TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: GUNS, GUITARS & KELL

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 16, 2010

With all due respect to Funky Donnie Fritts, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and all those other icons of guitars, grit, and dusty glory that Kris Kristofferson names in the introduction to “The Pilgrim: Chapter 33,” Santa Fe’s Kell Robertson should have been on that list, somewhere near the top.

He’s a poet. He’s a picker. He’s a prophet. You know the rest. Robertson, who is somewhere in the vicinity of 80 years old, just released his latest album, ’Cause I’m Crazy, his first in nearly seven years.

Like his previous CDs, Crazy is a lo-fi, warts-and-all effort, deftly underproduced by Robertson’s cohort Mike Good, a musician who records under the name Blonde Boy Grunt. Kell cusses and fusses and clears his throat. It’s clearly not ready for modern country radio or any other civilized medium (I’ve been playing it on my show and have no intention of stopping).

Living the life: I interviewed the singer for a short profile in No Depression magazine in 2004. (For that story I also went to one of his local gigs where he intimidated some patrons of a now-defunct hippie café by growling, “I’m gonna take all your organic sandwiches and throw ’em in the woods and make you eat bologna/Because I’m evil,” as the climax to a blues song he performed.)

Robertson was born in Kansas, and, according to him, his stepfather kicked him out of the house at age 13, launching his years of rambling. He has worked as an usher in a movie theater, a fruit picker, a dishwasher, a soldier during the Korean War, a DJ at country and jazz stations, a bartender, and — this is the only one I have trouble believing — an insurance salesman. Robertson said that he considered a career in law enforcement and even took some classes at a police academy in California.

But poetry and music are his passions. Seeing a Hank Williams show in Louisiana was a turning point in his life, he said. But Robertson is far better known in poetry circles than he is in the music world. He published a mimeograph poetry magazine called Desperado in the ’60s and has issued 17 books of poetry. The liner notes of his previous album, When You Come Down Off the Mountain, contained a quote from Lawrence Ferlinghetti: “I would say Kell Robertson is one fine cowboy-poet, worth a dozen New Yorker poetasters. Let them listen and hear the voice of the real America out there.”

Robertson landed in Santa Fe sometime around the turn of the century and has been here since.
’Cause he’s crazy: The new album starts out with some classic outlaw bravado. In the title track, Robertson sings about being compelled to go into a tavern, even though “every time I go in there, they throw me out.” (It’s ’cause he’s crazy, and he’s in love.)

The next song, “Guns, Guitars, and Women,” celebrates a long life of trouble: “First man I killed was down in Dallas/I was only 21.” Later in the album there’s “Down the Bar From Me,” which is about some of his fellow saloon denizens. “There’s one old lady showin’ her bullet scar,” he sings, a hint of lust in his voice.

“Migrant Farm Worker” sounds like a modern Woodie Guthrie song. It’s about the toil and trouble of field workers with their “overalls trimmed in manure.” The chorus speaks not only to a feeling of anonymity but also a fear of being trapped in some bad karmic Möbius strip: “Who will remember me when I am gone/Who will remember me then/When they bury me ’neath that cottonwood tree/Will I have to start over again?”

Robertson offers his take on religion on a few songs. “Singin’ for Jesus” is about a street preacher. “I’m screamin at them sinners to come back to Jesus ... but he’s gonna pay me back some day. ... I’m down on skid row selling salvation ... but you know, boys, salvation is free.”

In “Jesus Christ Is Dead,” Robertson sings: “They nailed him to a tree/And the only way he can live again is inside you and me.” “Great Big Donut,” a song he says was inspired while sitting on the can watching the spiders on the wall, is a shaggy-dog parable about God trying to save the world by sending us a mysterious rolling pastry.

With “Lookin’ For Somebody to Kill,” you know you’re in for trouble from the first line, “I lost my heart in a barroom in Juárez.” Indeed, he’s looking for someone to kill, but when you learn who his victim is in the last verse, you may be shocked.

Actually this song seems to be the third part of a trilogy of songs about drug addicts. “Maria Elena” is about a doomed woman: “The powder they gave you is mixed up with death/You’re finding it harder to catch up with your breath.” The next song, “Junkie Eyes,” is about an encounter with a strung-out prostitute: “Lord, lord, them junkie eyes/Everytime you see them something dies/Something may be crawlin’ around inside/what’s left are them ravin’ junkie eyes.”

There are a couple of new versions of songs from previous albums — “Madonna on the Billboard” and “Mary Lou” (the tale of a “good-time gal”). The new versions don’t add that much to the old takes, and I’m not quite sure why they’re here. But both are fine songs, and they do fit in with the others.

The official conclusion of ’Cause I’m Crazy is “As You Still Got a Song.” Robertson sings again about getting kicked out of bars, but like the refrain says, “As long as you’ve still got a song, everything is all right.”

I’m glad Kell’s still got these great songs.

Kell on the radio: Kell Robertson plays live on The Santa Fe Opry tonight. The show starts at 10 p.m on KSFR-FM 101.1

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, July 11, 2010
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
Love by Country Joe & The Fish
Big Mamou by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Mosquito Stomp by Gas Huffer
Pyscho by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes
I Need Your Lovin' by Wolfman Jack
Rock 'n' Roll Fever by Willie Egans
Keep on Rubbing by Capt. Beefheart
Soba Song by 3 Mustaphas 3
Shave My Soul by The Come N' Go
I Need Somebody by Manby's Head
Pencil Neck Geek by Fred Blassie

Come Back Lord by Rev. Beat-Man
Back in Hell by Delaney Davidson
Dram Shopper by The Scrams
Demolicion by Waugh y Los Arrrghs!!!
Bitch, I Love You by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
40 Birds by King Khan & The Shrines
Memphis Creep by The Oblivions
Skippy Is A Sissy by Roy Gaines
The Wakin' Blues (Walk Right In, Walk Right Out) by The Jessie Powell Orchestra with Fluffy Hunter

Wine, Wine Wine/2,000 Pound Bee by Bobby Fuller
Bye Bye by The Friends
R.L. Got Soul by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Snakedrive by R.L. Burnside
Wolf Call by The Dots
Shout Bama Lama by Otis Redding & The Pinetoppers

Jeepster by T. Rex
Bikini by The Bikinis
You Got Good Taste by The Cramps
With the Idiots by Urban Junior
Poison Tree by Movie Star Junkies
Velvet Touch by Figures of Light
Low Down Dog by Joe Turner & Pete Johnson
It's Only Make Believe by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, July 9, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Blue Moon of Kentucky by Rev. Beat-Man
Drinkin' Wine Spo Dee o Dee by Malcom Yelvin
Busy Body Boogie by The Carlisles
Callin' in Twisted by Rev. Horton Heat
Too Many Rivers by Webb Wilder
Loco by D.M. Bob & The Deficits
A Girl in the Night by Ray Price
How Cold Hearted Can You Get by Hank Thompson
Tennessee Rooster Fight by The Howington Brothers
Magpie Song by Delaney Davidson

New Orleans/Little Bitty Pretty One by Bobby Fuller
I Fought the Law by Sonny Curtis
Muswell Hillbillies by Southern Culture on the Skids
Dixieland Boogie by Hardrock Gunter
Nails In My Coffin by Jerry Irby & His Texas Ranchers
Hot Rod Lincoln by Johnny Bond
Always Late with Your Kisses by Lefty Frizzell
Nobody Here But Me, Lord by Kell Robertson

Xoe Fitzgerald by Joe West
Wild West Huapango by Tara Linda
Strut My Stuff by Slim Redman, Donnie Bowshier & The Junior Melody Boys
Devilsong by Shinyribs
Meadowlark Boogie by Buck Griffin
Mental Cruelty by Buck Owens & Rose Maddox
Too Drunk to Truck by The Sixtyniners
Who Walks In When I Walk Out by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Too Much Month at the End of The Money by Marty Stuart

You Want to Give Me a Lift by Eilen Jewell
I'd Come Back To Me by Johnny Paycheck
Shelley's Winter Love by Bill Kirchen With Paul Carrack & Nick Lowe
Better Than Bein Alone by Joe Swank And The Zen Pirates
Into the Big Fire by Kris Hollis Key
You've Never Been This Far Before Conway Twitty
Treasures Untold by Doc & Merle Watson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: BOBBY FULLER LIVES!

