eMUSIC SEPTEMBER

This is late and long!

Just as I was about to finish up this post and publish the darn thing about a week ago, eMusic surprised me by bestowing me with 50 extra downloads. That was a "loyalty bonus" for those of us who didn't dump them when they decreased the number of downloads allowed. This post also includes the 25 extra downloads given to loyal members last month. Confused? Don't worry about it. Let's just talk about the music.

* A Thousand Footprints in the Sand by Jim Dickinson with Chuck Prophet. I didn't even read the info about this album when I pressed "download." I didn't recognize the title, so I just assumed it was the new album by Dickinson, the great Memphis producer who died last month.

But I was wrong. The new one is Dinosaurs Run in Circles. But I wasn't too disappointed. Footprints is a live set from the early '90s featuring Dickinson disciple Chuck Prophet and his band. And it's full of fire and steaming voodoo soul.

Most of the songs are old blues and R&B tunes. There's a lean and mean version of J.B. Lenoir's "Down in Mississippi," which Dickinson shouts as if his life depended on it. There's a straightforward version of "The Gypsy," (an old chestnut recorded by The Ink Spots and Dinah Shore, but my favorite version is by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs).

He also does what might the the finest song he ever wrote, "Across the Borderline," whose best-known version was sung by Freddy Fender. Jim didn't have the Mayor of Milagro's voice, but his soul still comes through.

Now I have to get my hands on Dickinson's new one.

* Lysergic Legacy by The Fuzztones. This is a "greatest hits" compilation by Rudy Protrudi and the boys. Since I didn't have LSD 25: 25 Years of Fuzz and Fury, the Fuzztones best-of that just came out four years ago, I was happy to see this new collection.

Yes, this group's been around in one form or another since the early 1980s, spreading the gospel of Farfisa and fuzz through good times and bad.

Legacy includes a couple of songs from their most recent album, last year's Horny as Hell -- plus several original versions of songs that were reworked for Horny.

It's not quite a "duets" album, but Legacy includes several impressive guest appearances by '60s garage/psychedelic greats. "Get Naked" features the late Sky Saxon. Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & The Raiders sings on "Caught You Red Handed." James Lowe of The Electric Prunes can be heard on "Hallucination Generation." And the sitar-soaked "All the King's Horse" features both Arthur Lee of Love and Sean Bonniwell of The Music Machine. (Sorry, "Look For the Question Mark" doesn't have the lead singer of The Mysterians.)

And there's not one but two covers of Sonics songs here, "Strychnine" and "Cinderella." The Fuzztones did an Sonics tribute EP a few years ago.

* Stay With We by NRBQ. When I interviewed "Big" Al Anderson a few years a few years ago (you can read that HERE, he insisted that his predecessor, Steve Ferguson was the best guitarist NRBQ ever had and that their first album, the self-titled 1969 release, was NRBQ's greatest album.

I'm still partial to NRBQ at Yankee Stadium and Kick Me Hard, but Big Al's right that early Q was dynamite. This album is a compilation of songs from that first album (10 of the fist album's 14 songs are here) plus a few cuts from Boppin' the Blues, (a 1970 collaboration with Carl Perkins) and lots of previously unreleased tunes from that era.

* Dirty Blues Licks by Various Artists. Here's the bargain of the month -- 49 tracks for 12 credits (even though I already owned several tracks -- Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith Bo Carter, Mississippi Sheiks, etc.)

The blues as a genre has made such a strong bid for respectability, some of its modern hawkers would like to forget its down-and-dirty, raunchy past. This collection is a blow against bowdlerizing.

Some of the biggest names in the blues are here -- Smith, Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins. There's even one from R&B shouter Wynonie Harris

Of course, little if anything in these songs is all that explicit, especially by modern standards.. The singers assume their listeners realize the metaphorical significance of bananas, hotdogs, cabbage and poodles. If these tunes actually offend you, you must not have any lead in your pencil.

This a good companion for another collection I picked up on eMusic years ago, Please Warm My Weiner.

* Not Now! by The A-Bones The album cover is an homage to an ancient Rolling Stones LP. But The A-Bones aren’t one of those neo-Stones bands, such as The Chesterfield Kings, and they don’t sound much like Mick and the lads.

But on this new record they capture some of the spirit of the early Stones, sharing a love for greasy old blues and R&B. In fact, you could argue that the Bones go for greasier, nastier and definitely more obscure source material than did The Stones.

The A-Bones, in case you've never had the pleasure, is a project of singer Billy Miller and drummer/singer Miriam Linna, a couple whose other major project is Norton Records, one of the finest labels in the known universe (and one I regularly turn to on eMusic.)
For my full review of Not Now! CLICK HERE

* Cavernicola by Los Peyotes This is an early album by Argentina’s finest garage band, first released in 2005, recently made available in download version by London’s Dirty Water records.

Among their originals, on this record the boys cover crazy old rock songs, Los Peyotes do justice here to the infamous “Fire” by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (called “Fuego” here), "Jack the Ripper" (Screamin' Lord Sutch's song, not Link Wray's) and “The Witch.” by The Sonics.

Warning to those who took my advice last year and got Introducing Los Peyotes: “El Humo te Hace Mal” and “I Don’t Mind” appear on both albums (and sound like the same versions.) And the "secret bonus song at the end of "The Witch" (no, it's not really a 10-minute version of the song) is "Scream," which also appears on Introducing.


* Do the Wurst , Mojo Workout and Shake It Wild by King Salami & The Cumberland 3. These actually are an EP (Mojo Workout) and two "singles," totalling eight songs.

The London-based Salami reminds me of another "King," namely Khan. Like Khan's work with The Shrines, Salami plays a high-charged melding of soul and punk rock. But The Cumberland Three is a much smaller group than Khan's Shrines, so the sound is more stripped down.

The band tries its hand at surf music on "Uprising." It sounds like "Apache" (complete with tacky faux Indian war cries). And "Birddog" is a takeoff of The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird."

But my favorite has to be the cover of Bobby Long & The Satellites' "Mojo Workout," a little-known but powerful R&B stomper. You can hear that song in its entirety on the 39th episode of RadiOblivion.

*Some Kind of Kick by The Things. No, not The Pretty Things. Not even The Dirty Pretty Things. Just The Things, a garage-punk band from Dublin that I somehow stumbled across while fooling around eMusic. This album that apparently was released early this year.

Despite their Irish heritage you don't hear much of the olde sod in The Things. They sound nothing like The Pogues -- and thankfully, even less like U2. In fact, if anything, they remind me a lot of The Fuzztones -- heavy on the Farfisa and fury.

There's some cool spooky tunes -- "Psycho Lover," "Demon Stomp" -- but I think my favorite here is "Set Me Free" in which singer Neilo Thing sounds like The Hives' Howlin' Pelle Almqvist.

* Butterbeans & Susie Vol. 1: 1924-1925 Jodie Edwards and his wife Susie Hawthorne were stars of TOBA (Theatre Owners Bookers Association -- or popularly known as "Tough on Black Asses") circuit starting in the 1920s. This basically was Black vaudeville. I wouldn't want to live in that era, but what I'd give to be able to go back in time and sit in the front row at a Butterbeans & Susie show.

The duo sang funny songs about domestic disputes and sex. Decades before The Rolling Stones' "Some Girls," Butterbeans even gave a lesson in the sexual politics of skin color -- "high yellow gals" vs. "browns" in "Brown Skin Gal." They mocked each each other, making wisecracks to punctuate each other's singing. "Is that so?" Susie would say dryly as some Butterbean boast, putting him firmly in place with three little words.

