,
“Dead Thumb King” goes right to the hoodoo, as Hubbard explains that he’s armed
with “some dirt from Lightnin’ Hopkins’ grave,” “bones from an old black crow,”
and a “rattlesnake tail inside my guitar.”
*
Goin’ Back to Wurstvilleby King Salami & The Cumberland 3. This hopped-up, high-energy
London-based band has been around for more than a decade, but despite my overly
optimistic prediction a few years ago, they never really have made a huge splash
in the good old USA. That’s our loss, my fellow Americans. With Salami and the
Cumberlands’ seamless bend of garage-rock, ’50s and ’60s R&B, and
occasionally a little instrumental surf music, few bands match their sound in
terms of pure fun.
*
20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo
by Pere Ubu. This is the most outright rocking studio album Ubu has unleashed in
about a decade, maybe longer. No, the band, which emerged during the punk and
New Wave scare of the late ’70s, hasn’t forsaken their heritage of avant-garde,
experimental, atmospheric sounds. But they also haven’t forgotten how to make
your feet move and head bang either. The group’s foundation was garage and surf
rock — colored by darkly bizarre lyrics, David Thomas’ warbling vocals, and
Plan 9 From Outer Space-esque synth noises. And
Missile Silo shows that foundation is strong.
*
Purgatory
by Tyler Childers. This twenty-six-year-old guitar slinger from Kentucky
writes and sings songs that sound timeless. Covering evergreen hillbilly themes,
he tells tales of good moonshine, bad drugs, an all-seeing God, a powerful
devil, and the joys of love and sex. Some tracks have a pure outlaw country
sound, while some come right out of the world of bluegrass. Purgatory was
produced by Sturgill Simpson. And it shows.
* Existentialism by
The Mekons. Technically, this album was originally released in 2016, but it was part of a
fancy, expensive “limited edition” package. But this year, Bloodshot Records
released it as a single (and affordable) CD. Recorded live at a small club in
Brooklyn a couple of years ago, this album has all the things Mekons fans love —
rowdy barroom singalongs over inexplicable ambient noise, nods to Hank Williams
and dub reggae, and lyrics that seem soaked in alcohol and revolutionary fervor.
Speaking of which, the song “Fear and Beer,” subtitled “Hymn for Brexit,” is as
sad as it is lovely.
* Down to the River by
The War and Treaty. Singer Michael Trotter Jr. has one of the
greatest
music biographies
I’ve ever seen. He was a soldier during the invasion of Iraq and was assigned to
guard one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces after the strongman was driven from power.
In the basement of the building, the occupying Americans found an old piano said
to have belonged to Saddam himself. Trotter taught himself to play on that
abandoned instrument, writing his first song, a tribute to a fallen captain. But
even without that crazy back story, this music, on which Trotter shares vocal
duties with his wife Tanya Blount, is soulful, bluesy, and rootsy.
* Down Hearted Blues by Eilen Jewell. Can a white
girl from Idaho sing the blues? Should a white girl from Idaho sing the blues?
I’ll leave those important questions to the guardians of political correctness.
All I know is that on this collection of old songs — mainly obscurities,
spanning Memphis Minnie to Howlin’ Wolf — Jewell pulls it off with grace and
grit. A former St. John’s student who used to busk at the Santa Fe Farmers
Market, Jewell even includes a great hillbilly blues song here,
Moonshine Kate’s “The Poor Girl’s Story.”
Just to show how obsessive I can be I created a new tag on this blog for
my annual Top 10 album lists. If you're as bored as I am obsessive, you can go
back to the very early days of this blog and see what albums I liked best
between the present and 2003.
CLICK HERE
Finally here's a Spotify list featuring a couple of tracks from each of my
favorite 20017 albums.
Cabell Calloway was born on Christmas Day in Rochester New York 110 years ago. His folks wanted him to be a lawyer like his dad. He did attend law school but his career in law got derailed by the Hi De Ho. By 1930 his band was headlining at The Cotton Club in New York City. And soon he would become one of the greatest showmen American music has ever known.
Enough yack! Let's get on with the jive.
Here's one called "The Skunk Song"
Cab sings Harold Arlen's and Johnny Mercer's "One for My Baby" (and One More For the Road)" and makes it dreamy and sad.
Hep us, cats!
This was one of several follow-ups to Cab's signature song.
And here's the song that made gong-kicking a national obsession. Keep that Hi De Ho in your heart!
Along with the better-known Homer & Jethro, Lonzo & Oscar, who began their career in the 1940s opening for Eddie Arnold, epitomized cornball country comedy on the Grand Ol' Opry in the 1950s.
Kentucky native Rollin Sullivan portrayed Oscar, the goofy-looking hillbilly who played a mean mandolin. The role of Lonzo, the straight man of the band, was something of a revolving door. A guy named Lloyd George was the original Lonzo. He sang on their big hit "I'm My Own Grandpa" in 1948. But he left the act in 1950.
In the clips below, which are from the 1950s, Lonzo is Johnny Sullivan, Rollin's brother.
Don't ask me what "Cousin Jody's" real name is. The guy gives me the willies (though he's a fine lap steel player.)
On with the music!
Here is one I first heard performed by Hank Thompson, "No Help Wanted"
This is called "Hole in the Bottom of the Sea"
Little Jimmy Dickens introduces the boys for their parody of "16 tons."
Here's a love song called "Dear Joan."
Finally here's a parody of Hank Snow' signature song.