Please see an update on this column HERE.

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 9, 2010

Bobby Fuller, the greatest rocker ever to emerge from El Paso, is best known for two things: his huge 1966 hit “I Fought the Law” and his mysterious death, which the police ruled a suicide though many, including Fuller’s brother and former bandmate Randy Fuller, believe it was a murder.

For several years, Norton Records has been doing its best to prove that, while Fuller might technically be a “one-hit wonder,” there was a lot more to his music than his one hit, and Fuller deserves to be known more for his music than his bizarre and shadowy death. Norton’s latest contribution to this cause is El Paso Rock, Early Recordings Volume 3. This is the first installment in that series since the mid-1990s.

Crime scene: As an old cop reporter, there’s no way I’d be writing a column about Bobby Fuller without spending a little time on his death, so let’s get that out of the way. Fuller was found dead on July 18, 1966, inside his mother’s Oldsmobile parked in front of his apartment in Hollywood. He was 23. He died of gasoline inhalation, the police said.

A 1996 press release from his old record company, Del-Fi — which at the time was shopping the idea of a movie but only got an episode of Unsolved Mysteries out of it — described the crime scene:

“The car had mysteriously appeared after hours of searching the local area had not turned up any clues to his whereabouts. The doors were unlocked, the windows were closed tight, and no keys to the vehicle were found inside. When the first Hollywood-division police officers arrived and opened the driver’s side door, they noticed there was a book of matches on the seat beside Fuller on the front seat. An eyewitness to the gruesome discovery remembers that Fuller had traces of dried blood around his chin and mouth, and that his face and chest were bruised as if he had been beaten. Fuller’s hair and clothing were also soaked with gasoline, and his right hand still clenched a rubber siphoning-tube.

“An empty gas can, found in the back seat, was removed by a policeman (who apparently didn’t consider it vital to the investigation) and thrown into a nearby dumpster. The Olds was not dusted for fingerprints, nor was it ever impounded and searched for further clues. Members of the radio and television press at the scene were told that it looked to be a clear case of ‘suicide,’ despite much visual evidence to the contrary.”

Fuller’s family and friends have made a credible case that he was killed. I attended a panel discussion featuring Fuller’s brother Randy, singer Marshall Crenshaw, and Norton Records’ Miriam Linna at the 1998 South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin.

Fuller reportedly was depressed before he died and was planning to break up his band. A new fan of psychedelic music, he’d started taking LSD. He was hanging out with a prostitute named “Melody” (or “Melanie,” by some accounts). Some of his music-biz associates might have had ties with organized crime.

All tantalizing details, but it’s not likely that the truth about his death will ever be told.

Back to the music: There’s no question that Bobby Fuller worshipped Buddy Holly. He arranged a recording session at Buddy’s old stamping grounds, Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, in 1962 — an experience that, according to Linna’s liner notes, inspired Fuller to build a home studio. (Most of this collection comes from the Clovis session, save a few cuts recorded live at Skylanes Bowling Alley’s Little Dipper Lounge.)

“I Fought the Law” — Fuller’s version, not The Clash’s — sounded like what Buddy Holly would have sounded like in the 1960s. It’s not surprising, considering that the tune was written by Holly pal and sometimes Cricket Sonny Curtis (whose second-best-known song is “Love Is All Around” — the Mary Tyler Moore show theme). It originally appeared on a post-Holly Crickets album in 1960.

A rare early Fuller recording of “I Fought the Law” kicks off this collection. It’s nine seconds longer than the “official” version and doesn’t quite have the punch. But it’s interesting to see how Fuller played with the tune. One notable difference between the two takes: Here, the singer robs people with a shotgun, not the “six gun” we later came to know and love.

The second song on this collection, “You Made Me Cry,” sounds even more like the sainted Holly.

While Fuller’s love for Holly cannot be denied, he was apparently also a fan of rockabilly giant Eddie Cochran. On Volume 3 we find an enthusiastic cover of “Nervous Breakdown” (there are two versions included) and a live-at-the-bowling-alley medley of Cochran’s best-known songs “Summertime Blues” and “Somethin’ Else” — which I can’t listen to without thinking of Sid Vicious and his take on the song. Fuller sounds even wilder here than Sid later would.

Another live medley teams up a couple of R & B hits, Gary U.S. Bonds’ “New Orleans” (which Fuller mistakenly introduces as “Mississippi Queen”) and “Little Bitty Pretty One,” which I first came to know through Clyde McPhatter.

Probably my favorite here is “Wine, Wine, Wine,” a favorite of garage bands everywhere at the time that probably evolved from Sticks McGhee’s “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.” The wildest guitar work on the whole album is found here. Fuller sounds like he’s a school kid caught by a teacher while telling a dirty joke as he sings: “I know a girl, she drives a rod/She ain’t good lookin’ but she’s got a good bod.” The last word is muffled (which isn’t the case with the “Wine Wine Wine” on the previous volume of El Paso Rock).

The album ends with “California Sun,” which — considering what awaited Fuller in July 1966 — comes off as sad: “I’m going out West where I belong ...” The song fades before he can even finish the last chorus. It sounds like a premature ending ... oh, I won’t say it.

Fuller Bio Coming: There's a Bobby Fuller bio in the works by none other than Miriam Linna and Randy Fuller. Read more about that HERE

Enjoy a Fuller video:

FELIX y LOS GATOS CD RELEASE PARTY

How long's it been since you've seem Felix y Los Gatos?

Well, that's too long.

Felix and the boys are having a release party for their new CD, Green Chili Gumbo this Saturday night at the Cowgirl BBQ, 319 South Guadalupe St. here in Santa Fe. Many special guests are promised.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the new album/ I've played their first one on both of my radio shows as well as one song on a Big Enchilada podcast.

There's a whole bunch of promising live shows coming up next week.

On Thursday, straight out of Switzerland, Rev. Beat-Man and Delaney Davidson play at Little Wing at the Candyman Center on St. Michael's Drive.

Then Friday, down in The Underground (Evangelos' basement) one of New Mexico's finest garage band, The Scrams are on a bill with The Kill Spectors and Angola Farms.

And start planning ahead: Coming up in August there's Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks coming back to Santa Fe Brewing Company and Nick Curran & The Lowlifes will be doing a free show up in Los Alamos. I just hipped myself to Curran (Thanks, Russ Gordon!) and he's crazy great.