Sometimes there were even insinuations of physical violence. Nobody of course took this literally back then. Joking about domestic violence has been so taboo for so long, such blatant political incorrectness now seems wickedly daring. Besides, Susie was no mousy pushover. "If you raise your hand to hit me, I'll put you under the jail" she sings in "Bow Legged Papa." Note, that's not in the jail it's under the building!

"A Married Man's a Fool," Butter declares in the song of the same title. And yet the two stayed married until Susie's death in 1963.

Most of the songs feature simple piano accompaniment, though King Oliver -- the King Oliver! -- sits in on cornet on "Kiss Me Sweet" and "Construction Gang."

This collection was taken from old 78s and Document Records made no effort to clean up the scratching. (Some songs, like "You Ain't Talkin' to Me" are nearly unlistenable.) Even so, this record, as well as Vol. 2, which I've owned for years, is just sheer delight.

* Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense No Sense at All (single) by Husker Du. It says single, but it's really four songs. I got it for "Love is All Around" -- yes, the Mary Tyler Moore theme (written by Buddy Holly crony and sometimes Cricket, Sonny Curtis!). There's also Husker's fantastic cover of The Byrds' "Eight Miles High." Because of some weird policy, you can't download individual songs for this work, it's all four or nothing, so to get the others, I had to download the song "Makes No Sense at All" even though I already have the tune on the Flip Your Wig album.

Plus

* "Strutting with Some Barbecue" by Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five. I got this for my latest podcast. Classic Satch. A great tune and it makes me hungry for barbecue. (Then again, most things do.)

* Three songs from Introducing Wiley & The Checkmates. More on that one next month.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 13, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Guest Co-host Stan Rosen
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org
Annual Post-Labor Day Songs For the Workin' Man Show

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Plenty Tuff and Union Made by The Waco Brothers
Joe Hill by Paul Robeson
There is Power in the Union by Utah Phillips
May the Work I Have Done by Freedom Song Network

Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed
Anita Pita by Joe West
Revolution by Larry Burch

Corrido de Dolores Huerta by Carmen Moreno
We Were There by Brooklyn Women's Chorus
Then Death of Mother Jones by Gene Autry
Yo Estoy con Chavez by Ramon "Tiguere" Rodriguez & Los Lobos
We're All a Dodgin' by The Weavers
Have You Been to Jail For Justice? by Anne Feeney
All the Weary Mothers by Charles Bernhardt

Workin' man Blues by Merle Haggard
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore by John Prine
Union Medley by Peter, Paul & Mary
Pie in the Sky by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco
Talking Union by The Almanac Singers
Wal-Mart Union Gonna Rise Again by Charlie King & Karen Brandow
Working at Working by Wayne Hancock
Freedom is Coming by Seattle Labor Chorus

Bougeois Blues by Taj Mahal
Working Man by Bo Diddley
Red Neck, Blue Collar by James Luther Dickinson
(Happy Birthday to You (Dave Barsanti) by Steve Terrell & Stan Rosen)
This Land is Your Land by Pete Seeger, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Doc Watson & The Little Red Schoolhouse Chorus
Banker's Son by Joe West
Banks Were Made of Marble by The Weavers
Bread and Rose by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco
SUBSTITUTE CLOSING THEME: Solidarity Forever by Joe Glaser

BLOODSHOT'S TURNING 15

I played "Bloodshot's Turning Five" by Robbie Fulks on The Santa Fe Opry last night in honor of Bloodshot Record's 15th Anniversary.

15 years old! And I remember when they were just a little baby record company.

Bloodshot's still one of the best. Through the years they've released excellent records by Fulks, Wayne "The Train" Hancock, Neko Case, Alejandro Escovedo, Trailer Bride, Dex Romweber, Kelly Hogan, The Bottle Rockets, The Sadies, The Detroit Cobras, Paul Burch, Graham Parker, Ryan Adams, Charlie Pickett, Scott H. Biram, Andre Williams, Rex Hobart (who lived in Santa Fe for awhile), Bobby Bare, Jr., The Old 97s, The Meat Purveyors, Sally Timms and of those those wonderful Waco Brothers ... among others.

Here's a story about Bloodshot from the Chicago Tribune (thanks David Barsanti for sending me this.) In it, Bloodshot cofounder Nan Warsaw, talking about the importance of music labels, says something to think about: "It’s easier than ever to put your music out there, but it’s tougher than ever to get your music noticed."

Congratulations Rob Miller and Nan and thanks for all the great music.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 11, 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
Bloody Mary Morning by Willie Nelson
Make Room on the Lifeboat for Me by The Delmore Brothers
The Governor by James McMurtry
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Laura Cantrell
Under Lock and Key by Gary Gorence
Down in Mississippi by Jim Dickinson with Chuck Prophet
Bloodshot's Turning Five by Robbie Fulks

Ain't No Saguaro in Texas by The Rev. Horton Heat
The Streets of Bakerfield by Dwight Yoakam & Buck Owens
Uncle Frank by Drive-by Truckers
Beyond the Madness by Mike Cullison
Moving on #3 by Wayne Hancock
Slide Me Some Sugar by Nancy Apple
Julie's Neon Shoes by Kell Robertson
Get Yourself a Monkey Man, Make Him Strut His Stuff by Butterbeans & Susie

Move Along Train by Levon Helm
You Win Again by Mother Earth
Oh Lonesome Me by Ana Fermin's Trigger Gospel
Big Swamp Land by Johnny Paycheck
Preacher Man by Quarter Mile Combo
Ubangi Stomp by The Stray Cats
Chile Verde by Bayou Seco
Peor de Nada by El Trio Alegre

Get Off My Back Lucy by The Iguanas
Ta Bueno Compadre by Flaco Jimenez with the West Side Horns
The Garden by Freddy Fender
The Genitalia of a Fool by Cornell Hurd featurning Justin Trevino
I Couldn't Believe it Was True by Doc & Merle Watson
September Song by Hank Penny
Sweet Dreams by Leon Russell
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

ZOZOBRA ON VIDEO

Courtesy KOB TV.

It's 40 minutes long.

He burns and dies.

Viva la Fiesta!

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: LAUGHIN' MORE THAN CRYIN'

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 11, 2009

On his new album, Laughin' & Cryin', released last week, The Reverend Horton Heat has slowed down a bit since his old psychobilly freakout days 20 years ago or so.

The man from Dallas is still capable of playing with wild energy. He proved that when I saw him at the Hootenanny festival in California a couple of months ago. But in his recordings through the years, he's become a little jazzier, maybe a little more country, and it sounds like he's paying more attention to his vocals. As he declares in one of the songs on his first album in five years (or at least his first non-Christmas album in that time), he's taken a definite stand on the great culture war between death-metal guys and rockabilly cats.

But The Rev. (whose real name is Jim Heath) still has a knack for machine-gun twang-guitar licks. And the man who introduced us to the concept of the "Big Dwarf Rodeo" all those years ago still has a love for crazy novelty songs. Laughin' & Cryin' is in fact built upon a foundation of topical songs, some of which have the potential to become Heat standards. Others stand a good chance of being remembered by Heat fans as weird curiosities.

One of those tunes is bound to become a favorite with New Mexico fans. "Ain't No Saguaro in Texas" is a musical complaint, featuring some Mexican-style accordion, about the fact that "Hollywood and misinformed artists" have the knack of depicting his home state as having tall saguaro cacti — which, in the U.S., only grows in Arizona and a small part of California. We've got the same problem in New Mexico. Sometimes politicians here who have hired out-of-state companies to do their ads find pictures of mighty saguaros decorating their campaign literature.

Speaking of Texas, another song on Laughin' and Cryin', "There's a Little Bit of Everything in Texas" sounds like Heat's making a serious bid to get a gig with his home state's tourism department.

