Sunday, December 6, 2020 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Behind the Barn by Demon’s Claws
Can’t Be Brought Down by Roky Erikson
You Got That Thing by Holly Golightly
Leave Me Alone So I Can Rock Again by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf
Speed Limit by Dot Wiggin Band
Language is a Virus by Laurie Anderson
(Background Music: Riff Blues by Skip Martin)
Ill Wind by Dinola
Johnny Voodoo by Empress of Fur
In the Rex by Churchwood
Eat Your Heart and Wear Your Face by The Cavemen
Roam by The B-52s
When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again by Big Al Downing
(Background Music: Spooky Bongos by Beach Girls & The Monster)
Goodness Gussie, it's the birthday of one of the most successful
African-American songwriters of the 19th Century, the first Black Tin Pan Alley
composers, Mr. Gussie Davis.
Though he died when he was just 35, many of his tunes lived on into the 20th
Century and eventually were recorded by early country music stars. He also
wrote a song that's become an American classic -- though Davis hasn't received
proper credit for it. (Keep reading to the bottom.)
“Gussie Davis reached for the tender spots that lurk deep within all of
us, no matter how thick or tough our outer crusts may be. In an era of
‘sing-em-and-weep’ melodies, Davis did more than his share to open up the
tear ducts of America.”
Born in Dayton on Dec. 3, 1863, Davis wanted to attend the Nelson Musical
College in Cincinnati. But his application to the school was rejected because
of his race.
But, according to Eileen Southern in her 1997 book,
The Music of Black Americans: A History, Davis found a workaround. He got a job as a janitor at the school and
was paid in part with private music lessons from the instructors
there.
He self-published his first song in 1880, when he was only 18, a sentimental
ditty called "We Sat Beneath The Maple On The Hill."
I was just eighteen years old, and not caring to enter in the rear, I
set to work to study music, and before long I managed to get together a
pretty air and had it arranged. It was the ‘Maple on the Hill,’ and
became quite popular throughout the West. Music publishers are not over
generous in taking to publishing or even handling music from an unknown
person, and I found a great deal of trouble, but I gave one publisher
money to get it out, and he took pity on me. The song proved a great
go.”
Let's hear a 1926 recording of that song by Vernon Dalhart, a pioneering
country singer (He's the first to record "The Wreck of the Old 97" back in
the 1920s.) But hey Vern, you don't sound that country here!
Davis kept writing and publishing songs. Before long, he hooked up with
Cincinnati publisher George Propheter, who in 1886 moved to New York. Davis
followed him. Davis kept writing as well as performing. In 1895 he was
invited by the New York World to enter the paper's contest to
determine the 10 best songwriters in the U.S. Davis came in second with his
song, "Send Back the Picture and the Ring", and won a prize of $500 in gold.
I couldn't find a recording of this online, but here's a melodramatic1893
song -- composed by Davis and lyricist William H. Windom -- called "The
Fatal Wedding." This was Davis' first national hit The performer here is
another white country singer, Bradley Kincaid.
Vernon Dalhart also recorded another Davis tune, "The Baggage Coach Ahead."
This is a more recent live version by the late Mac Wiseman.
This is "My Creole Sue," which Davis published in 1898, a year before his
death. This recording is from 1923 by a group called The Shannon Quartet.
None of the above songs are very familiar to modern audiences, but chances
are you've heard this one.
A 2000 report by NPR says Leadbelly always attributed "Goodnight Irene" to his uncle.
However, Davis composed the song he titled "Irene, Good Night" in 1886. It
became a favorite of traveling minstrel shows.
Sunday, November 29, 2020 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :Circus Freak by The Electric Prunes
Dead Moon Night by Dead Moon
Haint Blue by Churchwood
Hunker in My Bunker by Dave Del Monte & The Cross Country Boys
Heart Attack and Vine by Lydia Lunch
Secret Agent Man by Devo
(Background Music: Mental Strain at Dawn by David Murray)
Today, November 25, 2020, would have been the 174th birthday of radical
prohibitionist
Carrie Nation.
Happy birthday, Carrie.
Mrs. Nation -- who
also was known as "Carry Nation,"
in case you think I'm guilty of a typo -- became famous for leading attacks on
saloons in which she and her followers used axes to smash up these dens of
inequity. She showed thatLizzie Borden wasn't the only 19th Century woman to "take an ax."
According to
History.com, Nation described her June 6. 1900 raid on a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas:
“I ran behind the bar, smashed the mirror and all the bottles under it;
picked up the cash register, threw it down; then broke the faucets of the
refrigerator, opened the door and cut the rubber tubes that conducted the
beer,” she recalled. “I threw over the slot machine…and got from it a
sharp piece of iron with which I opened the bungs of the beer kegs, and
opened the faucets of the barrels, and then the beers flew in every
direction and I was completely saturated.”
She seems nice ...
As is the case of many American fanatics, Nation was inspired by The Bible and
direct messages from God. In
her own Bible,
she wrote the word "smashing" besides this inspirational passage (Jeremiah
1:10):
"See, I have this day set thee over the nation and over the kingdoms, to
root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build,
and to plant."
She was either the John Brown of her time, or the
Eric Rudolph, depending on your point of view.
Nation's dream of national alcohol prohibition came true in 1919. We all know
how that worked out...
But this is a music blog, so to honor Carrie or Carry or whoever she was, here
are some songs inspired by the temperance movement.
Let's start with "The Lips That Touch Liquor Will Never Touch Mine," with a
melody by George T. Evans and words by Sam Booth. Unfortunately this 2016
recording bythe Women's Choir at Concordia College only includes the first
verse.
This temperance tune, recorded in 1916 by singer/evangelist Homer Rodeheaver "Molly and the Baby Don't You Know" was about wives and children who suffered from an alcoholic husband and father.
Along those lines is "Father's a Drunkard and Mother is Dead," written in 1866 by one Mrs. E.A. Parkhurst. This recording is by Cincinnati's University Singers on an album released in 1997.
I couldn't do a post about temperance songs without including this Kinks klassic:
And I can't help but wonder how Mrs. Nation would feel about her name being used by a fictitious rock 'n' roll band in a notorious outrageously sleazy movie, Beyond the Valley of The Dolls. Ladies and gentlemens I present The Carrie Nations!
Hare Krishna, we're honky tonkin' now! Welcome to the latest hillbilly episode of The Big Enchilada, Hillbilly Happy Hour, an hour of hillbilly music, old and new, bound to make you happy. You'll hear bluegrass, rockabilly, hard-core honky tonk and more. This show includes a tribute to three giants who died last month, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver and Johnny Bush.
Remember, The Big Enchilada still is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and please, gentle listeners,
give me a five-star rating and review if you're so inclined.)
Thanks.