And in September prepare yourself for the great Barrence Whitfield! More on that later.

eMusic July

* Pissing Out The Poison: Singles and Other Swill by New Bomb Turks. I'm a relative newcomer to the NBTs. I decided to download this in anticipation of NBT frontman Eric Davidson's new book We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001. a history of below-the-radar proudly uncommercial, untrendy bands like The Dwarves, The Cynics, The Mummies, Thee Headcoats, Dead Moon, The Devil Dogs, The Gories, and, yes, New Bomb Turks among others. (The book arrived and I'm reading and enjoying it now. You should too.)

This album is a compilation of singles, rarities, even a Christmas song. It's all high-charged, furious, crazy guitar rock -- what Davidson calls "Gunk Punk."

There's a handful of covers, including The New York Dolls' "Bad Girl" and a Rolling Stones obscurity called "Summer Romance." And there's strong alternative versions of Turk classics like "Crying in the Beer of a Drunk Man," "Let's Dress Up the Naked Truth," "Sucker Punch" and "Taller Crush."

* I Know You Be Houserockin' by The Gories. Before he started The Dirtbombs, Detroit's Mick Collins was in another amazing band -- The Gories.

This was a trio featuring two guitars (Collins and Dan Kroha) and drums (Peggy O'Neill). No bass, no frills, just raw punk blues.

This compilations contains the Alex Chilton produced I Know You Fine But How You Doin' plus almost all of The Gories' first album, Houserockin' (missing only "Let Me Ear the Choir Sin.")

Hey, while fooling around on YouTube, I found an actual live video of The Gories doing one of my favorite songs from this album, "Thunderbird ESQ." Peggy looks pretty sexy chewing her gum. Check it out:




*Party Favorites by Ray Condo and his Hardrock Goners. This Canuckabilly was perhaps the finest rockabilly revivalists of the 90s and early 00s. The only one who comes close was Big Sandy, but the late Condo, who died in 2004, had a crazier edge. The title of his 1997 album Door to Door Maniac (which was an alternate title for a very obscure 1961 Johnny Cash movie)

I first came to know Condo's music when he was living in Vancouver and playing with his band The Ricochets. This album is from his days in Montreal, when he was playing with The Hardrock Goners (named in honor of hillbilly boogie monster Sidney "Hardrock" Gunter) This outfit, which had a fine fiddle player (not sure of the name) and perhaps was a bit more country sounding than The Ricochets.

There's a cool "St. James Infirmary" here as well as a version of "Her Love Rubbed Off," one of Carl Perkins' more crazed compositions, also covered by The Cramps.

But my favorite tune here is "Barroom Crazy," which contains the verse, "I broke both of my arms/I fell down on the floor/I started to dance but I lost my pants/So they tossed me out the door."

I hate when that happens.

PLUS

* Seven songs from The Very Best Of by Hoosier Hot Shots. True story. When I was a little kid and my grandmother was taking me somewhere, she'd say, "Are you ready, Hezzie?" She'd just laugh when I'd ask who the hell was Hezzie. A few years ago when I discovered The Hoosier Hot Shots it all became clear to me. Maybe I got my habit of making obscure cultural references from my grandmother.

When I did discover the Hotshots it made me appreciate how hip Nana actually was. (After all, she took me when I saw Cab Calloway as a kid.) These guys basically were a country string band (well they had a clarinet too) with the soul of Spike Jones.

I only had enough to get seven tracks this month, but I'll pick up the rest when my account refreshes. (This is a good one for eMusic bargain hunters. 40 track for the price of 12!)

And, by the way, Hezzie was Paul "Hezzie" Triesch, who played washboard, bells and whistles.

* "Cucaracha Taco" by Joe "King" Carrasco. I got this for my latest podcast of The Big Enchilada. I already had most of the other songs from this collection, called Yabba Ding Ding. But it looks like a great introduction to the master of Nuevo Wavo.

* "Bandy the Rodeo Clown" by Moe Bandy. I just love this song. Bandy is one of the few stars of the early '80s Urban Cowboy era of country music I can stand. I got this tune especially for my recent Rodeo de Santa Fe set on The Santa Fe Opry

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, July 4, 2010
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
Opening Montage to Big Enchilada 11
An American is a Very Lucky Man by Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians
The Outcast by Tom Russell featuring Dave Van Ronk
Fourth of July by X
American Music by The Blasters
This Land is Your Land by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
U.S. Blues by The Harshed Mellows
The Body of an American by The Pogues
The Star Spangled Banner by Tiny Tim

Your Fat Friend by The Raunch Hands
Slut by New Bomb Turks
Hey Amigo by Havana 3 a.m.
Do the Climb by King Salami & the Cumberland 3
Clap Your Hands by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
House Rent Jump by Peter Case

The Clown Of The Town by Reverend Beat-Man
I Slept Late by Delaney Davidson
Transcontinental Hustle by Gogol Bordello
Patches Rides the Rail by Deadbolt
Coconut Heart Thee Butchers' Orchestra
Mexico Wax Solvent by The Fall
Skinny Ginny by Dossie (Thunderbird) Terry

Pink Berets by Tin Huey
Twilight's Last Gleamings by William S. Burroughs
Two Left Feet by Mark Sultan
Tight Sweater by The Marathons
Big American Problem by Drywall
America The Beautiful by Ray Charles
Coda by Little Jack Horton
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: GET WIGGY!

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 2, 2010

Peter Case, who is playing a free show in Los Alamos Friday, sounds like he’s having more fun on a record than he’s had in years with his new album, Wig!

For more than 20 years, Case has built a respected (if not overly lucrative) career as a singer-songwriter/neo-folkie, whatever you want to call it. He’s done some wonderful albums in this vein, the best being The Man With the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar (1989) and Torn Again (1995). I could also mention 2000’s Flying Saucer Blues, but Case’s old record company actually paid me to write some propaganda to send out to potential reviewers and radio stations for that record, so my opinion of that one is compromised.

Case is so good in the acoustic troubadour role that many of his listeners might not even realize that he’s also an accomplished rocker. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, he was the frontman in The Plimsouls and, before that, The Nerves.

Case recently reimmersed himself in the music of his early bands. While recovering from cardiac surgery, he assisted in remastering a Nerves reissue (One Way Ticket) and concert album (Live at Pirate’s Cove) as well as a live Plimsouls album (Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal, which I reviewed here earlier this year). Remastering these old live recordings woke up the rocker inside.

Aided by guitarist Ron Franklin and D.J. Bonebrake, the drummer for X, Case recorded a bunch of blues-soaked, swampy rockers for this album, which was released just days ago. In short, it’s some of the toughest music he’s ever made.

The seeds of Wig! were first sown a quarter-century ago. The song “‘New’ Old Blue Car,” which starts out with some fine caveman drumming from Bonebrake, is a slightly rewritten version of “Old Blue Car” from Case’s first solo album (Peter Case, 1986), a tune written with his then-wife Victoria Williams. While the original, produced by T-Bone Burnett and Mitchell Froom, has slight hints of that 1980s studio sheen, it was bursting with the blues-raunch abandon that guides the new album.

Wig! starts out with a Case story-song called “Banks of the River.” It’s about a couple of brothers, Frank and Tony, who run away from home and eventually get in trouble with the law. The story could have come from one of Case’s ’90s albums, but the pounding piano, grating harmonica, and smoldering guitar are harbingers of what awaits you on this album.