Heat gives some good advice to parents in "Please Don't Take the Baby to the Liquor Store." This song reminds me of an old tune by the Dead Milkmen, "Let's Get the Baby High."

One of my favorites here is "Crazy Ex-Boyfriend," a tune about an obsessed former lover. "The next time she saw him, he called her a slut/So I rolled up my sleeves and kicked his butt."

But the CD's best song won't be well received by the politically correct. "Rural Point of View" is a defense of big old pickup trucks over little electric cars and a screed against Ivy League professors and organic-food snobs. "That pompous little fool can ride his bike to school 'cause a farmer with a truck is how he eats."

And yes, that "Death Metal Guys" song. Wanna know the real difference between rockabilly cats and death-metal dudes? Jerry Lee Lewis shot his bass player. But a death-metal guy, according to The Rev. Heat, would have "eaten his brain."

This album isn't very deep. But deep's overrated. Laughin' & Cryin' is lots of fun.

Also recommended

* The Fine of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008 by Drive-By Truckers. Like the title explains, this is an odds 'n' sods collection of outtakes, alternate takes, cover songs, and other previously unreleased tracks by these wild-eyed Southern boys. To be honest, I find this album fresher than the Truckers' past couple of studio albums.

The album kicks off with an irreverent ode to a honky-tonk hero. "George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues" deals with the Possum's 1999 car wreck. (He was driving drunk and yakking with his daughter on a cell phone when he drove off a bridge.)

The Truckers' song, written and sung by Patterson Hood, is an upbeat country rocker with John Neff's sweet steel guitar. It's got some wickedly funny lines Jones fans will recognize. ("I heard it on the news, you almost stopped loving her today/Better stay on that riding lawnmower if you're gonna keep on carrying on that way.") The love for Jones and his music is obvious in every lick.

But the strongest song here is Hood's weird slow burner called "The Great Car Dealer War." Apparently an outtake from The Dirty South (still my favorite DBT album), this is the story of a guy paid to torch vehicles at a car lot. The best lyrics: "I don't ask questions, I don't assume/I just take a long hard look when I walk into a room."

There are two opposing views about the Tennessee Valley Authority on the CD. One features on a rerecording of Trucker Mike Cooley's "Uncle Frank," a song that first appeared on the DBT's second album, Pizza Deliverance. In it, Frank kills himself after being ripped off by the government. On the other hand, there's former Trucker Jason Isbell's "TVA," which sounds like a Steve Earle song. He credits the TVA for bringing jobs and electricity to the South, as well as for his first teenage sexual conquest.

For pure twistedness, there's a funny Christmas song called "Mrs. Claus' Kimono" Full of adultery, class warfare, and an undercurrent of violence, it almost sounds like a parody of the Drive-By Truckers. And there's a story about a reindeer that Burl Ives never sang about.

The cover songs, for the most part, are inspired. Various Truckers trade off verses of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone." There's a snarling version of Warren Zevon's "Play It All Night Long." ("Sweet home Alabama, play that dead band's song.") And best of all is a heartfelt version of Tom T. Hall's "Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken)." This is the story of a soldier coming home from war after having a leg blown off. He tries to keep his humor, but he's also got a bottle under his blanket.

The only misstep is a cover of Tom Petty's "Rebels." The DBTs do it like a Springsteen anthem. It sounds tacky in the company of "The Great Car Dealer War" and "Mama Bake a Pie."

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, September 6, 2009
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
I'm in With the Out Crowd by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
Wolfman Boogie Part 1 by Wolfman Jack & The Wolf Pack
Hey Grandma by Moby Grape
Granny Tops 'em at the Hop by The A-Bones
Dustbowl Flashback by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle
Wild Wild Lover by The Monsters
Goodbye Ramona by The Neckbones
Skinny Jimmy by The Del Moroccos
Hurdy Gurdy Man by The Butthole Surfers
Woe is Me by The Cadillacs

Psycho Lover by The Things
13 Ghosts by Marshmallow Overcoat
A Thousand Shadows by The Seeds
Teeth by The Mekons
Back in Business by J.J. & The Real Jerks
Have You Ever Spent the Night in Jail? by The Standells
Precious Thing by Big Black
I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair of Pajamas by Andre Williams & The Green Hornet
Ride the Torpedo by The Tallboys
Don't Worry 'bout That Mule by Louis Jordan


SOUL POWER SET
Soul Power by James Brown
Santa Barbara by Celia Cruz
Saturday Night Fish Fry by B.B. King
Mosadi Ku Rima by Miriam Makeba
I Don't You on My Mind by Bill Withers
Feast of the Mau Mau by Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Ifa by Tunji Oyelana & The Benders
Amos Moses by Primus
Busman's Honeymoon by Pere Ubu
Junco Partner by The Clash
September Song by Lou Reed
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, September 4, 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
Always Late With Your Kisses by Merle Haggard
Kiss Me Quick an Go by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
I'm Your Man by The Derailers
One Bad Stud by The Blasters
Blazing Trailer of Love by Neil Mooney
A Living Hell by The Bottle Rockets
Devil's Run by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Rural Point of View by The Rev. Horton Heat
Bad Luck Dice by Clifford Gibson

Tex Mex Mile by The Gourds
Got U on My Mind by The Watzloves
Liquored Up by Southern Culture on the Skids
I Do Drive a Truck by Jon Wayne
Faraway Eyes by The Rolling Stones
Cook County Jail by Ethyl & The Regulars
I'm Tired of Pretending by Hank Thompson
The Sunny Side of the Moon by Johnny Dilks

Barbecue by Devil in a Woodpile
Turn it On, Turn It On, Turn It On by Tom T. Hall
Mama Bake a Pie by Drive-By Truckers
Going Up the Country by Jimbo Mathus
Good Enough for Grandad by The Squirrel Nut Zippers
Satellite Baby by Skip Stanley
Bluest Boy in Town by Yuichi & The Hilltone Boys
Gee I Really Love You by Heavy Trash
(This Ain't Just Another) Lust Affair by Mel Street

Seven Eleven Heaven by Danny Santos
Bruises for Pearls by Trailer Bride
It Wouldn't Be Hell Without You by Cornell Hurd
One Spectacular Moon by Jaime Michaels
Let Me Be The Judge by Amber Digby
Cross My Heart by Martin Zellar
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:SOUL POWER

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
September 4, 2009

In a showdown dubbed “Rumble in the Jungle,” two African American giants met in the ring in a land called Zaire in the mid-’70s. Such a momentous clash of titans needed a soundtrack. Thus was born a music festival called Zaire ’74, promoted alongside the fight in Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Godfather of Soul James Brown would headline the three-day music show. Also on the bill were B.B. King, Celia Cruz with the Fania All-Stars, Bill Withers, Big Black, Miriam Makeba, TPOK Jazz, L’Orchestre Afrisa, The Spinners, The Crusaders, and Sister Sledge. (Funny, no one asked Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to sing “Feast of the Mau Mau” for the Congolese audience)

The Rumble was the subject of the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, who was an editor on that film, took leftover footage of the music festival to make a music documentary, only recently released, called Soul Power, now showing at CCA Cinematheque.

For the record, sports fans, Muhammad Ali, who makes several appearances throughout this film, won the boxing match and regained the heavyweight title, beating future electric-grill hawker George Foreman — who is never shown and is rarely mentioned in the documentary.

The fight had to be delayed for six weeks because Foreman got injured during training. But the music festival, for various reasons, including the bands’ scheduling conflicts, went on as planned.

Ali seemed to be everywhere the musicians were, at least before they took the stage. At one point, he seems jealous of all the attention the singers are getting, making it clear in the interview that he, not these musicians, is openly challenging the white power structure.