The jittery “I Dig What You’re Puttin’ Down” sounds like an inspired melding of Blonde on Blonde with Canned Heat. There’s a slight digression into Heat’s “Catfish Blues,” but even cooler is when Case apes Elvis — ”I want you, I need you I-iiiiiii love you!” What’s impressive is how seamlessly he pulls it off.

This is just one example in which Case has fun throwing in some obvious references to rock ’n’ roll standards. “Ain’t Got No Dough” starts out with the pounding piano riff from Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want),” a song covered by the Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others. “The Words in Red” features a jangle-guitar riff straight out of The Byrds’ “So You Want to Be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star.”

The title of the rocking “House Rent Jump” recalls John Lee Hooker’s “House Rent Boogie,” as does the basic theme of the song (the singer doesn’t have enough cash to pay the rent). But Case and the band sound more like Hound Dog Taylor here.

On “Thirty Days in the Workhouse,” a Leadbelly song, Case plays an acoustic 12-string guitar, and Bonebrake keeps it stompin’. Things slow down for a while in “My Kind of Trouble,” a piano-driven blues on which Case wails like he’s leading an after-hours jam in some dangerous skid-row dive. “She got an hourglass figure and a glass eyeball,” Case sings. “Somebody Told the Truth” sounds like it came right out of the swamp with its tremolo guitar and conga drum. It’s easy to imagine Tom Waits doing this song.

After “Colors of Night,” another rough blues romp, Case goes back to worrying about the rent in “House Rent Party,” the album closer. Surprisingly, this sounds like less of a party than anything else on the album. The singer rages against his poverty, pins his hopes on the lottery, and vows to start a brand new band: “We’ll play anywhere but here.” It’s another 12-string acoustic song; in fact it’s just Case without the band.

Perhaps it’s a signal that Case isn’t turning his back on this side of his music. He’s still a dang fine acoustic troubadour. But it’s the wild and rowdy tunes that carry this record. I hope Case keeps rocking.

* See for yourself: Peter Case is playing at 7 p.m. Friday, July 2 at the Pajarito Ski Area in Los Alamos. The show, part of Russ Gordon’s Los Alamos County Summer Concert series, is free. Tiho Dimitrov opens.

REV. BEAT-MAN RETURNS TO SANTA FE!

I just got the word that the Supreme Commander and President for Life of Voodoo Rhythm Records will be doing a show at Little Wing on St. Michael's Drive on July 15.

As was the case last year, Delaney Davidson will be with him. I just reviewed Delaney's album Self Decapitation a couple of weeks ago.

Here's my review of Beat-Man's show last year. CLICK HERE

Be there on July 15!

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 27, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Inside Job by Mudhoney
Sally Sensation by The Molting Vultures
Nobody But Me by The Lyres
Modern Man by The Shrunken Heads
Get Off the Phone by Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
Gizzard Boogie by The Divetones
Combination of the Two by Big Brother & The Holding Company

Let's Dress Up the Naked Truth by New Bomb Turks
Down The Road Apiece by The Shades
The Future is Now (andIt Stinks) by J.J. & The Real Jerks
Blow Job by The Fleshtones
Blue Green Olga by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Pornography Part 1 by Mike Edison
Bend Over I'll Drive by The Cramps

Colors of Night by Peter Case
Hush Hush by The Plimsouls
Old Blue Car by Peter Case
Hanging On The Telephone The Nerves

Cry in the Night by Q 65
She's Wicked by The Fuzztones
Edith by Buick MacKane
Do the Milkshake by The Oblivions

900 Million People Daily by The Seeds
Space Ship by Sky Saxon
Lonely Boy by The King Khan & BBQ Show
Death Blues by The Dead Brothers
Little Red Rooster by Sam Cooke
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

NEW BIG ENCHILADA! The Combination Plate Murders!

Greetings citizens of Podland. This month The Big Enchilada features songs about two of my favorite obsessions: crime and Mexican food. You'll hear dangerous musical treats from the likes of The Gories, The Monsters, The Fleshtones with Tony Truant, Joe "King" Carrasco, Scott H. Biram, The Leaving Trains, The Goblins. There's hot steaming platters from old masters like Bobby Hatfield and Freddy Fender, plus new treats from some of my GaragePunk Hideout cronies like Lovestruck, The Geargrinders and The Jackets. Enjoy!

You can play it here:





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Here's the play list:

(Background Music: Serial Killer from Los Peyotes)
Comb Your Hair by Lovestuck
Out of My Head by The Jackets
D'accord Tony D'accord by The Fleshtones with Tony Truant
Bongo-Beatin' Beatnik by Joe Hall & The Corvettes
Thunderbird ESQ by The Gories
Blues for Joe by The Monsters

MEXICAN FOOD SET
(Background Music: Taco Wagon by Man or Astroman?)
Hot Tamales by Bobby Hatfield
Guacamole by Freddy Fender featuring Augie Meyers
Pink Burrito by R. Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders
Mucho Burritos by The Come n' Go
Cucaracha Taco by Joe "King" Carrasco
Chili Mac by The Moroccos
Hot Tamale Baby by Clifton Chenier

CRIME SET
(Background Music: Hot Tamale Pete by Bob Skyles & His Sky Rockets)
Blood, Sweat and Murder by Scott H. Biram
Shoot You Dead by The Geargrinders
Crime in the Streets by Shrunken Heads
Gonna Murder My Baby by Pat Hare
Rock 'n' Roll Murder by The Leaving Trains
Police Are Just Doing Their Jobs by The Goblins
(Background Music: Martha's Tacos by Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs)

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 25, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Cover of the Rolling Stone by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
Seven Nights to Rock by Moon Mullican
Kitten by Quarter Mile Combo
Alarm Clock Boogie by Billy Briggs
If I'm Gonna Sink I Might as Well Go to the Bottom by Neko Case
Whoa Boy by Red Smith
11 Months and 29 Days by Dave Alvin
Water Baby Boogie by Joe Maphis
The Silver Tongued Devil and I by Kris Kristofferson

Billings Bop by Halden Wolford & The Hi-Beams
Hep Cat Baby by Eddie Arnold
I Guess I'm Crazy by Tommy Collins
Rhythm and Booze by Corky Jones
Thirty Days in the Workhouse by Peter Case
Miss Maebelle by Richard Johnston
Twang Town Blues by Jason & The Scorchers
Guns, Guitars and Women by Kell Robertson
Wine-O Boogie by Don Tosti's Pachuco Boogie Boys

RODEO de SANTA FE SET

Bandy the Rodeo Clown by Moe Bandy
Bad Brahma Bull by Rex Allen
Amarillo by Morning by Chris LeDoux
All Around Cowboy by Marty Robbins
Bull Rider by Johnny Cash
Just a Rodeo Cowboy by Vincent Craig
Pappa Was a Rodeo by Kelly Hogan
Big Dwarf Rodeo by The Rev. Horton Heat

Nancy Jean by Bobby Fuller
Wild Side of Life/Honkey Tonk Angels by Wanda Jackson
I'm Feelin' Bad by Ray Condo & The Ricochets
Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues by David Bromberg
Before the Next Teardrop Falls by Freddy Fender
Down From Dover by Sally Timms
Truckstop Cafe by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: SCORCHED AGAIN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 25, 2010

After a dozen or so years in limbo, Jason & The Scorchers are back with a rocking album called Halcyon Times.