“I have to lead the way,” he says. “God has made me bigger than all entertainers in America. God has made me bigger than all entertainers in the world.”

During his time onstage, James Brown gives Ali a run for his money. Sporting a thick ’70s-style mustache, Brown lives up to the announcer’s promise that he would “make your liver quiver” and “your bladder splatter.” The man was such an influence on African musicians, and his performance in Zaire was as significant as it was sizzling.

But Mr. Dynamite isn’t the only powerhouse who took the stage in Zaire. Cruz basically steals the show with her All-Stars, which included bandleader and flute man Johnny Pacheco and Ray Barretto, who played the conga in the Congo. You know Cruz is going to be great onstage, because early in the film you see her jamming with members of her band on the jet on the way to Africa.

Withers, one of the most underrated soul stars of the early ’70s, plays acoustic guitar on a little-known tune called “Hope She’ll Be Happier.” Makeba does a song that brought her fame in this country in the ’60s, “Qongqothwane” — which “the colonists” call “the Click Song,” she says — in her native Xhosa language.

Perhaps the most touching scene is when B.B. King is coming off the stage and expressing doubts about his performance. In the movie we see a perfectly good version of “The Thrill Is Gone.” But B.B. just wasn’t sure. “I hope it didn’t sound too bad,” he says backstage. “I enjoyed parts of it.” Maybe he felt awkward being on the same bill with soul stars like Brown.

Maybe there were lingering nightmares about his tour with fellow Mississippian Sam Cooke back in the early ’60s, in which he was heckled by some of Cooke’s younger fans, who considered King’s music to be too old-fashioned and gutbucket.

One of the best musical performances is by an unnamed African group with two singers playing a slow, soulful tune on a traffic island in downtown Kinshasa. The guitarist happily picks away at a battered electric instrument. A decade later, African guitar music would find a huge audience in this country. It seems ridiculous — maybe a little, well, imperialistic — that nobody bothers to tell us who these talented folks are.

Soul Power has a few ironic moments. In some of Ali’s rants, he holds Zaire up as an example of a happy and free society. He’s talking about a land run by dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, described by The New York Times as “a corrupt and brutal strongman with a touch of theatrical flair and unusual fashion sense.”

The film is not without its flaws. About half the movie is taken up with behind-the-scenes kvetching about all the problems involved— economic, logistical, physical, political — in putting on a show this big. I’m not sure why, but this has become an obligatory part of just about every music-festival movie since Woodstock.

Maybe it’s an ego thing in which the money men and guys with the clipboards get their little moment of stardom. Or maybe the festival producers use this as a way to scold the audience, as if to say, “We worked hard to bring you this. You’d better appreciate it.”

Well, thank you very much. It indeed was a fine show, but as a music fan I’d much rather this time be filled with performances from that fine show — or at least some fun backstage shenanigans — than with a bunch of sweaty guys building a stage and a group of self-important clowns barking orders on walkie-talkies.

In a press release for the movie, Levy-Hinte said his original intention was to create a set of concert DVDs from the hours of footage from the show. I hope he follows through.

Soul Power opens Friday, Sept. 4, at CCA Cinematheque, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, 982<2011>1338. Tickets are $9, with discounts for seniors and students.

A STAR-CROSSED TOUR

James Lowe of The Electric talks in the Lance Monthly about what went wrong with the big Electric Prunes/Sky Saxon/Love tour this summer. Saxon's death was only part of it!

By the way Lance monthly is put out by Dick Stewart, whose Lance Records was responsible for lots of garage, surf, psychedelic and Chicano rock in New Mexico in the 1960s, including "I Wanna Come Back from the World of LSD" by the Fi Fi Four Plus 2. There's lots of cool stuff in the Lance Monthly.

LAST OF THE RED HOT MAMAS

The great Sophie Tucker has sparked an interesting online debate.

It started in a New York Times review by Jody Rosen of a new Sophie box set that included this bit about Tucker's Vaudeville roots:

The bumptious, oversexed woman Tucker portrays in these songs has roots in the broad caricatures of blackface minstrelsy. Tucker knew that material well: she began her career as a “coon shouter,” slathering on burnt cork to sing songs full of watermelon chomping and other racist grotesqueries. The “Origins of the Red Hot Mama” CD package includes a rare photo from about 1907 of Tucker in blackface, on one bended knee, arms outstretched — a pose not unlike the one Jolson struck when performing his blackface anthem, “My Mammy.”

This prompted Sady Doyle to write a response in Salon.com headlined "Can a feminist hero do blackface?":

At first, her bossiness and appetite may have been acceptable because they promoted a stereotype: a big, sassy, sexual black woman was easy to laugh at. As Tucker became more powerful she began to present these qualities, not as attributes of a character, but as attributes of Sophie Tucker. And that, without letting Tucker off the hook, makes her worthy of lasting consideration.

This prompted Rosen to come back in a piece in Slate that concluded

It is crudely ahistorical to condemn—or to speak of "letting off the hook"—an individual singer for performing racial burlesque in 1908. Blackface minstrelsy was the pre-eminent form of entertainment in the United States for most of the 19th-century and remained wildly popular for at least the first few decades of the 20th. ... A growing scholarly literature has shown that minstrelsy was complex—a show business institution and a socio-cultural phenomenon far bigger and more complicated than any one practitioner. Yes, blackface comedy was racist and appalling, and people should never stop saying so. It is also a key to cracking the code of American culture.

(I wrote about "coon songs" a few years ago when I stumbled across some of them on the Free Music archive. That column is HERE )

Both writers agree that Tucker was an important figure in American music. Says Doyle,

Tucker, who started performing in the 1900s and continued until her 1966 death, prefigured the shift in gender roles that marked the 20th century. ... She was big, and proud of her weight; she aged, and flaunted her aging; she was unabashedly funny, carnal, and in control. In an age of pop starlets whose sexuality is Photoshopped and endlessly audience-tested, Tucker's brashness isn't just a history lesson, but a relief.

Whatever you think, Sophie Tucker was indeed a red hot mama!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August 30, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Fuego by Los Peyotes
Burn the Flames by Roky Erikson
Burn it Down by The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker
Cab it Up by The Fall
Push Up Man by The Fleshtones
Fairy Stories by The Black Lips
Love is All Around by Husker Du

The Rooster by The A-Bones
Daddy You Lied to Me by The Del Moroccos
Big Booty Woman by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Daddy Rolling Stone by Andre Williams & The Eldorados
Guess You Wouldn't Know Nothing 'bout That by Wiley & The Checkmates
Do the Wurst by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Natural Man by The Dirtbombs
Certainly All by Eddie Jones
Rockabilly Madman by Screaming Lord Sutch
Cone of Light by The Almighty Defenders

The Body of an American by The Pogues
Division Street by The Polkaholics
Get Naked by The Fuzztones
A House is Not a Motel by Marshmallow Overcoat
Tell Tale Tit by The Roulettes
Samson & Delilah by Edison Rocket Train
Dead End Street by The Monsters
Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45) by The Circle Jerks

Electric Sweat by Mooney Suzuki
Bonyeard (Dick Tracy Theme) by The Blasters
Release the Bats by Birthday Party
Let Loose the Kracken by The Bald Guys
Sick Twist by The Neckbones
Red Head Walking by Beat Happening
Seething Psychosexual Conflict Blues by Figures of Light
Don't Fuck Around With Love by The Blenders
The Bug Jar by The Sadies
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

IT'S HERE! PODCAST 13: LABOR DAY BBQ

It's Labor Day season, time to honor the working men and women in this great land. And in particular, let's honor one particular type of worker: the barbecue cook.