The band might qualify for the description “institution.” Or maybe the group might just belong in an institution for carrying this flame for so long.

Singer Jason Ringenberg, guitarist Warner E. Hodges and the original Scorchers started out in the early ’80s, combining country tunes with punk/metal fury. They might not have been the first to do that, but I believe they were the best and definitely the most influential.

They broke up by the end of the ’80s, but re-formed in the mid-’90s — just in time to join in the fun of the alt-country movement, playing on bills with bands they had clearly influenced. They might have been senior statesmen of the genre, but they rocked harder than just about any other band on the scene.

But by 1998, the Scorchers were scorched out. They called it quits with a double-fun, double-disc live set, Midnight Roads and Stages Seen, released at the height of the alt-country era.

Ringenberg didn’t exactly disappear. He did some solo albums. Some were politically tinged, like 2004’s Empire Builders (which has a great version of Merle Haggard’s “Rainbow Stew”), and he did some children’s records under his alter ego "Farmer Jason."

But now, armed with a new rhythm section, we have Jason & The Scorchers version 3.0. “I have to confess that the primary reason I committed to do this record was to shut Warner up about it,” Ringenberg writes in the liner notes.

As an old Scorchers fan, (to the left is a snapshop I took first time I saw them -- Liberty Lunch, Austin, 1997) I’m glad the band made Halcyon Times. It’s hardly an essential album, but it’s got some good songs and very few duds. I bet all the songs would sound better live, but that’s the case with all of this group’s albums.

Halcyon Tmes starts off with a high-voltage character portrait — “Moonshine Guy,” which is about a backwoodsman who lives with a dog, a jug, and a television set he blew up “because it wouldn’t play his favorite song.” It’s done as a medley with a original tune called “Releasing Celtic Prisoners.”

Even better is “Twang Town Blues,” a slow-burning tale of sleaze and betrayal in Music City, U.S.A. Ringenberg speaks the lyrics of the verses. The ghost of the Man in Black hovers over the chorus: “Last night he dreamed of Johnny, that he was still alive/Tonight he’ll kill a six pack, just to watch it die.”

Also worthy is “Beat on the Mountain,” co-written by Ringenberg and Baltimore songwriter Arty Hill. It’s the story of a third-generation coal miner who feels trapped. “Nowadays the union rep still don’t know my name/the days of scrip are over, but the dust rolls just the same.”

The major throwaway is “Better Than This,” featuring Hodges on vocals. Let’s just say that, as a singer, he’s a wonderful guitarist. But that’s not the trouble here. The song sounds like generic cock rock.

Another tune with a different singer fares better. “When Did It Get So Easy (to Lie to Me)” is sung by Scorcher pal Dan Baird of The Georgia Satellites and, more recently, The Yayhoos. The song, an acoustic blues stomp, doesn’t sound much like a Scorchers tune, but it’s pretty cool..

Also recommended:

* A Bad Year for Love by The Cornell Hurd Band. The concept of a bad year couldn’t have been far from Cornell Hurd’s mind. In August 2008, his longtime rubboard man Danny Roy Young died of cancer. Then six months later, guitarist Paul Skelton (who also played with Wayne Hancock, among others) died, another cancer victim.

This record includes some tracks with Skelton and/or Young. They are both listed in the credits, along with the usual small army of pickers, pounders, and singers.

The album starts off with an original song called “Respect for the Dead” — if that’s a tribute to his fallen bandmates, it’s a subtle one. The “dead” in the title refers to the narrator, who has had his heart ripped out by the woman he’s singing to. “It will come back to haunt you if you dance on my grave/You’ve got to show some respect for the dead.” The title song is also about a romantic breakup: “ ’86 might have a been a good year for wine, but it sure was a bad year for love.”

Actually, there are some songs dedicated to the departed, all of which are instrumentals. “Cold Rain,” the liner notes explain, was originally titled “Rubboards and Roses” and was written for Young. New rubboarder Bear Eagle plays it here.

That tune and five other instrumentals, the liner notes say, make up the Paul Skelton Suite. Among them is “White Sands (Home of the Radar Men)”, a breezy little swing tune that sounds like it could be from a ’60s soundtrack. My favorites of the suite are “Thunderbird Highway,” a party rocker, and “My Very Last Dream,” which is sad and wistful.

As usual, Hurd includes some fine honky-tonk covers. He and the band do a nice job on the Roger Miller classic “Invitation to the Blues,” which includes a Skelton solo. And there’s “I Got Wine on My Mind,” an obscure Johnny Paycheck lament about being a hopeless sot. Hurd goes back to an obscure ’50s rocker (by a group called The Bell Notes) for “I’ve Had It.”

But Hurd’s own songs are the backbone of the album. His “I’m Gonna Drive” has a classic country feel with just a hint of rockabilly.

Let’s hope he keeps on driving and that this year will be a better one for good old Cornell.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 20 , 2010
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
Cryin' in the Beer of a Drunk Man by New Bomb Turks
Sun Is Shining by The Dirtbombs
Ghostrider by The Gories
Little Miss Contary by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire
Firewater by The A-Bones
One Day I Will Kill You by Deadbolt
Hog Heaven by Shrunken Heads
Psycho Over Europe by The Monsters
Not Your Saint by The Fast Takers
Quarter to Four by Mad Mike & The Maniacs

That Man In Your Bed by The Hormonauts
Funnel of Love by The Fall
Won't Cook Fish by The Immortal Lee County Killers
All My Lovin' by The Almighty Defenders
We're Sinking by Mark Sultan
Whiskey Wagon by Barrence Whitfield & the Savages
Sally Sensation by The Molting Vultures
I Need Somebody by Manby's Head
Dram Shopper by The Scrams
Charley Aikens by The Sidewinders

Swamp Woman/Lies/Yolanda by Johnny Dowd
Look Out by Peter Case
No Reason To Complain by The Alarm Clocks
How Can I Make Her Mine by The Lyres
Atom Spies by The Fleshtones

Ju Ju Hand by Handsome Dick Manitoba
I Think We're Alone Now by Tommy James & The Shondells
Demon Stomp by The Things
Coal Black Mattie by Richard Johnston
Who Do You Love by Quicksilver Messenger Service
Take It Slow by Strangers Family Band
Vikings by The Black Angels
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 18, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Ice Cold Water by Ray Condo & The Hardrock Goners
Hesitation Boogie by Hardrock Gunter
Good BBQ by The Riptones
My Way Of Rockin' by Wild Bob Burgos
Violet and Jeffrey Lee by The Sadies
Tulsa County Blue by The Byrds
The Crawdad Song by Jerry Lee Lewis
Ain't Got Time For the Blues by Bill Kirchen with Maria Muldaur
Big Game Hunter by Andy Anderson
Your Mind is On Vacation by Asleep at the Wheel

Down the Bar From Me by Kell Robertson
Hard Travelin' by Simon Stokes
Don't Buy a Skinned Rabbit by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Gamblin' Man by Cliff Carlisle
I Fought the Law by Bobby Fuller
I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas) by Jim Atkins
Born Bred Corn Fed by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Dirty Dozen by Delaney Davidson
Drunkards Dream by The Dead Brothers

Who Built the Moon by Shinyribs
Pieces of the Past by Jon Langford & Skull Orchard with Andre Williams
Beat on the Mountain by Jason & The Scorchers
Down in the Bowery by Alejandro Escovedo
Hobos Are My Heros by Legendary Shack Shakers
Voodoo Queen Marie by the Du-Tells
Marie LaVeau by Bobby Bare

Fever by Fishtank Ensemble
The Fat Doctor/Rattlesnake Jig by Bayou Seco
Sunbonnet Sue by The Fort Worth Doughboys
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights/Volver Volver by Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Chris Gaffney
It's a Mystery to Me by Big Sandy & The Fly-Rite Boys
You Cared Enough to Lie by Reckless Kelly
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: DOWD OUT LOUD

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 18, 2010

Two-bit hustlers living in shame. Men with broken hearts and bitter dreams. Dark secrets, ugly schemes, and soiled pleasures. Welcome to the world of Johnny Dowd.