This podcast features songs of labor, song of BBQ, plus a few side dishes in between. Artists here include The Waco Brothers, Jimmy Reed, the late great James Luther Dickinson, The Del-Lords The A-Bones, Los Peyotes, The Fuzztones, Mojo Nixon and many more. So come on down to the BBQ.

CLICK HERE to download the podcast. (To save it, right click on the link and select "Save Target As.")

Or better yet, stop messing around and CLICK HERE to subscribe to my podcasts and HERE to directly subscribe on iTunes.

You can play it on the little feedplayer below:



ALso please take a gander at the (New Improved!) Big Enchilada Web Site with my podcast jukebox and all the shows is HERE.

Here's the play list:

(Background Music: Solidarity Forever by Joe Glaser)

Plenty Tuff and Union Made by The Waco Brothers

Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed

Dark as a Dungeon by The Maddox Brothers & Rose

Workin' Man by Hank Williams III

Working Man by Bo Diddley

Red Neck, Blue Collar by James Luther Dickinson

How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? by The Del-Lords

(Background Music: Work Song by Five to One Odds)

Mojo Workout by King Salami & The Cumberland 3

Fuego by Los Peyotes

Geraldine by The A-Bones

Baby Doll by The Del Moroccos

Headlock on My Johnson by The Fuzztones

(Background Music: Struttin' With Some Barbecue by Louis Armstrong & The Hot 5)

B.B.Q. U.S.A. by Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper

Texas Overture by Pere Ubu

Goin' on Down to the BBQ by Drywall

(Background Music: Cook Yer Enchiladas by Stephen W. Terrell)

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 28, 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
Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia by Merle Haggard
LSD Made a Wreck of Me by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Red Necks, White Socks & Blue Ribbon Beer by Johnny Russell
I've Got a Lot of Living to Do by Cornell Hurd
Over the Cliff by John Langford
Workin' For the Devil by Deano Waco & The Meat Purveyors
End of the Road by Jerry J. Nixon
Aw the Humanity by Rev. Horton Heat
Don't Break My Heart by Tne Del Moroccos
Mennonite Surf Party by Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

Throwin' Away My Money by Wayne Hancock
Drugstore Truck Driving Man by Jason & The Scorchers
Bedevilment by Heavy Trash
Black Slacks by The Hormonauts
Bar-BQ Bob by DM Bob & Country Jem
Blue Railroad Train by The Delmore Brothers
Midnight Train by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'n' Roll Trio
I Feel So Good by Scott H. Biram
Hog Wild Too by PeeWee King
Bully of the Town by Joe Maphis

Hot Dog by Buck Owens
Cougar Mama by Quarter Mile Combo
Suits Are Pickin' Up the Bill by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Swingin' From Your Crystal Chandeliers by The Austin Lounge Lizards
Sulpher to Sugarcane by Elvis Costello
Clementine by Ethyl & The Regulars
Invitation to the Blues by Roger Miller

Wind Washed Water by Aimee Hoyt
Holy Roller by Young Edward
Keep it Your Pants by The Misery Jackals
I Love You a Thousand Ways by Lefty Frizzel
Can't You See I'm Soulful by Eleni Mandell
The Selfishness of Man by Buddy & Julie Miller
The Long Way Home by Hot Club of Cowtown
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: SHAKE THEM A-BONES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 28, 2009

Longtime — and I mean real longtime — Rolling Stones fans will immediately recognize the cover of the A-Bones’ new album. It’s a spoof of the cover of the Stones’ 1965 LP The Rolling Stones, Now!

This wasn’t considered one of the Stones’ major albums. There was only one hit to speak of and a minor one at that — “Heart of Stone.” Now! mostly consists of old R & B, blues, and first-generation rock tunes — Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” Bo Diddley’s “Mona (I Need You, Baby)” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Little Red Rooster,” and Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me.” It was before the Stones started writing anthems or socially significant statements, before they were considered “artists,” before they assumed the mantle of the World’s Greatest Rock Band — when they simply played great rock ’n’ roll.

The A-Bones aren’t one of those neo-Stones bands, like the Chesterfield Kings, and they don’t sound much like Mick and the lads. But on their new record, The A-Bones, Not Now!, they capture some of the spirit of that early album and share the Stones’ love for greasy old blues and R & B. In fact, you could argue that the Bones go for greasier, nastier, and definitely more obscure source material than the Stones did.

A little bit about this band: the A-Bones are a project of singer Billy Miller and drummer/singer Miriam Linna, a couple whose other major project is Norton Records, a label specializing in the raw, the primitive. and the all-around bitchen — whether it’s old Flamin’ Groovies obscurities, vast Charlie Feathers or Hasil Adkins collections, tributes to Sam the Sham, or albums of little-known R & B shouters. Though the A-Bones have appeared backing other artists on various Norton records, Not Now! is their first album in more than a dozen years. Fortunately, they’ve kept their basic sound.

Aided by Lars Espensen on tenor sax, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan on guitar and piano, Bruce Bennett on guitar, and a bassist known as Marcus the Carcass, the A-Bones sound like those anonymous bands playing at sinister nightclubs or hopped-up youth dance parties in black-and-white teen exploitation movies. A little dangerous, a little sleazy, but ultimately inviting because they’re so much fun.

The album starts out with a tune called “Geraldine,” which begins with loud ominous voodoo drums and screaming ape calls. Espensen blows some seductive sax riffs and the song settles into a Diddleyesque groove as Miller begins singing.

Not Now! never lets up. There are some frantic instrumentals like “Restless” and “Catnip” and funny Coasters-like romps such as “He Sure Could Hypnotize” and “Jupiter Bulldog.” Linna, who wails like a hillbilly cheerleader in heat, shines on rockers like “The Lover’s Curse” and “Bad Times.”

One of the standouts on this album is a tune that sounds a little bit like folk rock — or at least as close to folk rock as the A-Bones are ever going to get. “Shallow Grave,” written by Andy Shernoff of the Dictators, is about serial killer Charles “Smitty” Schmid, dubbed “the Pied Piper of Tucson” and known for his ability to attract teenage girls. Miller sounds surprisingly tender here, especially for a song that has a line like “one foot stickin’ from a shallow grave in Tucson.”
I know it can’t be easy running a record company, but I hope Miller and Linna don’t take another 15 years to produce the next A-Bones album.

Also recommended:

* Blue Black Hair by The Del Moroccos. This Chicago group can certainly help keep the party going. The Del Moroccos are a little more polished than the A-Bones, and frontwoman Gabrielle Sutton doesn’t sing with quite the same menace as Miriam or Billy. But they’ve got the right idea — rockabilly guitar, honking sax, etc. They sound hungry and horny and they’re lots of fun.

I suspect this group is a hundred times better in person. But that’s not knocking the album. There’s plenty here to love. The band saves the best for the first, a spicy little rocker called “Baby Doll.” It’s the type of tune that the Detroit Cobras do so well. Sutton, come to think of it, has a voice similar to that of the Cobras’ Rachel Nagy.

Most of the songs are obscurities or originals. There are also covers of some recognizable classics like Ronnie Dawson’s “Action Packed” and Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind.” Though that last one has been done by lots of takers, this version has something of an Angelo Badalamenti vibe. In fact, the slow, reverb-heavy guitar that starts off the song will make the ears of Twin Peaks fans perk up. But even cooler is “El Tren de La Costa,” which has the same melody as “Train Kept a Rollin’ ” but is sung in Spanish.

WHILE YOU'RE WAITING FOR THE NEXT BIG ENCHILADA PODCAST ...

Check out the newly launched podcast from the unstoppable Norton Records, Norton's House of Wax. It's hosted by the lovely Miriam and full of crazy treats from the mighty Norton catalogue.