The singing moving-company operator is back with another warped little masterpiece, a 13-song album called Wake Up the Snakes, which, unfortunately, is destined to be appreciated mostly by the scattered cult that reveres him. I’m proud to be part of that. Care for some Kool-Aid?

Quick recap for the uninitiated: Dowd is a Grandma Moses-like latecomer to showbiz. Living in Ithaca, New York (but with roots in Fort Worth, Memphis, and Pauls Valley, Oklahoma), he didn’t release his first album until he was 50 years old. That was 1997’s Wrong Side of Memphis.

Like the title of one of his early albums (which was lifted from a Hank Williams song), this CD is full of pictures from life’s other side. For reasons I’m not sure of, Dowd is frequently classified as “alternative country.”

True, he rose out of alt country circles. The first time I saw him play was at a No Depression magazine party at South by Southwest in Austin. And it’s true, he has that Pauls Valley drawl, and he has covered a couple of Hank songs.

But I don’t think Hank done it that way. With keyboards that zigzag between “96 Tears” and Fright Night With Seymour and background vocals by Kim Sherwood-Caso, who sounds like a torch singer from the dark dimension, Dowd doesn’t easily fit into any category.

Wake Up the Snakes is a classic Dowd album. It starts off with “Yolanda,” which has a slow, smoky, almost Latin beat, with keyboardist Michael Stark sounding as close to original Santana organ-man Gregg Rolie as you’re going to hear on a Dowd record. Dowd recites — almost whispers — the story of a guy whose girlfriend tries to involve him in a plot to kill her own father. He balks, but she goes through with the evil deed. You can almost taste his regret that he didn't help her.

“Lies” is built on the classic ’50s grease- ballad chord pattern. Dowd sings verses (“Do you think I’m pathetic and easy to ignore?/Does it bother you when I pace up and down the floor?”), while Sherwood-Caso comes in crooning sweetly on the chorus (“Lies, I told you nothing but lies/Everything I said/Was a lie”).

There are some bitchen garagey rockers like “Howling Wolf Blues,” “Fat Joey Brown” (where did that weird trombone come from?), and “Swamp Woman.” On the last, Dowd praises his woman: “Lord God a mighty, my baby is hot!” goes the refrain, even though he later observes, “She’s got the moral perspective of an alley cat.”

“Words of Love” is another Santana-influenced tune — and a solo spotlight for Sherwood-Caso — while “Hello Happiness” is a sinister bossa nova with Dowd and Sherwood-Caso trading lines like a damaged version of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.

Meanwhile, “Demons and Goats” lives up to its name — it’s pure evil. So is “Voices,” which starts with the line, “I wish the voices in my head would shut up.”

The one big misfire here is the song “Mary Lou,” about a father who sexually abuses his daughter. The subject matter seems like a good one for Dowd; he sings from the perspective of the father, who realizes that he will “burn in hell” for his sins.

But what bothers me is the name of the daughter/victim: Jessie Mae Hemphill. Didn’t Dowd realize that this was the name of a great Mississippi blueswoman? Or is this Hemphill’s actual story? I honestly don’t know.

That quibble aside, it’s always an adventure to explore darkened corridors with Johnny Dowd.

Also recommended:

* Self-Decapitation by Delaney Davidson and 5th Sin-Phonie by The Dead Brothers. New Zealand native Davidson used to play guitar with the Swiss “funeral” band The Dead Brothers, and his solo album reminds me of his old group.

Traces of Salvation Army marching bands and dark blues permeate Davidson’s album, as they do the latest Dead Brothers outing.

Self-Decapitation begins with “Around the World,” which recalls a little of the old faux-Dixieland hit from the early ’60s “Midnight in Moscow.” As on that earlier song (made famous by the long-forgotten British group called Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen), you can hear influences of American blues, early jazz, and Eastern European/Gypsy sounds on “Around the World.” And you can hear them loud and clear on “Back in Hell” and “Ladies Man,” which features a pretty amazing Gypsy-jazz guitar solo.

Davidson does a credible version of “In the Pines,” a close cousin of Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” He does it as an industrial-edged blues tune with an acoustic guitar and altered vocals yielding to overamped guitar and crazy-loud drums.

My favorite here, though, is the delightfully filthy “Dirty Dozen,” a foul-mouthed country-blues stomp that reminds me why I love this music in the first place.

The Dead Brothers are in top form, too, on this, their fifth album. Starting out with an old-timey Appalachian-sounding fiddle-and-banjo tune called “Drunkards Walk,” the bros go into a Tom Waits-y stomp titled “Death Blues.”

The one song I don’t like is one called “Teenage Kicks.” Somehow it reminds me of a chamber quartet doing Ruben and the Jets.

But they make up for it with “Drunkards Dream,” which sounds as if Bertolt Brecht started a bluegrass band, and a cover of Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” an ode to the old vampire that evokes fond memories of Alejandro Escovedo’s pseudo-baroque take on The Stooges’ “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

FATHER'S DAY FIESTA

This could be some fun.

There's music featuring a zydeco band called Dikki Du & His Zydeco Krewe plus local favorites Felix y Los Gatos. (If you missed them at Thirsty Ear, here's your chance.)

Also, there's movies, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which many locals believe is a documentary.

It's all taking place at the Railyard Park and it's all free. Check the Web site.

THIRSTY EAR DAY TWO

My snapshots of this year's Thirsty Ear Festival are HERE

Sunday marked an end of an era for the Thirsty Ear Festival. Mike Koster, Thirsty Ear Supreme Commander and President for Life, will soon be moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where assumedly he will become a monk in the Temple of Bob Wills. He says he'll still be bringing shows to Santa -Fe and there will be some kind of Thirsty ear Festival -- but not at Eaves Ranch, the movie set that has served as a the festival home nearly every year since 1999.

Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the last show of the night -- Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women. I'm sure they were great, as they were last year at Santa Fe Brewing Company.

The rest of the day was fairly low key. I liked a couple of his songs, but I'm not a huge Hayes Carll fan and J.T. & The Clouds frankly was boring.

For me the highlight was Savor, a Cuban street music band currently based in Santa Fe, led by the charismatic Victor Alvarez.

Basically the band consists of an electric mandolin (played by Victor), an electric bass and four guys on percussion. It's almost magical the way it works. Savor opened up the day on the main stage -- which I missed, but played a seconf set inside the "hotel." Everyone I talked to said this set was far superior. I hope to catch these guys around Santa Fe sometime.

It also was good to see Alex Maryol and his trio (Willie Magee on bass, Andy Primm on drums.) Alex played the first Thirsty Ear when he was still a teenager back in 1999 -- and I bet he's played a majority of the festivals since then. It seemed somehow appropriate that he was here for the closing of this chapter.