The debut podcast focuses on the incredible I Still Hate CDs compilation.

Read about it HERE or go right to iTunes to listen and/or subscribe.

Be sure to check out all the fine podcasts on my Fellow Travelers list on The Big Enchilada site. (It's on the right-side column.)

Hopefully the new Big Enchilada podcast will be up by the end of the weekend. Watch this space.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August 23, 2009
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
A Question of Temperature by The Baloon Farm
He Sure Could Hypnotize by The A-Bones
So Long Silver Lining by New Bomb Turks
Seersucker Suit by J.J. & The Real Jerks
Ether Cocktail by The Derangers
Strychnine by The Fuzztones
The Witch by Los Peyotes
Pyscho by The Sonics
Get on This Plane by The Purple Merkins
Disintegrtation by The Readymen

Cops on Our Tail by The Raveonettes
Gimme Danger by Iggy Pop
Faces by T.C. Atlantic
Thelma & Louise by The Horrorpops
Two Shakes by The Ettes
Have Love Will Travel by Thee Headcoatees
Sheela-Na-Gig by P.J. Harvey
Party Date by Carl Canida

Son of a Gun by The Polkaholics
Who'd Ya Like to Love Ya by Lil Wally
Wasted by Pere Ubu
Voi La Intruder by Gogol Bordello
I Want to See You Bellydance by The Red Elvises
Dream Cloud Chote by Crow Hang
Jimi Hendrix Polka by Brave Combo
Experiment in Terror by Davie Allan & The Arrows

Said the People by Dinosaur Jr.
Jesus Christ for Dinner by The Modey Lemon
Falt Foot Flewzy by NRBQ
Blast Off! by The Monks
Goodnight Irene by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 21, 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

Wedding of the Bugs by Robbie Fulks
Crazy Ex Boyfriend by Rev. Horton Heat
Kitten by The Quarter Mile Combo
Big Dog Little Dog by Harvey Hunt
Betty Ann by Wayne Haas
Rockabilly Hop by Bill Moss
Juvenile Delinquent by Ronnie Allen
Hanky Panky by Jay Brown & The Jets
Good Morning Blues by Ethyl & The Regulars
Cherokee Maiden by Merle Haggard
Your Squaw is on the Warpath by Loretta Lynn
Ashes of Love by Chris Hillman
Footstompin' Friday Night by The Stumbleweeds

Rolly Polly by Asleep at the Wheel with The Dixie Chicks
16 Chicks by J.P McDermott
Cherokee Boogie by BR5-49
That's What Your Love Gets by Heavy Trash
Midnight Train by Johnny Burnett
Club Wig Wam by Ronnie Dawson
Mississippi Muddle by Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys
Raymond Martinez by Kell Robertson
If I Gave Up Smokin' by James Luther Dickinson
Kaw Liga by Hank Williams

NATIVE AMERICAN SET

God and the Devil by Jacques & The Shakey Boys
Millenium Cars by Keith Secola & His Wild Band of Indians
Redman by Slidin' Clyde Roulette
Indian List by Alex Jacobs
Now That the Buffalo's Gone by Buffy Sainte-Marie
Witchi Tai To by Joy Harjo
Baby of the Sky by Cherokee Rose

Broken Bottle Blues by 100 Damn Guns
Singer of Sad Songs by Waylon Jennings
Don't Go by Hundred Year Flood
Hemingway's Whiskey by Guy Clark
Waitin' on the 103 by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Artesia by Dave Alvin
There Ought to Be a Law Against Sunny California by Terry Allen
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: REZ BLUES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 21, 2009

Did the blues spring from the stomp dances of southeastern American Indian tribes — runaway slaves taking refuge in nearby tribal communities and finding kinship in the Indian drums?

I’m not sure what ethnomusicologists would say about that theory, which is suggested by Canadian television producer Elaine Bomberry in the liner notes of the new three-disc compilation Indian Rezervation Blues and More.

But you can’t argue with the spiritual connections alluded to by musician Murray Porter in an interview in one of the bonus video features in the collection. Porter talks about growing up on the Six Nations Reservation in Canada and discovering B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” on late-night radio. “Something about it just grabbed me by the soul,” Porter says. “This is my calling.”

Indian Rezervation Blues isn’t a pure blues collection. In the 48 tracks you’ll hear some country, pop, hip-hop, spoken word, a little Christian rock (that’s The Plateros from Tohajiilee, New Mexico — they worship Jesus, but they also think very highly of Stevie Ray Vaughn), and lots of traditional-sounding Native music.

But the blues permeates the music here, snaking its way through these songs.

I was happy to find several New Mexico artists among the contributors. Besides The Plateros, there are A. Paul Ortega from Mescalero; poet Alex Jacobs; actor/Santa Fe gallerist/ blues harpist Gary Farmer with his band The Troublemakers; and part-time New Mexico resident Joy Harjo.

Here are some of my favorite selections from the compilation.

* “Witchi Tai To” by Joy Harjo. This is a fascinating reworking of a tune I first heard by the old hippie folk duo Brewer & Shipley (who were most famous for the cannabis-themed country-rocker “One Toke Over the Line”). B & S got the song from American Indian sax man Jim Pepper, who adapted it from a peyote chant. Harjo, a poet who plays sax, recorded this for her 2008 album Winding Through the Milky Way. She plays with the melody, turning it to a minor key and adding new lyrics.

* "Trail of Tears” by Wayne Lavallee. Here is bluegrass with a bite, featuring banjo, dobro, and heavy drums. I bet Steve Earle wishes he wrote this song.

* “Kokopelli Blues” by Keith Secola. Secola, whose song “Indian Cars” (which appeared with various titles in various versions) is a Native rock classic, has several songs on this collection. The best is this one, a beatnik jazz jaunt (the melody is a little like “Stray Cat Strut”) about New Agers and others ripping off Indian culture to sell products.

* “God and the Devil” by Jacques & The Shakey Boys. I had to double-check to make sure this group wasn’t from Louisiana. But no, Jacques Nadjiwon is from Canada and has French and Indian blood. This is what Cajun music would have sounded like had the Cajuns stayed in Canada.

* “Bushman’s Blues” by Art Napoleon. This is a happy-sounding fiddle blues number by a Canadian that also has what sounds like Cajun overtones. I also like Napoleon’s “Hunting Chant” on this album. It combines Native chants with guitar.

* “Indian List” by Alex Jacobs. This is a spoken-word piece in which Jacobs recites a number of racial slurs and nicknames for Indians and phrases applied to Natives. He then follows that with a list of names Indians call themselves, some of which are nearly as derogatory as the names on the first list.

* “Chicago” by A. Paul Ortega. Centuries ago, someone wrote a song that came to be known as “The Unfortunate Rake” about a man dying in the street from venereal disease. After this song got to America, it was turned into a cowboy tune called “The Streets of Laredo,” and somehow mutated into “St. James Infirmary,” “Dying Crapshooter Blues,” and other variations. In this song, Ortega transforms the doomed cowboy of Laredo into a dying Indian wrapped in white linen and turns the song into a lament for urban Indians cut off from their roots.

* “Redman” by Slidin’ Clyde Roulette. It’s just a good old stompin’ blues featuring slide guitar and harmonica. It gets extra points because "Slidin’ Clyde Roulette" is one of the coolest stage names I’ve heard in a long time.

* “Stripped Me Naked” by Gary Farmer & The Troublemakers. This is an old John Lee Hooker song adapted by Farmer and his band. When Farmer bellows “That was a mean old judge,” he sounds like he means it.

* “It Was in the Old Times” by Butch Mudbone. This is one of the best tunes that combines traditional chants with bluesy rock.