Alex recently told me he's got a new album coming out so look out for it.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 13 , 2010
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
Dogfood by Iggy Pop
Come On Stomp! by Thee Vicars
Death of an Angel by The Kingsmen
The Birdog by King Salami & the Cumberland 3
Cheap Thrills by Ruben & The Jets
Palenque by Felix y Los Gatos
Thunderbird ESQ by The Gories
A Different Kind of Ugly by The Sons of Hercules
This Town Makes Me Feel So Lonely by Muck & the Mires
Red Rose Tea by The Marquis Chimps
Demolition Girl by The Jackets

Yolanda by Johnny Dowd
Rock 'n Roll Murder by The Leaving Trains
Jaguar by Thee Milkshakes
Cutlass by The Goblins
Day Of The Triffids by The Monsters
Hooky by J.J. & The Real Jerks
Coming Back Alive by The Stomachmouths
Jungle Fever by Charlie Feathers

Oil by Felecia Ford & King Shark
Ain't Got No Dough by Peter Case
Time Won't Let Me by The Plimsouls
Slow Death by The Flamin' Groovies
Daddy Wants A Cold Beer by The A-Bones
Beat Party by Ritchie & The Squires
Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love In) by The Chocolate Watchband
Ode to Billy Joe/ Hip Hug Her by Wiley & The Checkmates

The Shaggy Hound by Richard Johnston
Rainin' In My Heart by The Pretty Things
Cut That Out by Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
Blue Berry Blue by Die Zorros
Everybody Thinks You're an Angel by Mose Allison
CouCou by Fishtank Ensemble
Milky White Way by The Trumpeteers
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THIRSTY EAR DAY ONE

Lots of great music on the first day of this year's Thirsty Ear Festival at eaves Ranch. For those willing to withstand the wind and the dust (I still can't believe that nobody took the opportunity to sing some Woody Guthrie Dustbowl songs) it was a great time, as usual. And heck, Eaves Ranch is supposed to look like a dusty old western town. This year it was just dustier.

It was a bittersweet fun with the word that this will be the last Thirsty Ear to be held at Eaves Ranch -- where it's been held almost every year since 1999 (In 2001 it was at Bonanza Creek movie ranch and in 2004 it wasn't held at all). At this point I'm not quite sure what the future of the festival is. But it's been a great run.

All my snapshots from this year's festival can be found HERE.

Here's my favorite music from Day 1:

Although he's not that well-known, Richard Johnston was one of the true highlights of the first day. This was his second Thirsty Ear appearance, the first being back in 2007.

For those unfamiliar, Johnston is a Memphis street musician, who earns a living giving performances on Beale Street. Usually he plays as a one-man band playing guitar or one of his home-made diddley bows with his bands and drums with his feet. He had a couple of his homemade cigar-box contraptions with him Saturday. "You don't have to spend $2,500 on a guitar to have a lot of fun," he said.

But he also expanded his one-man band show saturday with the addition of Santa Fe's own Peter Williams on bass for several songs. With Peter, Johnston sounded a lot like The Black Keys.

I bought a copy of Johnston's Official Bootleg #1. The album, recorded several years ago, is good, but it doesn't come anywhere close to his live performances.

As much as I loved Johnston, I think my favorite performance Saturday was Asleep at the Wheel.

I'd only seen them once before -- at Club West circa 1984. Some of the current members of the band might not have even been born at that point. But if anything, this band is even tighter than the old days, Eddie Rivers, who also has played with Wayne Hancock, is a monster on steel guitar -- and he doubles on sax. Jason Roberts is a great fiddler and singer, and singer Elizabeth McQueen is a delight. But deserving the most credit is frontman/founding member/western-swing visionary Ray Benson. He's the glue that holds it all together.

While I loved all the classic western-swing songs they did, ("Oh You Pretty Woman" is the one that got stuck in my head) I've got to say that Wheel's version of "Hot Rod Lincoln" Saturday nearly rivaled Commander Cody's and Bill Kirchen's versions.

Felix y Los Gatos was the last band I saw at last year's Thirsty Ear Festival, so I guess it's appropriate that they were the first I saw this year.

Last year the rain forced the Cats to abandon the outside main stage and play inside the hotel. But this year they were able to reclaim the main stage. And they did it like pros.

For those who've never seen them, Felix and the boys, who call Albuquerque home, play a mean mixture of ranchero, zydeco, country, blues and rock. Mostly they do originals, though they did sneak in a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Miss You" as well as their version of "Don't Mess with My Toot Toot." While Felix's version of this zydeco classic is a lot of fun, I have to admit I was relieved that this year that they didn't make it last 45 minutes like they did last year.

The Thirsty Ear Festival continues today with performances by Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women, Hayes Carll, Darrell Scott, Alex Maryol and more.

More Info on "Billy Richardson's Last Ride"

Thanks to John Rucker for finding the lyrics to "Bill Richardson's Last Ride," a song performed by Grandpa Jones that I played on The Santa Fe Opry last night and downloaded from eMusic recently.

As you can see, the song has nothing to do with the governor of New Mexico -- although political foes of the current governor might find metaphorical significance in the fact the song, originally recorded by Vernon Dalhart in 1926, is about a train wreck.

Rucker also found this page with more information on the song.

Here's those lyrics, (which came from this page.) :

BILLY RICHARDSON'S LAST RIDE

Through the west wood Virginia mountain comes the morning mail,
Number three was westbound, the fastest on the rail,
Pulled right into Hinton, the junction along the line,
The Baldwin mounted engine made the run on time.

Billy Richardson's son at Hinton was called to make the run,
Pulled the fastest mail train from there to Huntington.
Fireman 'ported on duty just along the line,
Reading them train orders, left Hinton right on time.

Billy said, "Dear fireman, how happy I would be,
If I could die while pulling a train like number three."
Wanted to die on duty in his engine cab so free,
While pulling eastbound number four or westbound number three.

Fireman said, "Billy, you know you're old and gray,
Your name is on the pension list, you should retire some day."
Billy said, "Dear fireman, the truth I'm tellin' you,
I'll die right in my engine cab and nothing else will do."

Pulling down the river came westbound number three,
Sterning through the cotton hills*, and danger could it be.
His head-end struck a mail train while pulling down the line,
He'll never pull his train again through Huntington town on time.

He pulled the fastest time freight, he pulled the U.S. mail,
He pulled the fast excursion to the music of the rail.
He lost his life on duty in his engine cab so free,
While pulling in Montgomery on westbound number three.