You lookin’ for trouble? You come to the right place at the Fifth Annual Troublemakers Ball, beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22, at VFW Post 2951, 307 Montezuma Ave., 983-9045. Among the acts playing there are Gary Farmer & The Troublemakers, Joy Harjo with Larry Mitchell, Samantha Crain, Mother Earth Blues Band, and Los Indios. Tickets are $10 at the door. Call 629-6580 for information.

Indian radio: This area is fortunate to have some great radio shows specializing in Native music. The oldest one around here is Singing Wire, which airs from noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays on KUNM-FM 89.9. KSFR-FM 101 offers Indigenous Foundation from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. And, for you members of the night-owl clan, there's Earthsongs from 1 to 2 a.m. on Tuesdays, also on KSFR.

(Note: In the print version of this story it says Indigenous Foundation is on an incorrect day. Saturday 3 to 5 p.m is correct.)

IN RECOGNITION OF ROBERT NOVAK'S PASSING

Here's an old 1986 Crossfire episode with Novak debating Frank Zappa about that pesky First Amendment. (Actually Novak is far more reasonable than Washington Times columnist John Lofton here)

Thanks, Paul Bonanos.

>

TERRY ALLEN ON THE PLAZA TONIGHT!

Here's the best musical deal of the week. Terry Allen playing free on the Plaza.

Terry and his son Bukka will play as part of the Santa Fe Bandstand series. It's the last week of the series, which I believe is one of the better things the City of Santa Fe does all year.

Also on the bill are singer Terri Hendrix with ace Lubbock steel guitarist Lloyd Maines. (Will Lloyd play with the Allen boys? He's a card-carrying member of Terry's Panhandle Mystery Band.)

The show starts at 6 pm. Be there!

And if you have a few minutes, here's a story I did about Terry about 10 years ago for No Depression.

****

In other local music news, Mary & Mars, a local bluegrass favorite of a few years ago featuring Sharon Gilchrist, Josh Martin and Ben Wright, are doing a couple of reunion shows.

There's a "secret" warm-up show Aug. 19th at the Cowgirl. Then the official gig at the Santa Fe Brewing Company on Aug. 28 with none other than Xoe Fitzgerald (no not suspect he is Joe West) opening.

Maybe if you ask nice, Sharon will sing her wonderful version of "I Say a Little Prayer."

XXXXX

Finally, I'm humbled at the nice write-up that Michael Kaiser gave my podcast, THE BIG ENCHILADA.

What's humbling is that Kaiser is one of my podcasting role models. His RadiOblivion on the Garagepunk Podcast Network is a true inspiration. (Check it out and Blow Up Your Radio, baby!) I feel like a Little Leaguer who just got a compliment from Mickey Mantle.

By the way, I'm working on my next podcast, which should be up before Labor Day.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August 16, 2009
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
Hobo Babylon by Deadbolt
Big Mouth Mickey by The Guilty Hearts
Amazons and Coyotes by Simon Stokes
Satanic Rites by Los Peyotes
Monk Time by The Monks
Shapeshifter/Saguaro by Lone Monk
Granny Tops 'em at the Hop by The A-Bones
Wildman on the Loose by Mose Allison

Jack Pepsi by TAD
Montana Slim by Andre Williams
Girl Gunslinger by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Everywhere by Nathaniel Mayer
I Don't Want No Funky Chicken by Wiley & The Checkmates
The Third Degree by The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker
Rootie Tootie Baby by King Salami & The Cumberland Three

JIM DICKINSON TRIBUTE

Monkey Man by Jim Dickinson
Down in Mississippi by Ry Cooder featuring Terry Evans, Bobby Charles & Willie Green Jr.
Killing Him by Amy LaVere
Let Your Light Shine on Me by Mudboy & the Neutrons
High Flyin' Baby by The Flamin' Groovies
A Thousand Forms of Mind by Mudhoney
Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out by Jim Dickinson
Bad Man by T-Model Ford

Boll Weevil by North Mississippi All Stars
Red Neck Blue Collar by James Luther Dickinson
Country Blues by Tarbox Ramblers
Floating Bridge by Sleepy John Estes
I Don't Know by Flat Duo Jets
Spirit in the Dark by Aretha Franklin
Jesus on the Mainline by Tate County Singers, Otha Turner & The Afrosippi Allstars

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 14, 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
Goode's Field Road by Drive-By Truckers
Waco Express by The Waco Brothers
High Priced Chick by Yuchi & The Hilltone Boys
Let's Have a Party by Wanda Jackson
Gee Whiz Liz by Charles Senns
To' Up from the Floor Up by Ronnie Dawson
Red Chevrolet by The Crew
White Dove by Levon Helm
My Rough and Rowdy Ways by Chris Hillman
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Gene Pitney

Rollergirl Gail by Misery Jackals
Cook County Jail by Ethyl & The Regulars
Haunted Heels by Big Sandy & The Flyrite Boys
Tourist in Town by Ray Mason
The Way You Can Get by The Gourds
Colorado Girl by Steve Earle
Down to the River by Clarence Fountain & Sam Butler
It Took 4 Beatles to Make One Elvis by Harry Hayward

DAVE ALVIN SET
All Songs by Dave except where noted
Boss of the Blues
Wanda and June
Marie Marie by Los Lobos
What Did the Deep Sea Say?
Out of Control
Closing Time by The Pleasure Barons

Que Sera Sera
So Long, Baby by Jo-El Sonier
So Long, Baby
Don't Look Now
Interstate City
Downey Girl


Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at Santa Fe Brewing Company, 37 Fire Place. Tickets are $25 at the door.

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: GUILT COMPLEX

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 14, 2009

After the death of his best friend, accordion player Chris Gaffney, who died of liver cancer last year, Dave Alvin disbanded his group The Guilty Men. Asked by the organizers of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco to try “something different” for his performance there last year, Alvin rounded up a bevy of the most respected female performers in contemporary roots music.

These included steel-guitar player Cindy Cashdollar (who has played with Asleep at the Wheel, Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan, and others), guitarist Nina Gerber, fiddler and mandolin player Laurie Lewis, fiddler Amy Farris, drummer Lisa Pankratz (who’s played with Cornell Hurd, Sleepy LaBeef, Billy Joe Shaver, etc.), bassist Sarah Brown, and singer Christy McWilson.

Thus was born The Guilty Women.

Apparently the festival performance was successful. The gig led to an album, Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women, and a tour, which is stopping at the Santa Fe Brewing Company on Saturday, Aug. 15.

The album could hardly be considered Alvin’s best. (For the record, I believe that honor belongs to his 1996 live album, Interstate City, followed by his more recent Ashgrove, which was released in 2004.) But there’s lots of good stuff on Guilty Women.

The record kicks off with “Marie Marie,” which is perhaps the best-known song by The Blasters (the group Alvin formed with his brother Phil in 1979). Los Lobos does this tune, too. I’ve seen them perform it with Dave Alvin and, just last month, with Phil at the Hootenanny festival in California. Phil, with the current lineup of The Blasters, sings it in Spanish these days.

But on this album, Dave and the Guilty Women do it Cajun style. (Alvin has said in the past that he wrote it as a Balfa Brothers-meets-Chuck Berry tune.) Even though the Blasters did it as a sweaty early rock ’n’ roller, it works great with swampy fiddles and Cashdollar’s prominent steel.
The band gets to rocking on the next track, “California’s Burning,” with a bullet-train beat by Pankratz and a nasty recurring blues hook (by Gerber, I’m assuming).

Another favorite of mine here is “Boss of the Blues,” another bluesy one. This sounds as if it might be a leftover from Ashgrove. It’s about Alvin and his brother cruising around the streets of L.A. with Big Joe Turner. (The title song of Ashgrove was about Dave and Phil sneaking in to the famous folk and blues club The Ash Grove as underage kids.) In “Boss,” Alvin has the long-departed Big Joe waxing nostalgic about the old days and the old haunts where he’d jam all night long. But by 1972, when he was riding with the worshipful Alvin boys, Turner is horrified by all the “burned-out buildings and abandoned stores” and sadly realizes that “no one around here remembers who the hell I am.”

There’s another autobiographical song about another of Alvin’s musical heroes. “Nana and Jimi” recalls the time when he was 12 and his mom drove him to a Jimi Hendrix concert. It starts out with some acoustic “Foxy Lady” riffs. Mom drives him to the show, parks, and waits outside. “She said, ‘Be careful honey of those crazy people inside,’” Alvin sings. The show is transformative. Even the cops at the door and on the stage seem “cool and strange” to the lad: “I was gonna see Jimi, and nothing’s gonna be the same.” This song reminds me of the look in my son’s eyes after I took him to a Green Day show a few years ago.

Surprisingly, the most moving song on Guilty Women is a tribute to another musician, but not a venerated old blues shouter or hillbilly king. “Downey Girl” is a sweet ode to a singer from Alvin’s hometown of Downey, California — the princess of early 1970s puff-pop, Karen Carpenter.

Alvin has conflicted feelings about Carpenter, who died in 1983 as a result of complications from anorexia. Her “sweet suburban songs” don’t do much for him musically. “I never liked her music, never saw her hangin’ ’round/And I never said nothin’ when people put her down,” Alvin sings. But he realizes he feels a connection. “But now that I’m older I can understand her pain/And I can feel a little pride when people say her name.”

One of the only problems with the album is that there are a few too many slow, folkie tunes. Years ago, Alvin said that there are two types of folk songs: quiet and loud. “I play both,” he bragged.

I like the loud ones better, Dave.

Also, Alvin is guilty of turning too many of his vocal duties over to McWilson. I enjoy what she does with “Weight of the World,” a song she wrote that sounds worthy of Buddy Miller. But she also does another original, “Potter’s Field,” and seems to take the lion’s share of Tim Hardin’s “Don’t Make Promises” and “Que Sera Sera” (yes, the old Doris Day tune). After a while, she starts to sound a little bit like Karen Carpenter.

I have to admit I really like the arrangement of “Que Sera Sera,” especially the piano playing by guest Guilty Woman Marcia Ball, who unfortunately isn’t touring with the band.

Dave Alvin and The Guilty Women play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at Santa Fe Brewing Company, 37 Fire Place. Tickets are $23 in advance from the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., 988-1234, or $25 at the door.

* Also worth checking out: Alvin produced and played on a tribute to Chris Gaffney called Man of Somebody’s Dreams. It’s got some good covers of Gaffney tunes by Joe Ely, Los Lobos, Robbie Fulks, Peter Case, Big Sandy with Los Straitjackets, John Doe, James McMurtry, and others. And it’s got the last song Gaffney ever recorded, “The Guitars of My Dead Friends.” Google “Chris Gaffney” and “Yep Roc.” It’ll take you there.

* Big dose of Dave: I’ll play a 30-minute Dave Alvin segment, featuring an overview of his fine career, Friday night on The Santa Fe Opry on KSFR-FM 101.1 and streaming live at ksfr.org. The Opry starts at 10 p.m.; the Alvin set will start shortly after 11 p.m. And don't forget Terrell's Sound World, free-form weirdo radio, same time, same station, on Sunday nights.

NEW MEXICAN NIGHT AT SF BANDSTAND

Here's one I'd better cross-post on my music and politics blogs.

Wednesday night is Santa Fe New Mexican Night at the Santa Fe Bandstand series on the Plaza. My co-worker Robert Nott and I are co-hosting the show, which begins at 6 p.m.

On the program is former Lt. Gov. Roberto Mondragon, who for the record, was the very first person I ever interviewed at the Roundhouse (back in 1980) and one of the very few known New Mexico Democrats not currently running for lieutenant governor.

I guess there's something of a tradition of public officials in this state being musicians. There's New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Charles Daniels, like Taos Mayor Darren Cordova, like Court of Appeals Judge Rod Kennedy. A few years ago I wrote a column about Mondragon leading a whole chorus of politicos singing "De Colores" at a rally for then presidential contender Wesley Clark.

Mondragon and the mariachis then proceeded to sing three or four other tunes. He even got Mayor Larry Delgado to help him out in "The Fiesta Song." Delgado, former Gov. Jerry Apodaca and state Sen. Mary Jane Garcia swayed along with the music, playing The Pips to Mondragon's Gladys Knight.

I'm not sure whether any national television cameras were there, but it would have been a great CNN moment showing a unique side of New Mexico politics.

If you saw the movie The Milagro Beanfield War, you heard Roberto sing "De Colores" at the end of the film.

Also on the program are Mariachi Buenaventura, Santa Fe’s first all female mariachi band and guitarist Antonio Mendoza.

See you on the Plaza Wednesday.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, August 9, 2009
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
Fuego by Los Peyotes
Let's Go Trippin' by Dick Dale
Geraldine by The A-Bones
Theme Song by Quan & The Chinese Takeouts
White Dress by Nathaniel Mayer
Mama Get the Hammer by Barrence Whitfield
Some Other Guy by Terry Dee & The Roadrunners
It's a Lie by King Khan
Cuckoo by The Monks
Take it Off by The Genteels

Rob and Steal by Paul "Wine" Jones
Let's Get Funky by Hound Dog Taylor
Pop Pop Pop (Remix) by T-Model Ford
Daddy Rollin' Stone by Andre Williams
Skinny Jimmy by The Del Morocos
My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama by Frank Zappa
Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson

Woodstock Set (All songs live from Woodstock, August 1969)
The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil by The Jefferson Airplane
Love City by Sly & The Family Stone
Mean Town Blues by Johnny Winter
Fried Neck Bones and Some Home Fries by Santana
Work Me Lord/Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

SATURDAY AFTERNOON VIDEO BREAK

Here's a Marvel Team-Up from the '60s: Dean Martin with Roger Miller singing "You Got 2 Again." (Thanks Dean Miller for leading me to this.)

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 7, 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
Rawhide by Frankie Lane
Ragtime Cowboy Joe by Dan Hicks & His Hotlicks
The Ballad of Paladin by Johnny Western
Back in the Saddle Again by Gene Autry
Cowboy in Flames by The Waco Brothers
That Little Old Wine Drinker Me by Sleepy LaBeef
Rockabilly Blue (Texas 1955) by Johnny Cash
The Waitress Song by Ethyl & The Regulars
My Own Kind of Hat by Merle Haggard

The Creep by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Ain't It a Shame by Scott H. Biram
Play It All Night Long by Drive-By Truckers
Stoned at the Jukebox by Katy Moffatt
I've Always Been Crazy by Waylon Jennings
One Good Gal by Charlie Feathers
El Tren de la Costa by The Del Moroccos

California's Burning by Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women
Slip of the Tongue by The Blasters
Guitar Man by Junior Brown 0
Strip Me Naked by Gary Farmer & The Troublemakers
Where in the Hell Did You Go With My Toothbrush? by Rev. Horton Heat
Take Me Back Again by Amber Digby
New Patches by Leona Williams

Mama Says It's Naughty by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
Happy Hicky the Hobo by The Delmore Brothers
Blues Stay Away from Me by The Louvin Brothers Fading Memory by Eilen Jewell
One Part, Two Part by Buddy & Julie Miller with Regina & Ann McCrary
Guitars of Dead Friends by Chris Gaffney
Truly by Hundred Year Flood
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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