Now ladies if your husband is a railroad engineer,
You know he's in lots of danger and death is ever near.
You know he loves you dearly when he is by your side,
Remember while it's his next run might be his farewell ride.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 11, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Billy Richardson's Last Ride by Grandpa Jones
Red Red Robin by Rosie Flores
Hot 'N' Cold by Ray Condo & The Hardrock Goners
Mona Lee by Jason & The Scorchers
Country Woman by The Cals
Dig What You're Puttin' Down by Peter Case
Humpty Dumpty Heart Hank Thompson
Rainy Day Woman by Waylon Jennings
A White T-Shirt And A Pink Carnation by The A-Bones
Don't Let the Stars Get In You Eyeballs by Homer & Jethro

Bad Times (Are Comin' Round Again) by The Waco Brothers
Sure Feels Like Rain by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Please Big Mama by Rudy Gray
Wine Wine Wine by Bobby Fuller
A Living Hell by The Bottle Rockets
A Date With Her Memory by Cornell Hurd
Don't She Look Like a Rodeo Queen? by Kris Hollis Key
Second Fiddle to sn Old Guitar by Jean Shepherd
Dodging A Gal From Dodge City by Spike Jones

Thirsty Ear Festival Set
(Thirsty Ear is Saturday & Sunday at Eaves Ranch)

Zydeco Tonight by Felix y Los Gatos
Chicken & Gravy by Richard Johnston with Jessie Mae Hemphill
Rolly Poly by Asleep at the Wheel with The Dixie Chicks
Molly and Tenbrooks by Sam Bush
Hank Williams' Ghost by Darrell Scott
Wanda & Duane by Dave Alvin

Bad Luck Everywhere You Go by C.W. Stoneking
When Dorey's Behind the Door by Al Duvall
Room to Room by Terry Allen with Lucinda Williams
New Mexico by Johnny Cash
Let Her Go God Bless Her by The Louvin Brothers
More And More by Webb Pierce
Snake Walk by Clothesline Revival
Be My Love by NRBQ
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

PAOLO SOLERI SAYS SAVE PAOLO SOLERI

Check out the news release from Soleri's Consanti Foundation below:

Also today the state Cultural Properties Review Committee passed a resolution asking Santa Fe Indian School to reconsider its decision to demolish Paolo Soleri Amphitheater. The City Council passed a similar resolution on Wednesday.

Please check out my story in Saturday's New Mexican.

Consanti Foundation on Paolo Soleri Theater

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: WHEN THE SHARK BITES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 11, 2010

King Shark is back. And he’s got lots of fine reggae music for Santa Fe.

Shark, aka Alphanso Henclewood, was born 52 years ago in the Greenwich Farms neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica. It’s an area populated mainly by people who make their living in the fishing industry. But it has also produced way more than its share of musicians — the most notable probably being Earl “Chinna” Smith, a guitarist whose résumé includes work with Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Jimmy Cliff, Ziggy Marley, Burning Spear, Lee “Scratch” Perry, King Tubby, and King Shark.

Moving from New York, Shark first came to Santa Fe about 10 years ago. (The love of a woman first brought him here, he said in a recent interview.) It was here in Santa Fe that he set up his company, Montego Records. In 2000 he released a compilation, King Shark and All Star Friends, which was recorded in Jamaica and featured tracks by artists including Prince Alla, Vicious Irie, Charlie Chaplin (a Jamaican), Michael Prophet, and Shark.

He left Santa Fe for several years. “I went to Texas,” he said. Dallas, to be exact. But earlier this year, he returned, settling down in the Pecos area. And he’s been busy.

Shark recently completed Rasta Life, a 56-minute film about the music of his homeland. He produced and directed, while Eduardo Griego edited the documentary. Opening with Chinna Smith playing bluesy jazz licks on an acoustic guitar, the film mainly consists of singers he knows doing what they do best — singing. These include artists like King Alla, Earl Zero, Pretty Rebel, Lucani, Peter Ridkind, and Ernest Wilson.

While there is some studio footage, most of these performances are spontaneous (or at least spontaneous-feeling) a capella performances. It’s lots of fun, even though those of us not fluent in Jamaican English have a hard time following some of the dialogue. The music is easy to follow, however, and that’s what really counts. This movie will be available to the public soon.

Another new treat from King Shark was a CD he gave me full of songs mostly by the musicians appearing on Rasta Life. (Among these is a new one by King Shark himself, “She’ll Be Mine,” performed in the “lover’s rock” style.)

Many of these tracks are available to download from the Montego Records website. Warning: this site is a little difficult to navigate. If there’s a way to search by artist, I haven’t figured it out yet. But the music’s good and reasonably priced — 89 cents for MP3s, $1.38 for higher-quality WAV versions of the songs.

Felecia Ford

Speaking of websites, last month Shark launched a new one, RastaLives.com. Though much of it is still under construction, several articles are up, and it has loads of biographies of the King’s musical pals.

And King Shark has been recording some music here too. Recently he’s been recording at Frogville Studios with Felecia Ford of Hundred Year Flood. (Full disclosure: I helped direct Shark and Ford to each other when King told me he was looking for a strong female vocalist.) Ford told me last week that she was doing vocals on “The Oil,” a song about the BP oil spill that she co-wrote with Frogville Records tycoon John Treadwell. The background music was recorded previously by King Shark, back in Jamaica.

So if Santa Fe ever becomes internationally famous as a reggae capitol, King Shark will surely be behind it.

Some other recommended international treats for your ears:

* Trans-Continental Hustle by Gogol Bordello. Eugene Hütz, the Ukrainian gypsy punk rocker behind this roving band, recently moved from New York City to Brazil. That’s why there’s suddenly a huge carnivale influence in the already multinational blend of sounds that is Gogol Bordello. The good news is that it works. Hütz and crew might be maniacal when they perform, but he’s smart enough to be subtle about adding new sounds.

Another new factor in the Gogol record is the addition of Rick Rubin as producer. That made a lot of Gogol fans worry: will the next Gogol album sound more like Slayer or Neil Diamond?

Fortunately, it sounds like neither. If anything, the acoustic instruments, especially Hütz’s guitar, seem a little more prominent than in past recordings. But there are still enough crazed rockers to keep old fans happy. In fact, in “Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher),” Gogol’s rhythm section has a little Slayer in it when it goes to the chorus.

My only beef here is that none of the 12 tracks instantly grabs you by the throat the way “American Wedding” did on Gogol’s previous album, Super Taranta!, or the way “Not a Crime” did on 2005’s Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike. None of the new tracks would put a damper on a Bordello show, but none of them, at least so far, seem like an obvious contender to become a Gogol classic.

* Woman in Sin by Fishtank Ensemble. I love Little Willie John. And I enjoy an occasional Transylvanian folk tune and Kurdish fiddle stomp.

Well, here’s a group that happily plays all of the above. This Oakland-based band is led by singer/fiddler/saw-player Ursula Knudson and her husband, Fabrice Martinez, who also plays viand violin tromba, a stringed instrument that amplifies its sound through a metal resonator and metal horns. Martinez is a native of France who traveled with a real-life gypsy caravan through Europe.

Sometimes Fishtank sounds like an acoustic Gogol Bordello. Sometimes they sound more like the Hot Club of Cowtown. And every so often, such as in the 1920s-flavored “CouCou,” Knudson’s voice reminds me of Katharine Whalen of the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Knudson sings a passable “Fever.” But my favorite is the six-minute “Kolo Suite,” a medley of traditional Serbian tunes with a Transylvanian finale that’ll make the vampires boogie.

This record is good, but I’ll bet Fishtank Ensemble is even better live. And they’re coming our way. The band is scheduled to play the Albuquerque Folk Festival at noon June 19 at Expo New Mexico (real people still call it the state fairgrounds).

PICNIC TIME FOR PRESLEY

Two of my favorite American icons are coming together ... at last.

Elvis Presley and Mr. Potatohead!

The Associated Press reports:

The first of the Elvis potato heads will be released for Elvis Tribute Week in August. The toy will be in a jumpsuit. A second version — with the likeness dressed in black leather — will be on the market for Christmas.

That's a hunka hunka burnin' spud!